It's superb isn't it. Watched it yesterday. His journey to dissident right icon and thought leader is so inspiring and also his rise from the poorest backwaters of NC to professor is gilt edged proof that America is a meritocracy or it was and can and will be again.
Yup, he was a marxist as a young man and then he got a government job and his view of marxism completely collapsed overnight. He credits his realization for how marxism and communism cannot work because when he went to his colleages in the government office he'd gotten a job in about how they could reform the system and make it better, they all just looked at him like he was fucking crazy and basically told him it wasn't going to happen because the status quo was what let them keep their jobs, and if the situation changed for the better such that their office wasn't needed they'd be out of work and out of a cushy government paycheck.
That reality check apparently floored him. Marxism / communism is all about the "people" having the power through the state / big government (ignore the logical contradiction there, all communists do) but when Sowell actually saw the kind of people employed by the government he thought to himself, to paraphrase "holy shit, there's no way I'd trust people like this to be in control of all the means of production".
TLDR : Thomas Sowell was a marxist as a young man until he got a government job and saw the kind of people that occupied government positions, at which point he became avidly anti-marxist because he realized just how catastrophic things would get if power was consolidated into the hands of the types of people he met in the government.
The "intellectuals" are always undertaking mental gymnastics to defend socialism. I think their latest gig is changing socialism's name to "reinvented capitalism" and trying to sell it under that.
EU hacks call it "social democracy." Blair called it "the Third Way." Keep capitalism but add social justice, i.e., the welfare state. Bill Clinton: "Triangulation." I.e., appeal to Center-Left Democrats, Center-Right Republicans, and Centrists of both parties. That's how today's Uniparty was built up, by offering Republicans the chance to become RINOs and join the Dems at the Great Trough.
And here we are, ruled by an oligarchy of Social-Welfare Republicans and Leftist Billionaires. And everybody's happy--oh, except for those 2-out-of-every-3 voters who voted for Trump.
It's also always people who never lived under quasi-communism and socialism.I've seen people who escaped the USSR light up snot nosed liberals about how hard socialism sucked, and giving up everything to escape it was worth it. But it doesn't penetrate their brainwashing.
Besides, most snot nosed liberals don't know what socialism means, anyway. They just think it means "free stuffs". They don't have a single clue that socialism means their iPhone isn't theirs. And that under socialism, there are no iPhones, unless you're Party elite.
It's because socialism and communism appeals on an intellectual level. It's utopianism, and utopia is appealing because it's an ideal world where everything is perfect. The problem is that these same intellectuals forget that utopia by definition is impossible. They are more concerned with pie in the sky idealism than down to earth practicality, because the idea of utopia is more appealing to them than the drudgery of real life. And because they have the benefit of more education (not necessarily GOOD education mind you, just more of it) they falsely believe that that gives them sole discretionary power to determine what ideas are good and what are bad, and so they dismiss out of hand any idea that does not come from them or their contemporaries as being the product of an uneducated mind.
Worse, they continue to think this even when the things they speak of are entirely outside their area of education. As a current day example a man or woman with a degree in gender studies will happily lecture on the environmental "dangers" of fracking and oil drilling while ignoring the experience and counter arguments of a less educated blue-collar worker that has actually done the job of of fracking and oil drilling.
Point blank, they're not interested in practical reality, they want their idealist paradise, and socialism/communism is the utopian ideal that appeals most strongly to them. The problem is that utopia is both impractical and impossible and they don't care, because in their minds it's their "job" to make the impossible possible. And as long as the people paying the consequences for their hubris happen out of their sight, they won't give a damn, and they'll brush off all historical examples of failure of socialism and communism as if those things "weren't real communism". Which is technically true, because real communism is utopianism, which is literally impossible. The problem that they ignore isn't that all those deaths happened because "that wasn't real communism", it's that all those deaths happened because people were faithfully trying to implement "real communism". And real communism cannot work, ever, and they refuse to acknowledge it.
Like I said in another thread, Marx was writing nonsense with his theories, you'd need a model of human being that never existed for it to work. He theorized that communism will 'evolve" from abuse of capitalism, which has never actually happened, socialist and communist states have all been forced upon people, usually violently. Marx was utterly full of shit, as was Engels.
He really did for me. I had never heard of this guy until I came across some of his video interviews on The Heritage Foundation youtube channel. His way of speaking and getting his point across in a way that can be understood even by someone without a lot of background knowledge of the subject of economics really opened my eyes. He's an inspiration, and it genuinely upsets me that he isn't more well known. Then again I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, a black man dispensing redpills like Sowell does would absolutely destroy the left.
It was Peter Robinson on "Uncommon Knowledge" for me too. Started digging and was mind blown. Told my dad I found someone he had to look into and when I said Sowell he was like "Oh, yea. I know him, that guy is awesome." The rest was history.
