I’m starting to think I could do a whole series of articles talking about instances of idiocy, particularly the variety demonstrating low IQ. Germain to this piece, the topic is socialism/communism**. It’s a hot topic, given the present takeover war within the Democrat Party which I’ve addressed recently and more is coming in the future. This week, reading some of the related news stories, I was struck by just how fundamentally stupid many of these people are; I mean this quite literally and directly. There are fallacies being publicly spread or celebrated that suggest that they don’t have even a basic grasp on how people survive and prosper, on economics, or who should labor to keep their own ass fed. They believe slogans and rhetoric that have been tried and failed countless times over and maxims that are squarely at odds with the privileged conditions that many of them came from themselves. In this regard and as is historically been the case, there are an ‘educated’ elites (often of trust fund means) actively trying to shove socialism/communism down the throats of impressionable masses. I’m choosing a few for-example ideas to demonstrate what I mean.
Scenario 1
The past week, I ran across a post on Reddit expressing what might be the most common core complaint of the perennial disaffected young proletariat. In my brief scroll through the comments, I could not find a dissent although I’m sure some probably existed if I scrolled far enough but the immediate consensus was resigned agreement. I was most struck by the complete lack of critical thought in the responses. Out of an audience of perhaps hundreds of thousands, was there not one that would question the sweeping assertions much less the second order of effects? The quote:
‘I genuinely don’t get the endgame. If the plan ends with a ruined planet, collapsed economies, and no working class left to spend money, what are billionaires actually hoarding wealth for? To sit in a bunker with numbers on a screen that don’t mean anything anymore? What is the actual point?’
My immediate response, tailored only to get the audience to put on their thinking cap and attempt to critically examine the presented position was as follows: ‘If wealth is a finite resource that never grows and can only be redistributed, than the quote would be accurate. Otherwise, it demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of economic principles.’ There’s no indication that a single reader did so.
Given the documentation I’ve seen, the present true believers of communism-redux, are overwhelmingly college educated and especially graduate level, to the point of suggesting that it’s a core indoctrination objective of higher [much lower] learning. However, I propose here that this shocking absence of free inquiry demonstrated on the Reddit thread is specifically indicative of permanent or at least semi-permanent cognitive limitation. You can be taught facts or ideally, how to think. Conversely, you can be taught to not think and not question, or only question along rigid ideological lines. To the extent that such instruction is internalized, it has the potential to manifest as a permanent retardation. The ideological intransience now observable in the radicalized Democrat Party seems to bear this out in the field.
Scenario 2
Bernie Sanders
‘If voters in California approve the 5% billionaire wealth tax in November, Mark Zuckerberg would owe $10.5 billion in taxes & healthcare would be saved for 3 million low-income people. Poor Mr. Zuckerberg would only have $200 billion left to feed his family. How will he survive?’
‘Community notes
Mark Zuckerberg moved to Florida after this tax was proposed by California lawmakers. Therefore, he will not pay any money for the California billionaire wealth tax, if passed.’
Bernie Sanders could be said to be the founding father of contemporary socialism in the US. He has the credentials: Never worked a real job his entire life, was feted by real communist regimes during his formative years as a young man, has made a full political career as a champion of using other people’s money to be redistributed to people like himself, is a full-blown hypocrite enjoying three homes (that we know of) and yet pretends to be a humble commoner. What is striking in the example is his ignorance of commercial operation and the nature of wealth. He has no idea what this thing called wealth really is or what happens if you take just a tiny little 5% off the table now, maybe a little bite next week, maybe just seize the whole damn means of production the week after that. He doesn’t understand where jobs come from or why or how. He never darkened the door of a company, never made a payroll, bought a CNC machine, or had to answer for a stock price decrease. A live company may be worth billions but a dead one killed and carved up for the Thanksgiving table is lucky to get ten cents on the dollar. Sanders should understand the difference between realized, unrealized value, and how the ability to create income sustains value. But he doesn’t or more accurately, won’t. I cannot verify if he is supremely dishonest or bonafide ‘special’, but he typifies a class of people that have made a decision to feed off the labors of others and to resent them for it. Consequently, we must add to his dubious cognitive capacity, the quality of being deeply and habitually slothful. Sure, he was happy to write papers back in the day – in his leisured ivory tower, but a job; any job? Unfortunately, this typifies a surprising number of socialist/communist and is a core component that is almost always ignored in the public calculation of their beliefs.
Scenario 3
NYC green grocer Mamdani has decided to play his hand and the grocery business. This is in keeping with a more or less core fantasy of the socialist/communist, that people must have state sponsored food, this in spite of the entirely well publicized outcomes that have manifested with every command economy: often bare shelves, famine level selection and quality. The fiercely competitive grocery business ‘enjoys’ a robust 1.5%-2% profit margin. Mamdani can do better then that, he hopes to offer food at 30% below market price. What part of those maths are we missing? He has allocated $60-70 million for 5 stores but the first one will cost $30 million, many multiples over what a private store development, even in NYC, would cost. You are not to question the apparent shortfall. Bigot. But is this suggesting that Mamdani failed 5thgrade math or is he just counting on you being that stupid? Who’s guilty here? Maybe the assumption is that wink-wink, we all know that $30 million is just a preconstruction lowball, we all really know that the 5 stores will end up being 10X market costs or that they won’t be built at all. We all know that a great deal of that money will be and is already being siphoned off to his friends and causes – including terrorist organizations – and that as a courtesy, you will shut up and not protest and say anything, and just pretend that’s not the case. And we really all know that whatever few groceries make it to the NY public will be anything but 30% less and that a great deal of it will be stolen and resold on the street. But let’s take Mamdani at his word, the supreme optimist that he is, the big kind heart that he has, and just believe that he honestly believes he has a solid working model for a successful communist food store that serves the people. Or maybe he really is that stupid.
** Socialism/communism: I’m fully aware that there is a structural and academic line between the two but given the casual confusion and interchangeability demonstrated primarily with its own adherents, why should I address the ambiguity that they themselves are unwilling to tackle. I use the two terms interchangeably but tend to apply ‘communism’ to their more radical dreamers.
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A helpful introduction to the author in my ABOUT