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Roger Simon: Trump needs to educate young Americans on the perils of socialism — 43 Comments

1. Actually, on an optimistic glass-half-full note, it is much, much easier to make a big ideological change when you’re still young, before the ideology becomes part of your fundamental bedrock self-image. I have an old auntie and uncle who are beyond logic and just pound the table for socialism no matter what. Down with Trump! Burn the deplorables at the stake! But the yoots are not so inflexible, even if all they’ve ever heard are socialist cheerleaders.

   You have to approach them in a way that isn’t threatening or overdramatic or cruel, though. Republicans frequently screw this up and come off as exactly as the socialists said they would – as intolerant, backwards, angry, uncool. For example, don’t call the kids dumb or ignorant; say they’ve been betrayed, misled, etc. If they have any brains they have mildly suspected this before now. Also, as these people get out in the world and start earning, the anti-socialist approach will make more and more sense. Especially after they file their first tax return, open a business, and otherwise encounter the real world.

2. The educational system is, indeed, one of the problems, and not, in my opinion, a fixable one. Too few conservatives (as well as members of the Republican establishment) understand that the three most destructive forces at work today in our beleaguered republic are education (K-12 in addition to higher education), uncontrolled immigration, and Big Tech, which is increasingly totalitarian and inimical to freedom of expression.

3. Hopefully having the socialist disaster in Venezuela front and center as an example will help. That should be a major theme for Trump and the Republicans throughout the campaign.

4. Having dealt with many younger people over some 30 years, and, from questioning them, gotten a fair handle on their knowledge bases–what they know and don’t know–except for a few exceptions to the norm–I’m pessimistic, especially pessimistic about being able to change enough young minds by the 2020 election.

   Barring getting caught up in and having to face a real world example of just what Socialism/Communism does to an economy and society, to individuals and to families–say, being stuck in today’s Venezuela–I think it is going to be extremely difficult to overcome the Left’s advantage, gained from their pretty much omnipresent K-12, then, college indoctrination, and their “continuing ed” via the MSM.

   Moreover, many of our young people have somehow absorbed or been taught the idea that life should be “fair,” and that, when life is not fair, that they have been dealt a great wound, been the subject of some great injustice.

   So, when the Left–Socialists/Communists say that their system will right injustices, and discrimination, is more equitable and “fair” and, what’s more, can provide all sorts of “free stuff”?

   Why, a lot of these young, inexperienced, not very realistic people (many raised on TV and Video Games, and that’s their idea of “reality”)–not long term thinkers, about consequences, or realizing that someone ultimately has to pay for all this free stuff–are going to be hard to drag off the Socialist Love Boat.

5. Echoing AMartel,

   The Madison Ave. types will tell you that a young person who has used Crest toothpaste all their lives might try something different with the appropriate advertising, if they are under 30. Over the age of 35, it probably won’t happen.

   Then there is the effectiveness of left-wing tactics. Trump isn’t just dumb, or corrupt, or crass; he’s a racist and he’s evil. So when he speaks the politically correct thing to do is switch channels or leave the room.

   If Trump had a big loyal team he could use surrogates. Larry Kudlow and Kevin Hassett are already on the job to some extent, but are barely making a dent I fear.
   _____

   Simon touches on “fairness.” I had a recent conversation with a friend about Marxist economies, and his takeaway was that capitalism doesn’t “care” about workers, but Marxism focuses on caring for its workers. Remember G.W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism?”

   These people, like my friend, have no inkling about Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” or “dynamic free market pricing” vs. “labor value pricing” or who’s labor unions were more powerful, in the U.S. or in the Soviet Union. It’s just, “the left … they care.”

   Then guys like Kevin Hassett speak about “statism” or “crony capitalism” and the under 30 crowd draws a blank. (I’m guilt too, see prev. paragraph.)

6. Whole lotta people lining up to get mugged.

   Still, a few well-done ads featuring the Socialist dream of Venezuela might help open some eyes. Maybe.

