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What is “real” socialism?

Phil Weigel

Minot

If you spend any time online and if the subject of Venezuela is brought up, inevitably the argument goes “That’s not Real Socialism” to try and deflect criticism away from socialism and dismiss its failings.

There’s a few problems with this, however. The first is that every country that fully embraced socialism has fallen into economic ruin. See Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Cuba. The second is that every country that did fully embrace socialism at one point that didn’t fall to economic ruin, has long-since abandoned it.

The Soviet Union/Russia, China and Sweden were all socialist countries at one point. None of them are now; all have swapped to a more capitalist country.

In fact, speaking of Sweden, which hasn’t been socialist since the 1980s, for its supposed “socialism done right” and “Socialist Utopia” that Bernie Sanders and other socialists love to preach about, the way they run the country is actually closer to what the evil Republicans would do to this country if they weren’t stopped by those progressives.

In Sweden there’s no minimum wage laws, all businesses that were once run by the government are now privatized, the government gives vouchers to parents so that they can send their children to the school of their choice, whether private or public, their version of Social Security is 100 percent privatized, meaning that you pay into it, you don’t pay the government and have them put the money into it, and if you make less than the median income in Sweden, you can be taxed at a rate of upwards of 68-73 percent. The rich actually pay less taxes than the poor do in Sweden.

So much for that Socialist Utopia!

Socialists love to claim that socialism is all about free stuff, like roads, bridges, school, food and health care.

The truth is, it’s not.

Venezuela is a socialist country. If you read “The Communist Manifesto,” by Karl Marx, it met or came close to meeting, all 10 of the criteria set forth in the book to being a socialist country.

What really happens is that when a country becomes socialist, the poor and needy suffer the most, the rich vacate the country and those in power live like kings. Again, look at Venezuela, the average folk down there are eating their family pets to survive while those in power are able to eat steak and lobster.

Socialism is responsible for the deaths of over 100 million people and countless millions more suffered under it and survived.

Saying it’s not “real socialism” is cold comfort to those who died under socialism. It’s also cold comfort for the millions more that suffered tremendous, unquantifiable damage thanks to socialism.

And it will be cold comfort for you if socialism comes to America.

Hitler and the Nazis killed 6 million Jews during the Holocaust and we condemn Nazism as a result.

How is it that we don’t condemn socialism for killing over 15 times as many people?

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