This is partly their way off attempting to protect AOC and the new breed of Democratic Socialists, which they managed to do in an incredibly sexist manner
https://twitter.com/brandondarby/status/1122658506354626560
And away go (hey, I wonder if writer David Bentley Hart will ask the folks who run the Times if they’ll pay their fair share of taxes?) with an article that is way worse than the casual sexism towards AOC
Can We Please Relax About ‘Socialism’?
Only in America is the word freighted with so much perceived menace.To be trapped in the boarding area of a smallish airport in the upper Midwest is, as often as not, to be subjected to that bestial din of fricatives, gutturals, plosives and shrieks of hysterical alarm that constitutes political discussion on Fox News, pouring incessantly from those obnoxious pendulous ceiling televisions. And unless one fancies running the T.S.A.’s gantlet of gropers again, there’s no escape. The experience is especially nasty if one’s wait coincides with the prime-time shows hosted by those two almost indistinguishable fellows with the suety faces, bouffant coiffures and nerve-racking mezzo-castrato voices.
So, Hart just managed to insult most Midwesterners, everyone who watches Fox New, and TSA agents. Good job.
That fate, at least, I avoided a few weeks back. Instead, there I was with the commentator Ben Stein hovering over me like some grim heathen god, exuding all the effervescent charm of a despondent tree sloth, glumly wobbling his jowls and opining that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez espouses a political philosophy that in the past led to the rise of Hitler and Stalin.
Now, I realize that this has become axiomatic on America’s excitable right. I know also that in this country we employ terms like “socialism†with wanton indifference to historical details and conceptual distinctions. I grasp too that many among us truly believe that, say, a higher marginal tax rate or a public subsidy for poor children’s dentistry is only a step away from the gulags. And I am painfully aware that the male Fox commentariat nurtures its sickly obsession with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez partly because they resent her cleverness, charisma and moral vitality, but mostly because they suspect that in high school she was one of those girls they had no hope of getting a date with (though, really, she comes across as someone who could look past a face of even the purest suet if she thought she glimpsed a healthy soul behind it).
And there’s the sexism
Well — only in America, as they say. Only here is the word “socialism†freighted with so much perceived menace. I take this to be a symptom of our unique national genius for stupidity. In every other free society with a functioning market economy, socialism is an ordinary, rather general term for sane and compassionate governance of the public purse for the purpose of promoting general welfare and a more widespread share in national prosperity.
Well, maybe you folks in Europe like the notion of a strong central government controlling your lives, dictating everything. We fought a war over two hundred years ago to get away from that. It’s interesting that most of Europe has a low GDP and much higher unemployment rate. It’s interesting that most of the big inventions come from the freedom of America, not Europe. It’s interesting that America had to save the world from the threat of Socialist styled governments twice in the past century.
He keeps blabbing on, but, hey, if these Leftist really love Socialism so much, why are they not sending at least 50% of their earnings to the federal government? Why do they want to keep their freedom and choice? Germany has the largest population in Europe, at 82 million. England comes in at 67 million. We have well over 327 million, spread out over an area bigger than Europe. Most of our states are larger than EU countries. And we see the failures and government dominance in places like California. The homelessness in uber-leftist cities. The nanny state controls. The loss of freedom. The crime. They can redwash this as much as they’d like, but Modern Socialism (which is really a light version of Fascism) is against America and its beliefs in freedom.
