Weapons of mass disinformation

The Washington Times ^ | March 21, 2005 | Richard W. Rahn

[neverdem]

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The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com

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Weapons of mass disinformation

By Richard W. Rahn
Published March 21, 2005

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If someone advocates an ideology that has contempt for the individual and has caused untold economic misery and the deaths of hundreds of millions at the hands of their governments, what would you think of that person?

    The ideology I refer to is, of course, socialism and its numerous variations, including the utopian socialists, the Fabian socialists, the National Socialists, and, naturally, the communists. Socialism is simply an economic system where the government (or collective) owns and controls the means of production. Given that the two centuries of socialists' experiments, whether by utopians, Marxists, or Fabians, always ended in economic failure and a loss of personal liberty, why are people around the globe still proudly proclaiming themselves socialists? Socialist parties are still popular in parts of Europe, Latin American, and in much of Africa. Socialist parties have been elected to power in both Spain and Portugal in recent months. Many college professors and students on U.S. campuses claim to be socialists.

    The "national socialists" caused the death of tens of millions of people. The communists in Russia, China, Cambodia and elsewhere caused the collective deaths of more than 100 million people and impoverished billions of others. (I happened to be at the Kremlin in Moscow in August 1992, when the Russia demographers announced they had determined there were 63 million "excess deaths" in the Soviet Union during Josef Stalin's reign -- 1923-53.)

    The Third World socialists have kept their countries unnecessarily mired in poverty for a half-century. The democratic socialists gained control in England in 1945 under...

[SpyGuy]

And many Democrat congress-critters are members of the Democratic Socialists of America (www.dsausa.org), including Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat's Minority Leader in the House of Representatives.

Also, FYI: the National Education Association (the public school teacher's union) is also affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America.

[Jabba the Nutt]

"People do not know the history of socialist disasters because the educational establishment and much of the news media have engaged in a massive cover-up."

Well, the educational establishment heads up a huge, huge bureaucracy, which is organized on socialist principles. Public education is one of the largest socialist organizations in the world today. Everyone pays for public schools through taxes, the state (government) produces a product (education). Now, public schools alledgedly have democratic accountability with elected school boards. But school employees can basically do whatever they want.

One way I argue against government schools is to challenge anyone to tell me, what they pay for education and what they get for that payment. What do they pay for insurance? What do they pay for their car, house and what do they get for those payments? There's no contract with government schools. There's no way even to force them to teach reading.

Now, why do the MSM support socialism? MSM isn't a socialized industry. I believe the MSM supports socialism, because they think it'll give them more power. Right now, most people ignore the MSM and they hate that.

[neverdem]

Also, FYI: the National Education Association (the public school teacher's union) is also affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America.

Why am I not surprised? Do you have a link?

[MisterRepublican]

Communism has killed more people than Nazism. Yet, Hitler personifies evil and the works of Karl Marx, Frederick Engles and Vladimir Lenin are lovingly taught on college campuses.

[SpyGuy]

Do you have a link?

Yup. Below is something I wrote in another thread a while back in response to this statement by a fellow Freeper:

Some of these leftist democrats are quickly falling into the category of "Domestic Enemies"

Not some -- most! And they've been Domestic Enemies for a long time now, as far as I'm concerned.

Btw, are you aware that Nancy Pelosi -- the United States Congressional House Democratic Leader -- is a card-carrying member of the "Democratic Socialists of America" (DSA), as are many of her Demoncrat congressional colleagues? The DSA organization is committed to turning America into a full-fledged "Socialist" state. (Read that as "Communist" state, because that is their ultimate goal. Only they realize that people are far less receptive to the term "Communist" than they are to the term "Socialist").

You can take a look at the DSA's Web site at: http://www.dsausa.org

They used to list their membership rolls on their Web site until they realized it really wasn't something they wanted to broadcast to the apathetic public. Fortunately for us, though Web archives like WaybackMachine.org, you can still see the old DSA Web pages.

For example, from the Apr 29, 1999 archives, you will find the DSA's "Progressive Caucus" Executive Committee list and the DSA's "Progressive Caucus" Members list. You can also find a list of the "dozens of progressive organizations [that] have joined forces with the Congressional Progressive Caucus". Here are a few of the more recognizable organizations that have "joined forces" with the Democratic Socialists of America:

National Education Association (the largest and most powerful union in America, of which every public school teacher is a member)
National Organization for Women (NOW)
AFL-CIO
Amnesty International
National Rainbow Coalition
Human Rights Watch
Brookings Institute
Center for the Advancement of Public Policy
Friends of the Earth
Institute for Women's Policy Research
International Labor Rights Fund
NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Citizens for Tax Justice
Catholic Charities
National Council of Negro Women
Center for Law and Social Policy
Children's Defense Fund
Child Welfare League
Urban League
Economic Policy Institute
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
Veterans for Peace
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
UNITE
National Council of Senior Citizens
Consumer's Union
Latin American Working Group

[yoe]

The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened----

Norman Thomas, six-time Socialist Party presidential candidate and one of the founders of the ACLU

[R. Scott]

Given that the two centuries of socialists' experiments, whether by utopians, Marxists, or Fabians, always ended in economic failure and a loss of personal liberty, why are people around the globe still proudly proclaiming themselves socialists?

