The growing appeal of socialism, particularly among the young, is both alarming and exceedingly dangerous.
The experience of socialism as manifested in countries outside the Western nations is generally alien to most Westerners, given their more capitalistic histories. The horror stories of mass starvation and genocide historically perpetrated in the name of socialism are rarely attributed to the nature of socialism itself, but to something otherwise dysfunctional within the particular culture.
Persistent is the false belief that destructive and failed variants of socialism simply weren’t socialism to begin with, and were instead some form of communism or fascism. The failed attempts at implementing socialism just weren’t done properly, argue socialists.
To distance themselves from the unavoidable and systemic evils of socialism, modern socialists have created the anti-concepts of ‘social democrat’ and ‘social democracy.’ If democracy has an Achilles’ heel that will lead to its own destruction, it is these ridiculous notions of ‘social democracy,’ and ‘social Democrats,’ both euphemisms for socialism and socialists. True democracy and socialism are simply incompatible, both in theory (as discovered through philosophy) and in practice (as repeatedly witnessed in history). Continue reading »
