A Challenge to Bernie Sanders Supporters

Reportedly, a lot of young Bernie Sanders supporters cannot define socialism.

What does this tell you about support for Bernie Sanders, and for economic leftism more generally? That it relies on and exploits ignorance. It feeds not on understanding and agreement, but on submission.

No wonder Islam, which stands for “submission,” and socialism have so much in common. It’s little wonder that the economic leftists so fervently excuse and minimize Muslim brutality. They’re after the same thing: You.

I recently read an astute comment, somewhere on social media, which stated, “If you own something, you’re not a socialist.”

That’s the crux of it. To truly be a socialist, you’d have to concede that nothing morally belongs to yourself. The government owns it. You might not concede ownership to a government run by Donald Trump or George W. Bush, or even by Barack Obama; but you will concede ownership to a government run by Bernie Sanders.

I challenge all supporters of Bernie Sanders to renounce ownership of everything they hold dear. This will prove their integrity to their ideal. It still will not persuade me that they’re right; but it will at least prove their consistency.

And I don’t want to hear any equivocation about how “democratic socialism is better than state socialism.” They’re the same! Whether the state skips the elections and seizes everything tomorrow, or whether it waits for Bernie Sanders (or some other socialist) to win the election first, in either case: your stuff does not belong to you. And if your stuff does morally and therefore legally belong to you, then no election could ever change that.

I suspect that a lot of economically illiterate people view socialism as something akin to kindness, friendliness or “fairness.” But socialism refers to an economic system, whether brought about by democratic election or not, in which all property is owned by the government. In short: You do not own your cell phone, your car, your favorite sweater, your laptop, your iPod or the Red Bull you just purchased at the store. You don’t own any of it.

In their economic illiteracy, these people who support “socialism” and Bernie Sanders fail to recognize that systems entirely based on socialism would never have created and produced such things as iPods, Red Bull, cell phones or automobiles. All of these are innovations which came about thanks to elements of the free market and the profit-motive, two things no self-respecting socialist would ever concede as worthwhile. Socialist systems sometimes beg, borrow, steal or buy this technology from capitalist societies, it is true; but without economic freedom and capitalism, there never would have been anything to beg, borrow or steal.

So before you support any form of socialism, make sure you’re prepared to renounce your own private property. Otherwise, you’re nothing more than an economically challenged, confused hypocrite.

Capitalists own things, and feel righteously proud to do so. Socialists cannot be socialists if they wish to own anything.