"SORRY IF YOU'RE OFFENDED, BUT SOCIALISM LEADS TO MISERY AND DESTITUTION" - David Harsanyi/ @davidharsanyi / July 27, 2018 / https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/07/27/sorry-if-youre-offended-but-socialism-leads-to-misery-and-destitution [AS I SEE IT: With many millennials supporting socialism, you have to wonder what exactly they are being taught not only in their colleges, but whether or not they were given a balanced view of this repeated failed political philosophy when they were young teens. What does pass for "education" these days? - Stan]
On the same day that Venezuela’s “democratically” elected socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, whose once-wealthy nation now has citizens foraging for food, announced he was lopping five zeros off the country’s currency to create a “stable financial and monetary system,” Meghan McCain of “The View” was the target of internet-wide condemnation for having stated some obvious truths about collectivism.
During the same week we learned that the democratic socialist president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, is accused of massacring hundreds of protesters whose economic futures have been decimated by his economic policies, Soledad O’Brien and writers at outlets ranging from GQ, to BuzzFeed, to the Daily Beast were telling McCain to cool her jets.
In truth, McCain was being far too calm. After all, socialism is the leading man-made cause of death and misery in human existence. Whether implemented by a mob or a single strongman, collectivism is a poverty generator, an attack on human dignity, and a destroyer of individual rights.
It’s true that not all socialism ends in the tyranny of Leninism or Stalinism or Maoism or Castroism or Ba’athism or Chavezism or the Khmer Rouge—only most of it does. And no, New York primary winner Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t intend to set up gulags in Alaska. Most so-called democratic socialists—the qualifier affixed to denote that they live in a democratic system and have no choice but to ask for votes—aren’t consciously or explicitly endorsing violence or tyranny.
But when they adopt the term “socialism” and the ideas associated with it, they deserve to be treated with the kind of contempt and derision that all those adopting authoritarian philosophies deserve.
But look: Norway! Socialism is perhaps the only ideology that Americans are asked to judge solely based on its piddling “successes.” Don’t you dare mention Albania or Algeria or Angola or Burma or Congo or Cuba or Ethiopia or Laos or Somalia or Vietnam or Yemen or, well, any other of the dozens of other inconvenient places socialism has been tried. Not when there are a handful of Scandinavian countries operating generous welfare state programs propped up by underlying vibrant capitalism and natural resources.
Of course, socialism exists on a spectrum, and even if we accept that the Nordic social program experiments are the most benign iteration of collectivism, they are certainly not the only version. Pretending otherwise would be like saying, “The police state of Singapore is more successful than Denmark. Let’s give it a spin.”
It turns out, though, that the “Denmark is awesome!” talking point is only the second-most preposterous one used by socialists. It goes something like this: If you’re a fan of “roads, schools, libraries, and such,” although you may not even be aware of it, you are also a supporter of socialism.
This might come as a surprise to some, but every penny of the $21,206 spent in Ocasio-Cortez’s district each year on each student, rich or poor, is provided with the profits derived from capitalism. There is no welfare system, no library that subsists on your good intentions. Having the state take over the entire health care system could rightly be called a socialistic endeavor, but pooling local tax dollars to put books in a building is called local government.
It should also be noted that today’s socialists get their yucks by pretending collectivist policies only lead to innocuous outcomes like local libraries. But for many years they were also praising the dictators of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the nation’s most successful socialist, isn’t merely impressed with the goings-on in Denmark. Not very long ago, he lauded Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela as an embodiment of the “American dream,” even more so than the United States.
Socialists like to blame every inequity, the actions of every greedy criminal, every downturn, and every social ill on the injustice of capitalism. But none of them admit that capitalism has been the most effective way to eliminate poverty in history.
Today, in former socialist states like India, there have been big reductions in poverty thanks to increased capitalism. In China, where communism sadly still deprives more than a billion people of their basic rights, hundreds of millions benefit from a system that is slowly shedding socialism. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the extreme poverty rate in the world has been cut in half. And it didn’t happen because Southeast Asians were raising the minimum wage.
In the United States, only 5 percent of people are even aware that poverty has fallen in the world, according to the Gapminder Foundation, which is almost certainly in part due to the left’s obsession with “inequality” and normalization of “socialism.”
Nearly half of American millennials would rather live in a socialist society than in a capitalist one, according to a YouGov poll. That said, only 71 percent of those asked were able to properly identify either. We can now see the manifestation of this ignorance in our elections and “The View” co-host Joy Behar.
But if all you really champion are some higher taxes and more generous social welfare, stop associating yourself with a philosophy that usually brings destitution and death. Call it something else. If not, McCain has every right to associate you with the ideology you embrace.
[italics and colored emphasis mine]
David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist and the author of the forthcoming "First Freedom: A Ride through America's Enduring History With the Gun, From the Revolution to Today."
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"Inflation to Hit 1 Million Percent in Collapsing, Socialist Venezuela" - Jarrett Stepman / @JarrettStepman / July 26, 2018; https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/07/26/inflation-to-hit-1-million-percent-in-collapsing-socialist-venezuela/
"Brutal: Examining Ocasio-Cortez's Painful Answer on Funding Her Socialist Utopia" - Guy Benson | @guypbenson |Jul 30, 2018; https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2018/07/30/brutal-examining-ocasiocortezs-painful-answer-on-funding-her-socialist-utopia-n2504457
"Millennial Socialism: Stupid, Evil, or Both?" - Kurt Schlichter: Jul 30, 2018; https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2018/07/30/millennial-socialism-stupid-evil-or-both-n2504950
"Being a Socialist Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry" - Ben Shapiro : Aug 01, 2018; https://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2018/08/01/being-a-socialist-means-never-having-to-say-youre-sorry-n2505616
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PRAYING FOR THE HORN OF AFRICA - Located in East Africa, the Horn of Africa peninsula includes Muslim-majority countries (and two regions) where Christians are often forced to worship Christ in secret. These believers face some of the most brutal persecution of Christians anywhere, but the Church is adding to its numbers. Throughout July, we’re focusing on this part of the world, and we ask you to join us in praying for the Church in the Horn of Africa.
July 30 | TURKEY - Turkey is gradually enforcing Islamic infl uence, and discrimination
against Christians and other religious minorities is increasing. Pray that those experiencing persecution will place all hope and trust in Him.
July 30 | TURKEY - Turkey is gradually enforcing Islamic infl uence, and discrimination
against Christians and other religious minorities is increasing. Pray that those experiencing persecution will place all hope and trust in Him.
There's a quote somewhere that goes something like, "Anyone who has not been a socialist by age 30 is heartless. Anyone who is still a socialist by age 30 is brainless." The article's suggestion at the end to dissociate higher taxes and more welfare from socialism is a good idea and its coverage of the wider ramifications of socialism are good to know. Education should be a means to teach people to think for themselves, rather than telling people what to think. The popularity of socialism may be a cultural attitude, or dissatisfaction with the flaws of capitalism. Either way, society must be careful because ideas are dangerous.
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