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Comment by greenie_beans | Hacker News Reader

your opinion about the semantics of "coop" and "socialism" is wrong. most semantic debates are worthless anyway.

every socialist i know and have read agree that a coop is a socialist organization, and we will keep creating these enterprises as an alternative to capitalism, until one day, ideally, the capitalist corporations won't be able to compete in the job market with the coops, forcing them to socialize their ownership and power structures. despite whether you think it's socialism or not.

here are the 7 cooperative principles. please explain how this is capitalism? https://www.electric.coop/seven-cooperative-principles%E2%80...

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There's no semantics.

> every socialist i know and have read agree that a coop is a socialist organization

Every unicorn I know thinks leprechauns are real.

A coop protects and upholds private ownership and distribution of profits to their shareholders. That's not semantics.

Socialism does not protect private ownership. Socialism does not distribute profits to shareholders (because there are none). That's also not semantics.

If you want to have a non-semantical conversation, the onus is on you.

ok, well you have no idea what you're talking about, so if you think that a coop is capitalism, then i'm gonna use that ignorance to my advantage, and convince everybody that coops are capitalism. psyop coops on the capitalists. thanks for the great strategic idea!

My guess is that someone who thinks private, for-profit businesses are socialist, will not gain much traction convincing anyone of anything.

But best of luck!

If you can explain to me how a co-op, which is a privately owned, and for-profit business structure, is not capitalist, I am all ears.

P.s. Definitions are important. Hand waving them away as "semantics" is a common trick of the ignorant.

lol keep on arguing on the internet about stuff you don't know anything about, comrade. and use poor debate tactics, like "Every unicorn I know thinks leprechauns are real." will really get you far in life.

Multiple people here have told you that your understanding is incorrect. Now you've resorted to straw man so... I think deep down we all know who is talking out of their behind.

two people, you and some other guy who is also wrong and doesn't know the 7 principles of coops based on his comment (you still haven't argued about how those principles are capitalist, so pretty sure the onus is on you anyway). there are plenty of examples in the other comments on this post supporting my opinion. being a contrarian doesn't mean you're right.

and re: strawman, i just met you at your level after you used the logical fallacy: "Every unicorn I know thinks leprechauns are real." it was pretty clear at that point that you weren't going to have a reasonable conversation. i apologize for not pointing that fallacy out directly and instead i said, "well you have no idea what you're talking about". i could've been more graceful with that, or just ignored you.

anyway, thank you for sharing your (wrong) opinion about whether or not a coop is socialist.

"being a contrarian doesn't mean you're right" - oh the irony

You never had an argument beyond "I'm right and you're wrong" lmao.

I asked you to respond to specific questions like: Explaining how a privately owned, for-profit org (a coop) can exist in a socialist world. You ignored it and have now devolved to emotional responses only.

i'm not responding to those comments because you clearly aren't informed about the definition of socialism, particularly the nuances and the debates that leftists have about this definition all of the time. nor do you understand what a cooperative is. it's not worth my time to go tit for tat in a debate if we're not operating on the same knowledge, and you're not willing to learn.

you are just somebody who argues on the internet, a natural contrarian who thinks they are right about everything, while being totally wrong. i call it the hacker news contrarian effect. it's quite amazing to witness. good day, sir.

You don't understand what socialism and coops are, nor do you understand the nuances and debates that leftists have.

See how easy it is to make assertions?

> you are just somebody who argues on the internet

Says, the guy arguing on the internet lol.

> a natural contrarian who thinks they are right about everything, while being totally wrong

Says the natural contrarian who thinks they are right about everything, while being totally wrong!

goodness gracious lmfao

lol

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