Any economic system is based on the concept of «ownership» … possession of, and control over resources.

Any system of government must define what ownership or authority means for purposes of its governance (laws) and must also engage in law enforcement.

Force (up to and including the actual, not merely metaphoric, barrel of a gun) is at the literal root of the concept of law enforcement.

ANY SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT IS ULTIMATELY MAINTAINED BY FORCE.

Thus, it is disingenuous to argue that this characteristic somehow makes any attempt at socialism inherently any less just than any other.

It is also the case that every significant political movement in modern history which has claimed to be "socialist" has either been a pretext by authoritarians (fascists, demagogues, tyrants) or been co-opted by such factions.

So we must take any claims of socialist revolution with all due skepticism.

Meanwhile it's equally true that every effort towards democratic and legitimately populist reform has been decried as a headlong leap down the icy slopes of "socialism" or "communism" (usually promulgated by people who are ignorant of any nuances in their terminology — often willfully so).

Posts such as the one to which I'm responding here generally do far more to forestall any social, economic, and political progress than benefit they claim to be striving towards.

The "taxation is theft" mantra exclusively serves the status quo — especially plutocrats and oligarchs.