Recent comments in a now removed thread reminded me of just how many libs are wandering here now as opposed to actual socialists. So it's worth saying:
Social welfare is not socialism.
Socialism is the workers owning the means of production. The question of how the workers can come to own those means more or less form the differences between the various lines of socialist/leftist thought.
Social welfare is a liberal thing. A bribe paid to the proletariat so that they might forget about their dreams of liberty. A combination of lie and release valve, since if the owning class gave the workers nothing the workers would soon realize just how terrible the capitalist system is for them and organize to dismantle it. But by handing out a few scraps, and propagandizing the workers into thinking that those scraps are all that is possible, they build the track ahead of themselves, to keep this broken system going.
Whether or not you believe voting(lmao) in social welfare programs will move us closer to a socialist system depends on what sort of socialist you are. If you are a statist socialist, who believes in electoralism, then I suppose you can be lead to believe that people can “push the politicians left”
But if you are not naive you know it's direct action that gets the goods.
So in summary and conclusion: welfare programs aren't socialism, tankies and conservatives are wack, be gay do crimes. peace