A couple reasons come to mind. If a person is poor and downtrodden and can’t figure out how to improve their lot in life they would view socialism as a way of having that improvement handed to them. This would be particularly apropos in third world countries.
If the person is well off but feels guilty about their wealth advocating socialism will help salve their conscious.
The loss of personal liberty would be meaningless to a people who have never experienced personal liberty.

[libertylover]

They deny or ignore previous failures...

This is what amazes me. Just how much evidence does it take for these people to realize it doesn't work.

[libertylover]

...why are people around the globe still proudly proclaiming themselves socialists?

Miss Hilary might not admit to being a socialist though she certainly is. In her mind, the only reason socialism hasn't succeeded in the past is because she has never been in charge.

[R. Scott]

In her mind, the only reason socialism hasn't succeeded in the past is because she has never been in charge.

Not that she has a super sized ego or anything!
I was watching “Blue Collar Comedy Tour last night: “If you can’t say something nice about someone – you must be talking about Hillary”.

[HankReardon]

"Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell is a great read on this subject. He cites many examples of socialist policies leading to shortages and surpluses.
The consumer is best able to determine what products are to be produced, not a central government.
The United States is the most successful nation the world has ever known and yet there are those here that aspire to emulate less successful nations.
I heard Ed Asner say during an interview, " I am a socialist". How does someone get so old and remain so stupid.

[230FMJ]

Bump for later

[Coop]

Yeah, but it's a great way to meet babes!

[StonyBurk]

But the Democratic Party has determined that "progress" can
only be measured by our national surrender to socialism. How else can a one world federation of government be established? Have you not followed Star Trek--were you
asleep when the Public school system taught we are all
citizens of the world? Have you no respect for the evolutionary Democratic process of going into other mens houses to lead astray silly women filled with diverse lusts?OOPS es verdad the ACLU finds any religious reference unconstitutional recently.

[maestro]

FYI.......ping

?...Anyone remember the old book, 'Apostles of Deceit'...by Edgar C. Bundy; Church League of America?

[txroadhawg]

If you like women with hairy armpits

[txroadhawg]

"If a person is poor and downtrodden and can’t figure out how to improve their lot in life they would view socialism as a way of having that improvement handed to them. This would be particularly apropos in third world countries."

Problem is, it dosen't bring them up to the average, it brings the average down to them.

[R. Scott]

Problem is, it doesn’t bring them up to the average, it brings the average down to them.

Which is totally lost on them.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[OESY]

...Back in the 1920s, the eminent economist Ludwig von Mises showed socialism it could not work because it could not provide a functional alternative to the price system to properly allocate resources. The Nobel Prize-winning economist, F.A. Hayek, provided the definitive proof of why socialism could not work in his last book, "The Fatal Conceit." The argument in essence is that if the whole world were socialist there would be no objective way to determine prices, thus no way to allocate resources efficiently.

If people knew the real history of all the socialist experiments and its flawed theory, very few (other than the delusional or mean-spirited) would be socialists. People do not know the history of socialist disasters because the educational establishment and much of the news media have engaged in a massive cover-up. The large majority of teachers throughout the world are government employees or depend on government grants. All too many are thus understandably hostile to the idea government enterprises do not work as advertised and, hence, reluctant to both teach and allow materials in the classroom that show the socialist model neither works in practice or theory. Surveys in the U.S. and elsewhere show the overwhelming majority of professors and public school teachers are on the left side of the political spectrum, so one should not be shocked they hesitate to teach history and theory that show their self-interested ideology is a failure.

Much of the electronic media in the world are either owned or controlled by governments. In the U.S., National Public Radio (NPR) provides a steady diet of the alleged failures of those in the private sector, with scant mention of the endless failures of socialist undertakings, let alone the reasons. Many NPR stations are now airing the BBC in part to further propagandize Americans in the socialist way of thinking. (Most Americans do not realize the government-owned BBC is increasingly monopolizing the broadcast media in Britain and, particularly, news to the benefit of the left.)

The employees of these socialist media are disinclined to bite the hand that feeds them, and many do not know any better. The situation is not much improved in the print media. Most reporters have been fed a steady diet of leftist and socialist propaganda from both their schools and from government agencies, and too few are willing to do the independent study and research to discover and, in turn, report the truth.

Perhaps the Internet will be our salvation, because it enables good people of conscience to get out the facts about the human misery caused by 200 years of socialist experimentation, without first being filtered by left-leaning information controllers.