   The question is, how big is the “facts-don’t-matter” crowd, the “don’t-bother-me-with-the-facts” types, and the “reality-is-what-you-believe” people?

7. Think this man has enough on his plate to add doing Teachers and parents jobs. Our schools use to teach us how bad Socialism and Communism are but that changed when the Democrat Party found that they could take over America if they just re-educated and changed facts to children. Makes me sick every time I see a Teacher walk out to demand more money. For what? Destroying Family values and putting your nose into things that are none of your business like Sex ed. Democrats are corrupt to the core and does not give a darn that they are destroying everything that is good while they implement their agendas against everyone who does not live or believe they way they do. They have no tolerance while they scream for it if they come up against law they want to break.

8. Our one hope is that, as usual, the young don’t show up to vote,

   They know no history. I’ve spent years encouraging my kids to read and study the world yet three of them are still Democrats, My oldest son is a trial lawyer so that is to be expected. The other two are not fixed in stupidity. One daughter is an FBI agent and lawyer and should be a natural Hillary voter, yet she told me in September 2016 she would not vote for her. I took that as evidence of the FBI grapevine knowing the Clintons are dirty.

   My other lefty daughter is very well educated, speaks four languages, etc but now is pregnant, which may define her life now.

9. “. . . it would require that young people who already hate [Trump] actually listen to him with some sort of open mind.” [Neo]

   “Actually, on an optimistic glass-half-full note, it is much, much easier to make a big ideological change when you’re still young. . . .” [AMartel @ 3:43]

   Anecdotally on that glass-half-full-note, a relative of mine is about to start her first out-of-college job. She was absolutely astounded to find that she would be losing about $12,000 of her $60,000 starting salary to taxes; “That’s not fair!!!” Suddenly, fairness looks a lot different to her than it did in college on the parental dole.

   I suspect that this is not an uncommon reaction. Perhaps one solution is to get young adults jobs and let them see the government tax the bejeebers out of them all in the name of fairness and socialist wealth redistribution.

10. One quick thought before I need to leave.

    I have noted here before and I think it bears repeating that my acid test for socialism is as follows:

    Explain to me exactly why, in a society based on “from each according to his ability — to each according to his need” Leonid Breshnev needed an antique car collection.

    Watch them wriggle as they try to fit that square peg into the round socialist hole.

11. I look at the young in my family, and I’m not seeing anyone who needs to be educated about ‘socialism’. I do see people who need to get their damn noses out of their phones, to understand that dignity is lived and not something you demand from officialdom, to understand that virtue is manifest in your diligence with banal tasks for which you don’t get much credit, to be educated about the implications of original sin in historical time, to understand what is meant by ‘Chesterton’s fence’, to appreciate their ancestors, to understand that things held in common are usually not well cared for, and to understand that political economy consists of striking a balance between alignment of costs and benefits in economic activity (which promotes production) and an ethic of common provision within various social organisms (family, palpable community, and abstract affiliations). Our parents’ generation was hit and miss. Ours is hit and miss on a good day.

12. Blacks and Hispanics disproportionately breathe air that’s been polluted by non-Hispanic whites, according to a study. This new research quantifies for the first time the racial gap between who causes air pollution – and who breathes it.

    “Pollution is disproportionately caused by whites, but disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic minorities,” the study said.

    invest in crematoriums…
    Shoa II coming soon!

13. Not Trump’s job: our job.

    Others have mentioned some techniques. Here are some others.

    When mentioning evil ideologies, include socialism. E.g., “The evils of white supremism and socialism.”
    Note that real socialism has been tried many times before. What hasn’t been tried is the theoretical socialism, because it is totally imaginary.
    Naziism was socialism combined with German nationalism. The USSR was socialism combined with Russian imperialism, but marketed as internationalism.
    The Scandinavian countries are not socialist, but big government mixed with free markets and big businesses. Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, and the United States are in a virtual tie for economic freedom (capitalism) per the Index of Economic Freedom.
    Ask if they know of any time where similar cultures can be compared–one more socialist, the other more free market oriented–where the situation of average people improved more in the socialist country. You may offer some examples.

