You Keep Using That Word...

…and you know exactly what it means:

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent and self-described socialist from Vermont, inadvertently reminded America “progressive” is just another word for “socialist” with a Dec. 29 Huffington Post op-ed.

In his column, titled “Fight for Our Progressive Vision,” Sanders called for universal health care, increased government redistribution of wealth, limits on political speech, additional government action against “climate change,” $1 trillion in new infrastructure spending and more spending on education.

I nearly got sucked into a Twitter discussion the other day about socialism vs communism vs fascism — and which is what and which is the worst and which is the super-bestest. I got out of that thing quickly, like so:

I love it when statists of various stripes quibble over the best route to oppression and poverty. And by "quibble" I mean "mass executions."

— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) January 6, 2015

Progressivism, communism, socialism, fascism — all these isms boil down to just one ism: Statism. It doesn’t matter who actually owns the means of production, or how often elections are held (if they’re held at all) or who is allowed to appear on the ballot, or if you stick “Democratic” or “National” or “People’s” in the name.

What matters is: Who chooses the course of your life — you or someone in power?

All the rest is just details — even though the statists do seem to find delicious pleasure is slaughtering one another (and eventually everyone else) over those ultimately tiny and immaterial differences.