Tonight I joined a small panel discussion on the profound horrors and dangers of socialism; it was hosted by the Americans for Prosperity New Hampshire. One of the questions asked was “why are so many young people running into the arms of socialism today?”
The answer: because they don’t understand what socialism is!
Why don’t they understand this? Because our national politicians don’t even understand the word!
Neither on the left or the right is the pernicious scourge called socialism properly defined.
Here are just two examples.
When asked what the definition of socialism was, NYC major Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani said:
“Socialism, TO ME… it means that you will have whatever you need to live a dignified life, and that it is the government’s job to deliver on that.”
Three points here:
1) a self-identifying socialist should be able to define socialism. There is no “to me” involved. One cannot create their own definitions or mold the word to their own ideas. The word socialism has meaning and an avowed socialist should know what it is!
2) what Mamdami asserts is the GOAL of socialism, not a definition. Additionally, government is not Santa Claus; there is no magic bag where vague concepts like “dignity” can be pulled out and awarded to the genteel masses by a benign State. The government does not produce a single thing, it only can offer what it steals (taxes) from others using force.
3) a politician can no more make up a new definition for a word or concept than anyone else. If I said that Einstein’s theory of relativity, to ME, meant that everyone should eat blueberry pie and be happy all day, I bet a lot more people would embrace relativity as a solution to their problems. But the postmodern trope of casually asserting something as true just because it sounds good to them does not make a thing so.
So this misinformed and confusing definition comes directly from a socialist. How then does a Republican of the current administration define socialism. Well, thankfully we have an example of that as well!
When Vice President of these United States JD Vance was asked for the definition of socialism he replied:
“It’s a hard term to define these days. Classically, you would think socialism is about prioritizing workers… I don’t know what the term means anymore. I think in reality, what it actually means in the American context, is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers, and you want boys to play in girls’ sports.”
Sorry, JD, the topic is NOT “hard to define.” I know you don’t want to define it because the socialist right is just as bad as the socialist left (perhaps even moreso because it’s more confused). And, no, socialism is not the “it’s everything bad” trope either; it’s not transing the kids or men in women’s sports.
This is why the youth in America are so confused today. No one can give a straight answer on what socialism is. Tonight I did; and my panel explained much more. Socialism has a very easy definition and a very, very bloody history. It benefits those in power in the name of the tired masses; it subjugates and destroys at a level never before seen in history. Even the Black Death failed to kill as many people as socialism has. Here is its naked definition, which should be taught in every highschool in America:
“Socialism (noun): A political and economic system in which the means of producing and distributing goods are owned or controlled collectively, especially by the government or the community as a whole.”
That’s it! JD Vance should know this. This is what his administration is doing when it uses government to buy up pieces of private companies like IBM or NVIDEA. It’s what we are doing each time it pushes for greater and greater corporate and social welfare programs. And Mamdani should understand this concept as well and be able to properly define the term. It’s what happens when NYC employs rent controls or decides to fund public grocery stores.
Taking resources out of the private sector, where they do the MOST REAL GOOD TO EVERYONE, and redistributing them to the “collective good” hurts everyone and ensures the quality is lowered, often to the point of such scarcity or low quality that many go without.