    North Korea v. South Korea
    Mainland China v. Taiwan
    East Germany v. West Germany
    Colombia, Panama, & Chile v. Venezuela & Argentina

    The aphorism “Under capitalism, the rich become powerful; under socialism, the powerful become rich” may apply at times, but use sparingly.

14. A course of action that I would recommend to Trump and his team is to constantly use visual examples of where Communism/Socialism has failed in various countries, most prominently in today’s Venezuela- and what the consequences were and are–riots,
    arrests, the economy in shambles, the currency worthless, people standing in line, empty shelves and no sugar, coffee, meat, toilet paper, disposable diapers, or gasoline, digging through garbage to find food, etc.

    And I’d repeat those images, over and over again.

    I’d also talk about the millions of people killed in Communist Russia, in China, in Cambodia, with as many illustrative images as I could find.

    To accompany these images I’d also find charismatic and well spoken people who had lived under these Communist regimes, to tell people what it was like for them and their families.

    Finally, I’d spend some time refuting the standard Leftist excuse for these abject failures i.e. that Communism had never actually been implemented, not been correctly implemented, or fully implemented.

    I’d put this all together in a video, and I’d make sure that it got the widest circulation possible.

    I’d hammer this message home at every rally, at every appearance, news conference, and photo op.

15. “She was absolutely astounded to find that she would be losing about $12,000 of her $60,000 starting salary to taxes; “That’s not fair!!!” Suddenly, fairness looks a lot different to her than it did in college …” — T

    The withholding of income by the IRS is also a perceptual problem. Many people actually think the feds. are giving them free cash when they receive some of their own income back.

    But T’s point makes me think that the voting age should be moved higher. Back to 21, or maybe higher to 25 perhaps? I think that 23 would be a nice minimum voting age because those coming out of a 4 yr. college and getting their first job would have earned a few paychecks before casting their first vote.

16. She was absolutely astounded to find that she would be losing about $12,000 of her $60,000 starting salary to taxes;

    That’s what happened to the Williams sisters. Conquest’s first law again,.

    Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.

17. The Left truly is insane, but is very very focused, shrewd, and relentless.

    How about the Democrat bill just introduced in Congress to lower the voting age to 16?

    Remember yourself at 16, your kids at 16, your kids who are now 16?

    Would you want the average 16 year old to have any say in who was President, in how our country is to be run, and what it’s laws and policies should be?

    I know I don’t.

    How about the Democrats House passed Orwellianly named H.R. 1, their “For The People Act,” which is a Federal takeover of the current State oversight of elections, to include all sorts of liberalizations–same day registration, voting by mail, etc. to make fraudulent voting much much easier, allowing voting by convicted felons even, apparently, making it possible for non-citizens/illegal aliens to vote .

18. One of the factors in the current attraction for socialism, I think, is the proletarianization of much professional work. 50 years ago, Peter Drucker wrote:

    “Individually he (the knowledge worker) is an “employee”…but the knowledge worker sees himself as just another “professional,” no different from the lawyer, the teacher, the preacher, the doctor, the government servant of yesterday. He has the same education. He has more income. He has probably greater opportunities as well…This hidden conflict between the knowledge worker’s view of himself as a “professional” and the social reality in which he is the upgraded and well-paid successor to the skilled worker of yesterday underlies the disenchantment of so many highly educated young people with the jobs available to them.”

    This was prescient. And with the great increase in the number of college graduates (combined with the reduced quality of the education many have received), there are a lot more people whose jobs and perceived career prospects are disappointing to them than there were when Drucker wrote. This phenomenon has surely been further accelerated by offshoring and H1B visas in fields like programming and engineering.

    I wrote about labor unrest among professionals in Silicon Valley here:

    https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/52410.html

19. David, my comment from that post.

    “as any field becomes a mass employer, it is likely that a substantial number of the people working in that field will feel that they are not getting the high status and rewards that they should have. ”

    This is what is happening to medicine and productivity is going down like a rock.

