Ask Lemmy

Socialism/communism/Marxism refer to a collection of ideas. Because of this, one person could be "more socialist" than another person depending on how deep into the type of mindset they are. After all, we often look back into history and contemplate on how certain things sound socialist. The philosopher Seneca was quite close to the mark, advocating for the eradication of money, before Emperor Nero had him killed. Charles Dickens has been celebrated as holding the spark of a socialist because he wrote A Christmas Carol which has three ghosts telling an old man he will go to Hell if he doesn't become less greedy. Certain monarchs were known to use the "from each their ability to each their needs" philosophy to reserve certain jobs for certain people based on their skill, which is how we ended up with ancient stereotypes of blind musicians, deaf painters, and people with mental difficulties becoming the monarch's personal court comedians. And then there is Genghis Khan, who enforced the socialist-esque yassa by destroying whole nations.

If Charles Dickens, Genghis Khan, and the philosopher Seneca lived in the 1970's, they would all be tried for socialism. Hell, the man who wrote Fiddler on the Roof just barely got away scott-free just because his play had Russian peasants as characters. What about you would bring you the closest to being a victim of the red scare?