Is this Really Socialism?

Internet news sites and magazines have been raising the warning flags on the recent rise in the popularity of socialism in America, and specifically the rise of politicians and candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America.  And these leftists candidates in local, state and mid-term elections have been firing up their base with a plethora of supposedly left-wing and socialist policies designed to increase the blood pressure of door-knocking white college graduates (both unemployed and under-employed) who make up the majority of the fervent supporters of socialism (and even communism – even though they don’t really understand the difference).

But I am confused by many of these policies and why so many people support them. Socialism is, after all, an economic system (or more correctly an economic theory) that its proponents assert could and should be adopted by almost any ethnic or cultural society around the globe. As an economic theory, however, socialism can easily be disproven both intellectually (by the writings of Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman and many others) and factually (by the historical experiences of Venezuela, Cuba, the Soviet Union and many others).

But the policies promoted by the left, the progressives and the socialists, have little to do with economics. What does abortion on demand have to do with economics? How does gender reassignment surgery promote the common good? I could go on and on, and I will, but first a few points.

The Democratic Socialist Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, recently urged people to ”replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” By this he means promoting the public good over personal self-interest. But what really is the public good? The public interest goes far beyond rent control and free bus rides and must address the moral and ethical basis of a society and the people within it.

For example, the decision to abort a fetus (as a law recently enacted by the leftist governor of Massachusetts allows up and until live birth) is not a collective decision, it is an individual decision. It does not promote the common good but, rather, the good of that particular individual deciding on having an abortion. Many socialist societies promote having more babies, not aborting them. Communist China suffered greatly from its one child policy where liberal abortion rules resulted in social disruption arising from an imbalance between the sexes and changed to a three child policy in 2021 (and recently eliminated the three child limit due to a declining population). In Romania under the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, Decree 770 in 1966 made abortion and contraception illegal and subjected women of reproductive age to strict state surveillance. Abortion affects more than just the life of a fetus, it affects how a society views life itself.

And while liberals and progressives demanded during Covid that we “follow the science” (as determined by Anthony Fauci), they have definitely not followed the science regarding gender reassignment surgery which has now been banned throughout Europe as not beneficial (not beneficial to the patient or society but only for the providers of such services). Such surgery is also an individual decision. It would be difficult to discover in what way gender reassignment surgery promotes the public good.

The virulent antisemitism of today’s socialists also seems strange. The progressive movement and so-called democratic socialism of today are derivatives of Marxism that developed in the early twentieth century around Critical Theory as propounded by the Frankfurt School and Post-modernism. Many of the founders associated with these movements were Jewish (Max Horkheimer, Erich Fromm, Wilhelm Reich, Herbert Marcuse, as well as Jacques Derrida). The current antisemitism on the left appears to arise, not from socialism, but from being enamored with the Palestinian cause (although how associating with some of the most blood thirsty terrorists known to history is in the public good is beyond me). Islam, a religion largely based on the collectivism of the ummah (the Islamic collective or community), appears to be more comfortable with socialism than with capitalism. But socialist solidarity does not appear to be the reason for the fanatical support of American progressives and socialists for the Palestinian cause. It has more to do with power relationships described by Critical Theory blown out of proportion on social media than with socialism.

I showed in my previous commentary (Socialism Upended) how the Israeli kibbutzim (socialist farming communities) failed because many of their socialist principles went against human nature and were unsustainable. The kibbutzim lacked the power of government to enforce the policies that their socialist ideals demanded. The public good as defined by socialists needs the force of a powerful government to work even in the short term. In the long term it has always failed. It makes you wonder why so much force is required to promote the supposed public good of socialist theory.

Adam Smith showed in his book, The Wealth of Nations, how the common good can be achieved through the invisible hand of free market competition even though the capitalists are acting in their own self-interest. So, as an economic theory, socialism does not make any sense. And all the other stuff being promoted by the Democratic Socialists of America as well as by progressive left Democrats make no sense at all.  They have no economic rationale and they do not promote the public good. These policies appear to be driven more by social media than socialism and many mimic the self-destructive memes that populate social media these days like looks maxxing and a wide range of harmful TikTok challenges.

A recent op-ed in the Financial Times (Why must a socialist also be woke? by Janan Ganesh) complained that the socialist message is being obscured by all this woke nonsense. But that is the whole point. The real socialist message is a loser. All of what is being promoted as socialism these days by leftist candidates angling for the votes of the gullible consists of taking money from wealthy billionaires and corporations to provide stuff for poor people. This is despite the fact that it is DSA policy (as laid out on their website) to nationalize wealthy corporations and Uncle Bernie and Auntie Elizabeth want to get rid of all the billionaires as well. So who is going to pay for all the goods and services for poor people once the wealthy corporations and greedy billionaires are gone. I hope you have a mirror handy.