I imagine this time the goal is to have computerized socialism, which may be more successful in predicting human behavior than a bunch of elites in a board room, but it still won’t escape the simple misallocation of resources based on personal preferences of those that are made to make decisions. We need cleaner toilets, the CCP yells and the toilets turn to gold and 1/10 of local taxes are lost.
but it wasn't REAL socialism. Leftism is a cult. Literally. These people worship the state b/c they have no god. You'd have an easier time convincing someone in a cult the person they worship isn't god.
Some badass(es?) over at Alphabet/Google/YouTube have been dropping Sowell red-pills like crazy. People are getting recommended Sowell like crazy, out of nowhere.
And I can't think of a better red-pill for lefties in 2021... a man who is very clearly black and is very clearly intelligent, telling you the way things really are
It was never done right, Marx doesn't even detail how to do it right, most that try are stupid or evil. It can be done right by actual smart people, not these gender studies morons. One problem with Socialism is it's Centralized control, that leads to oppression and tyranny and corruption, Decentralized control is the best choice to guard against tyranny. Capitalism has it's flaws not the least of which being AI destroying the jobs economy model and Big Pharma making more profit not curing disease. I have always thought Socialism and Capitalism should coexist, Socialism being for the lowerclass and Capitalism being for the middle and upper class.
We need to continue to push anti-socialism/anti-Marxism. Many of our top economists and conservative intellectuals were Marxists at an early age.
We also need to push more hate for the Federal Reserve. It's a great cause, and many socialists would not be if they knew the history of the central banking cartels.
"If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of super-rich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead, it becomes logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs.
Communism, or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite."
--Gary Allen
Sowell was in intellectual in his youth, but then he made the move from intellectual to thinker. From that point on, there was no stopping him. Great man.
Sowell is so badass. The cat is 90 and they still fear him like Iron Mike in his prime! Live forever Tom...
Hes like the Chuck Norris of economics
There is a new Sowell documentary released recently called "Common Sense in a Senseless World"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK4M9iJrgto
I didn't realize he is a reformed marxist.
It's superb isn't it. Watched it yesterday. His journey to dissident right icon and thought leader is so inspiring and also his rise from the poorest backwaters of NC to professor is gilt edged proof that America is a meritocracy or it was and can and will be again.
Yup, he was a marxist as a young man and then he got a government job and his view of marxism completely collapsed overnight. He credits his realization for how marxism and communism cannot work because when he went to his colleages in the government office he'd gotten a job in about how they could reform the system and make it better, they all just looked at him like he was fucking crazy and basically told him it wasn't going to happen because the status quo was what let them keep their jobs, and if the situation changed for the better such that their office wasn't needed they'd be out of work and out of a cushy government paycheck.
That reality check apparently floored him. Marxism / communism is all about the "people" having the power through the state / big government (ignore the logical contradiction there, all communists do) but when Sowell actually saw the kind of people employed by the government he thought to himself, to paraphrase "holy shit, there's no way I'd trust people like this to be in control of all the means of production".
TLDR : Thomas Sowell was a marxist as a young man until he got a government job and saw the kind of people that occupied government positions, at which point he became avidly anti-marxist because he realized just how catastrophic things would get if power was consolidated into the hands of the types of people he met in the government.
Is that what we’re calling Michelle after his husband takes the morning after.....?
Another perfectly stated truism by the brilliant Thomas Sowell.
The "intellectuals" are always undertaking mental gymnastics to defend socialism. I think their latest gig is changing socialism's name to "reinvented capitalism" and trying to sell it under that.
Democratic communism
EU hacks call it "social democracy." Blair called it "the Third Way." Keep capitalism but add social justice, i.e., the welfare state. Bill Clinton: "Triangulation." I.e., appeal to Center-Left Democrats, Center-Right Republicans, and Centrists of both parties. That's how today's Uniparty was built up, by offering Republicans the chance to become RINOs and join the Dems at the Great Trough. And here we are, ruled by an oligarchy of Social-Welfare Republicans and Leftist Billionaires. And everybody's happy--oh, except for those 2-out-of-every-3 voters who voted for Trump.
It's also always people who never lived under quasi-communism and socialism.I've seen people who escaped the USSR light up snot nosed liberals about how hard socialism sucked, and giving up everything to escape it was worth it. But it doesn't penetrate their brainwashing.
Besides, most snot nosed liberals don't know what socialism means, anyway. They just think it means "free stuffs". They don't have a single clue that socialism means their iPhone isn't theirs. And that under socialism, there are no iPhones, unless you're Party elite.
It's because socialism and communism appeals on an intellectual level. It's utopianism, and utopia is appealing because it's an ideal world where everything is perfect. The problem is that these same intellectuals forget that utopia by definition is impossible. They are more concerned with pie in the sky idealism than down to earth practicality, because the idea of utopia is more appealing to them than the drudgery of real life. And because they have the benefit of more education (not necessarily GOOD education mind you, just more of it) they falsely believe that that gives them sole discretionary power to determine what ideas are good and what are bad, and so they dismiss out of hand any idea that does not come from them or their contemporaries as being the product of an uneducated mind.