    Since then, I have talked to number of young physicians and they are all unhappy with their practice The practice journals report 20% burnout. I cannot recall an example when I was in practice.

20. Mike K…and with the the Taylorization of a field, as seems to be happening with medicine, spirited and independent-thinking people will tend to want to get out of it.

21. Walter Durante and Malcolm Muggeridge were both in the USSR in the 1930s. Walter Durante won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for his lying dispatches from Russia which denied the horrors he knew had taken place. Muggeridge had to smuggle his reports out of the USSR and the newspapers wouldn’t print them and he was ostracized for reporting the truth. People prefer beautiful lies to the awful truth.

22. “For example, don’t call the kids dumb or ignorant; say they’ve been betrayed, misled, etc”

    Good luck with that. People don’t like hearing “Poor little thing, you’ve been duped” any more than they like hearing “You’re stupid.” Tbh, they sound like the same thing, only one is more condescending.

    Proof of how the masses have been duped, like video clips showing what a Republican actually said vs. what the MSM reported, help, though. Coming to the realization on your own that you’ve been lied to is better than being flat-out told that you’ve been lied to and expected to just believe that.

23. Since then, I have talked to number of young physicians and they are all unhappy with their practice The practice journals report 20% burnout. I cannot recall an example when I was in practice.

    Well, much of the work done these days by primary care physicians consists of data entry. And physicians and surgeons of all types spend much of their time filling out paperwork for insurers so they can get paid, also a waste of human resources. Maybe some day the administrators of the wort who told one of my relations that the transcription service is for specialists only figure out that we put physicians and surgeons to work what they’re trained to do and hire clerks to do the other stuff. Division of labor. It’s great stuff.

24. RE: Snow on Pine at 7:59

    Great idea about the videos/images of socialism in Venezuela etc. There is a post on Hot Air tonight on Venezuela. Horrifying. Check it out.

25. Two points. Keep the contrasts between the failed socialist states and their successful neighbors prominent in the debate. CBI pointed them out.
    “North Korea v. South Korea
    Mainland China v. Taiwan
    East Germany v. West Germany
    Colombia, Panama, & Chile v. Venezuela & Argentina”

    The other fact that younger people often don’t know, but will react to is that the government has no money. All governments, local, state, and federal, depend on their citizens paying taxes to do the job of defense, law enforcement, infrastructure building and maintenance, etc. The case of the young woman who suddenly realized that the government was a partner with her and took a part of her income in taxes to provide services, many of which she may never be a beneficiary, is an example. Young people can understand that concept. They will not like it. To point out to them that socialism will take more in taxes and redistribute it to other citizens, even those “unwilling to work” is likely to raise some questions about the benefits of socialism. It’s also necessary to point out that we are spending an immense amount of money on government services now. If we are to provide free college, Medicare for all, and a guaranteed income, where will the government get the money to pay for it? The obvious answer is that it has to come out of the citizens pockets in more taxes. If they say, “We’ll print it,” point to Venezuela and Zimbabwe as recent examples of countries that have tried to enrich themselves via the printing press. History is filled with examples, but those two countries are in the news now for rampant inflation. These young people are naïve, but if presented with some simple facts and understandable examples, many of them will begin to question socialism’s value..

26. I would greatly prefer if somebody like Jordan Peterson did the necessary task of re-education of the young. He was hugely effective in capturing imagination of such audience, and he knows the history of totalitarian regimes better than anybody else. He reads Russian, by the way, and made incisive comments about Dostoevsky novels (Crime and Punishment, Demons) and Solzhenitsyn “Archipelago Gulag”. He has a huge collection of Soviet propaganda art in his home and knows the psychology of the brainwashing, all these tricks and underlying archetypes of the utopian mindset. It would be very helpful if some conservative US media give him a megaphone to reach millions of young people in USA.

