At least the Microwarp Drive is the right size . 😆 <| sep |> It ' s funny how many leftright debates are derailed by a dispute over definitions . Followed by accusations of ignorance , namecalling , etc . The main reason for most of these misunderstandings , I think , is the inconvenient fact that the left and right have entirely different lexical needs because of ideology , and sometimes end up employing the same terms for different purposes . Consider , for instance , that the bourgeois study of economics frames itself around the problem of scarcity . Capitalists lack a critical analysis of what anarchists would call power structures , or of what Marxists would call the material conditions of capitalism , but they do have a sophisticated critical analysis of what they call the problem of scarcity . That is , the problem of distributing resources among a population , where not everyone can get what they want . This being the central frame of bourgeois economics , it ' s only natural for liberals and the right to establish their basic terminology in reference to it . They see a continuum of solutions to the problem of scarcity , with two extremes a market economy with free exchange of private property , and a command economy where all property is controlled by one entity . When they hear the word capitalism , the idea that comes to mind is the market economy , and when they hear communism , the idea that comes to mind is the command economy . Socialism , for them , is the space in between . Leftists , on the other hand , don ' t frame their analysis around the problem of scarcity . For a communist , the most important continuum concerns the alienation of the worker from the means of production , with rigid class systems at one extreme and communism at the other . And for an anarchist , whose critical analysis concerns power structures , private ownership of capital clearly presents an obstacle to the freedom of the worker . Our fundamental terminology has nothing to do with the notion of scarcity in economics , something we often find ourselves struggling to explain to nonleftists . How many times has the idea of state capitalism been dismissed out of hand by someone who didn ' t understand this , and wouldn ' t consider that the USSR could be anything but archcommunist ? This is just one case of where it ' s important to get your definitions straight when arguing . If you ' re using a word you learned past the age of seven , be prepared for someone else to have a different idea of what exactly you ' re talking about . It ' s not at all a matter of intelligence .