Worse, they continue to think this even when the things they speak of are entirely outside their area of education. As a current day example a man or woman with a degree in gender studies will happily lecture on the environmental "dangers" of fracking and oil drilling while ignoring the experience and counter arguments of a less educated blue-collar worker that has actually done the job of of fracking and oil drilling.
Point blank, they're not interested in practical reality, they want their idealist paradise, and socialism/communism is the utopian ideal that appeals most strongly to them. The problem is that utopia is both impractical and impossible and they don't care, because in their minds it's their "job" to make the impossible possible. And as long as the people paying the consequences for their hubris happen out of their sight, they won't give a damn, and they'll brush off all historical examples of failure of socialism and communism as if those things "weren't real communism". Which is technically true, because real communism is utopianism, which is literally impossible. The problem that they ignore isn't that all those deaths happened because "that wasn't real communism", it's that all those deaths happened because people were faithfully trying to implement "real communism". And real communism cannot work, ever, and they refuse to acknowledge it.
Like I said in another thread, Marx was writing nonsense with his theories, you'd need a model of human being that never existed for it to work. He theorized that communism will 'evolve" from abuse of capitalism, which has never actually happened, socialist and communist states have all been forced upon people, usually violently. Marx was utterly full of shit, as was Engels.
He's right you know.
Username checks out.
Based username
He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; and he that dares not reason is a slave. - William Drummond
Obligatory "Sowell changed my life".
He really did for me. I had never heard of this guy until I came across some of his video interviews on The Heritage Foundation youtube channel. His way of speaking and getting his point across in a way that can be understood even by someone without a lot of background knowledge of the subject of economics really opened my eyes. He's an inspiration, and it genuinely upsets me that he isn't more well known. Then again I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, a black man dispensing redpills like Sowell does would absolutely destroy the left.
It was Peter Robinson on "Uncommon Knowledge" for me too. Started digging and was mind blown. Told my dad I found someone he had to look into and when I said Sowell he was like "Oh, yea. I know him, that guy is awesome." The rest was history.
Socialism is a good way to tell how much of your population is gullible.
Not even hard to figure out... Equality of outcomes incentivizes laziness.
Yea...but....but...
NEVER GIVE UP!!!
COMMUNISM WILL SUCCEED. BREAD LINES ARE KEY TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. PAGE 7 OF THE BIBLE SAYS "THOU SHALT BE BREAD LINES".
:/
I imagine this time the goal is to have computerized socialism, which may be more successful in predicting human behavior than a bunch of elites in a board room, but it still won’t escape the simple misallocation of resources based on personal preferences of those that are made to make decisions. We need cleaner toilets, the CCP yells and the toilets turn to gold and 1/10 of local taxes are lost.
Sowell is the fucking man! I'm so happy he's teachings are appearing here daily
but it wasn't REAL socialism. Leftism is a cult. Literally. These people worship the state b/c they have no god. You'd have an easier time convincing someone in a cult the person they worship isn't god.
Some badass(es?) over at Alphabet/Google/YouTube have been dropping Sowell red-pills like crazy. People are getting recommended Sowell like crazy, out of nowhere.
And I can't think of a better red-pill for lefties in 2021... a man who is very clearly black and is very clearly intelligent, telling you the way things really are
The sarcasm dripping when he stated "intellectual" is hilarious.
Take years of education to remove pattern recognition, something insects andreptiles are capable of.
But the left assures me it has never been tried before! 🤡🤡🤡🤡
Yet, "intellectuals" are all over socialism for some reason.
It was never done right, Marx doesn't even detail how to do it right, most that try are stupid or evil. It can be done right by actual smart people, not these gender studies morons. One problem with Socialism is it's Centralized control, that leads to oppression and tyranny and corruption, Decentralized control is the best choice to guard against tyranny. Capitalism has it's flaws not the least of which being AI destroying the jobs economy model and Big Pharma making more profit not curing disease. I have always thought Socialism and Capitalism should coexist, Socialism being for the lowerclass and Capitalism being for the middle and upper class.
We need to continue to push anti-socialism/anti-Marxism. Many of our top economists and conservative intellectuals were Marxists at an early age.
We also need to push more hate for the Federal Reserve. It's a great cause, and many socialists would not be if they knew the history of the central banking cartels.
"If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of super-rich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead, it becomes logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism, or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite." --Gary Allen
"The Money Masters" by Bill Still. Watch it.
That’s what I tell people... they can’t grasp that it has failed in every instance. There is a reason there is no Labor Party in the USA
Sowell was in intellectual in his youth, but then he made the move from intellectual to thinker. From that point on, there was no stopping him. Great man.