27. shadow on March 12, 2019 at 10:01 pm at 10:01 pm said:
    “For example, don’t call the kids dumb or ignorant; say they’ve been betrayed, misled, etc”

    Good luck with that. People don’t like hearing “Poor little thing, you’ve been duped” any more than they like hearing “You’re stupid.” Tbh, they sound like the same thing, only one is more condescending.

    Proof of how the masses have been duped, like video clips showing what a Republican actually said vs. what the MSM reported, help, though. Coming to the realization on your own that you’ve been lied to is better than being flat-out told that you’ve been lied to and expected to just believe that.
    * * *
    I believe that is the root of Brandon Straka’s decision to #WalkAway: he realized not only that CNN and other media had lied to him about what Mr. Trump said and did, but also that his leftist/democrat friends were not interested in knowing about it.

    The trick, I think (and other people suggest) is finding ways to put evidence in front of them and “let” them “discover” it “on their own” — without being suspicious that you are salting the mine, so to speak.

28. Artfldgr on March 12, 2019 at 6:06 pm at 6:06 pm said:
    …

    “Pollution is disproportionately caused by whites, but disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic minorities,” the study said.
    * * *
    Tom Lehrer, as usual, had a song about that…
    https://genius.com/Tom-lehrer-pollution-lyrics

    “Lots of things there that you can drink
    But stay away from the kitchen sink
    The breakfast garbage that you throw into the Bay
    They drink at lunch in San Jose”

29. Snow is right:
    young people have … been taught the idea that life should be “fair,” and that, when life is not fair, that they have been dealt a great wound, been the subject of some great injustice.

    This is the Magic Lie — life should be fair.
    Because life is not fair, we need social justice to make it better.
    We need people to get power who really care about other people, who all people to be treated fairly.

    Because life is not fair, one needs not believe in God — he’s obviously not good. Since, obviously, a good God would have made life fair.

    I’m pessimistic. A big depression / war seems ever closer, based on stupid college grads taking stupid socialist ideas and becoming the leaders in academia, media, gov’t, and now businesses. All the top spots are being taken by emotional folk who believe in some “magic” way to stop the unfairness of life.

    Reps need to push K-12 vouchers so parents have more school control.
    Reps need to end Fed funds to colleges who ban free speech. And to end funds to colleges who discriminate against Reps, or demonize them.
    End research funds; end Fed loans for their students; end tax-exempt advantages for their huge endowments.

    I don’t see an effective focus on education yet, but the prior decades of indoctrination are taking over.

30. Sausage casing, or, how Rep. O-Cortez was made: https://mobile.twitter.com/AdamBaldwin/status/1104819196754567173

31. My husband and I were just arguing about AOC yesterday. He says she’s “obviously” very bright, and I disagree – she might be, I said, but so far we have no evidence. It doesn’t take a lot of brains to go in front of a friendly audience and shout, “Pizza – who’s with me?” Especially when you totally believe in pizza. Meanwhile, on this side of the aisle we’re stuck with, “Pizza’s not good for you – have a chicken breast sprinkled with some oregano and a nice salad dressed with vinegar, hmm?” Our message is not NEARLY as fun as pizza.

    I’d love to see a smart young conservative who can sell our message as if it were pizza – “I don’t know about you, but man, I’m loving this chicken breast – it’s seasoned perfectly, and feel these abs!” Ben Shapiro is working on it. Jordan Peterson, though not young (and not actually fiscally conservative, particularly), somehow manages to make stoicism appeal to young people, especially young men – props to him for that; he convinces young people to recognize that if they don’t work for something, it’s worthless, and also that, as Shapiro says, facts don’t care about your feelings. Or maybe he convinces then to bring that recognition to consciousness – maybe they already feel it, but it’s not in accord with what they’ve been taught is “their rights,” so they manifest their lack of satisfaction with their lives by protesting and trying to take things away from others.

    Peterson’s message is about as close as I can see us getting: “Clean your room and keep it that way before you start thinking you know how to clean up the world.” But unfortunately it’s woefully incomplete. It gets kids to cast a jaundiced eye on their own lives, which is good (we can all benefit from doing that), and it denounces authoritarianism on “soul health” and societal grounds, but it doesn’t suggest a societal alternative. He’s a philosopher, not an economist.

32. My husband and I were just arguing about AOC yesterday. He says she’s “obviously” very bright,

    Your husband saw the dance video she made in 2010. (1) your husband needs to quit thinking with his junk. (2) she hasn’t aged well

33. with the the Taylorization of a field, as seems to be happening with medicine, spirited and independent-thinking people will tend to want to get out of it.

    I would never mention the possible connection between that theory and the fact that 60% of medical students are now female.

    I have also noted that there are few Caucasian students in the school which I attended and taught.

34. “Not Trump’s job: our job.” — CBI

    I missed that the first time through. Larry Kudlow gave a short CPAC speech. He led with this, paraphrasing,

    “I have a big favor to ask of you. I want you to put socialism on trial.”

    The near the end he said, “I want you to convict socialism.”
    _____

    As to arguing the case, allow me to recommend a few sources. Both authors are libertarians, hmmm.

    There’s the classic and very accessible “Free to Choose” by Milton and Rose Friedman. They turned that into a TV series in the 70’s which is available for free for Amazon Prime subscribers.

    Donald Boudreaux prof. of economics at George Mason U. who runs cafehayek.com.

    I’ve read two of his books: “Hypocrites and Half-Wits” a collection of letters to the editors of newspaper. I actually liked it better the second time I read it. It’s punctuated with nice historical graphics and photos.

    “The Essential Hayek” It’s a quickie crash course in Hayek. There’s a chapter or two that’s weak, but it introduced me to some new areas of Hayek.

35. I would never mention the possible connection between that theory and the fact that 60% of medical students are now female.

    If you say so. Last year’s Digest of Education Statistics has it that 23,800 medical degrees (MD and DO) were awarded in 2016, of which 53.8% were awarded to men. They have shy of 23,000 degrees awarded in peri-medical occupations (dentistry, pharmacy, optometry, and podiatry) of which 58% were awarded to women (men have an advantage in dentistry and podiatry, women in pharmacy and optometry). They have 2,800 degrees awarded in veterinary medicine, of which 80% went to women. (Something that does seem quite peculiar).

36. Ye, I did. I argument your favorite sport ?

37. Ye, I did. Is argument your favorite sport ?

    I taught medical students for 15 years. How about you ?

38. Ye, I did. I argument your favorite sport ?

    No, it isn’t. And, no I didn’t.

    Those are the numbers from the National Center for Education Statistics. Is there a professional association with different numbers?

39. Tired of false dichotomies. Tired of any government being viewed as evil. Republicans used to know that capitalism was a means to an end, not a religion. Libertarians are pathetic, useless people with no friends, and for damn good reason.

40. I live in San Francisco and have a lot of experience talking politics with members of the Blue Blob. As a general rule, the best thing to do is to urge them to read outside their comfort zone. Don’t argue with them about specific points; they have a lame justification for every hypocrisy committed by their side. More shameless the older they get. TV is no good; too much gotcha and point scoring. They need to read and actively think about other perspectives. It is unfortunate that NR has gotten so very wobbly but it’ll do for this purpose. The Trump hate over there will make the medicine go down a little easier, in fact. Also, take advantage of events where their unconscious conservative comes out. When double standards hit home personally then s*it gets REAL, man. Young people are especially sensitive to being misled by their elders so don’t hesitate jump on the “they didn’t tell you that part” train. Doesn’t work on the olds because they have to maintain the illusion that they already knew that.

41. Tired of ANY government being viewed as evil? Oh, dear!

42. Capitalism is the most successful economic system the world has ever seen. It has pulled more people out of poverty than any government, ever. It’s a good thing.

43. They need to read and actively think about other perspectives.

    I have a very intelligent leftist daughter. I sent her a copy of Jordan Peterson’s book, wondering if she would read it. She called me a few days after it arrived to tell me how much she loves it.

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