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General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: rangerrebew on February 03, 2019, 03:30:58 pm

Title: Ben Stein’s Socialist Smackdown
Post by: rangerrebew on February 03, 2019, 03:30:58 pm
 Ben Stein’s Socialist Smackdown
by Evan Maguire
February 2, 2019, 4:49 PM

 
by Geoffrey Norman

Last Tuesday, The American Spectator’s Ben Stein pulled no punches while discussing socialism on Fox Business. Speaking on the results of socialism, particularly related to Venezuela, Stein eviscerated the Left’s notion that socialism will produce good results.

His full remarks were:

It depends on education, we have a society in which there are an awful lot of people who have no idea that Stalin, Hitler, Mao Zedong all came to power promising the same kind of things that Miss Ocasio-Cortez is promising and it led to mass murder, it led to dictatorship, it led to genocide. These promises are old promises and they invariably lead to bad things. The promise of just saying to people, do what you can within the law to make your life better and your family’s life better, that system works extremely well. Capitalism is a system that allows people to make something of themselves instead of oppressing other people. It’s an incredibly good system.

https://spectator.org/ben-steins-socialist-smackdown/
Title: Re: Ben Stein’s Socialist Smackdown
Post by: Cyber Liberty on February 03, 2019, 04:24:33 pm
Still can't forgive Ben for declaring (many times) that the wealthy are undertaxed.  Seemed like a very odd position at the time, and it still does.
Title: Re: Ben Stein’s Socialist Smackdown
Post by: goatprairie on February 03, 2019, 04:45:11 pm
What Stein said has been said innumerable times since the Bolsheviks got things going i.e. mass killing in Russia.
But for many facts fall on deaf ears. They have their vision of utopia (which means nowhere), and they're not giving up on it.
A lot of conservatives wrongly call all Dem/lib pols communists, but for the most part they're just parasites. They virtue-signal for their own benefit...the Clintons, the Obamas, Pelosi, Schumer are basically all parasites rather than hardcore commies.
But now we have a new generation of socialist pols like AOC who seem to never have read history or simply don't understand what happened. Of course, many are just power hungry, and are following a great paradigm if you want to kill a lot of people.
I thought Bernie Sanders was a one off old socialist pol who very soon would be just a sad footnote. Instead, we have numerous new socialist pols who really believe they can create paradise on earth by destroying the wealthy.
Title: Re: Ben Stein’s Socialist Smackdown
Post by: Fishrrman on February 04, 2019, 12:22:38 am
I call 'em "democrat-communists", and I don't think that's "wrong".

'Cause that's exactly where they'll take us, if given the chance....
Title: Re: Ben Stein’s Socialist Smackdown
Post by: goatprairie on February 04, 2019, 12:35:10 am
I call 'em "democrat-communists", and I don't think that's "wrong".

'Cause that's exactly where they'll take us, if given the chance....
I like to think of Dem pols as mostly a combination of thieves and parasites. They certainly don't want to give up their mansions, planes,  limousines, etc. They mostly just want to virtue signal to the gullible Dem masses.
You're right...what they advocate, socialism, will kill the country. But greed and lust for power among Dems conquers what tiny feelings of love for country some of them might have.
Title: Re: Ben Stein’s Socialist Smackdown
Post by: To-Whose-Benefit? on February 04, 2019, 01:17:42 pm
"Per usual, angry socialist sympathizers and leftists decried the remarks, though not with any real criticism.

Some called for Stein’s money to be taken away.

    We failed to take away Ben Stein’s money when we had the chance."

    — Annika Barranti Klein (@noirbettie) January 23, 2019


These are some very, very, Evil people.
Title: Re: Ben Stein’s Socialist Smackdown
Post by: Cyber Liberty on February 04, 2019, 02:47:51 pm
"Per usual, angry socialist sympathizers and leftists decried the remarks, though not with any real criticism.

Some called for Stein’s money to be taken away.

    We failed to take away Ben Stein’s money when we had the chance."

    — Annika Barranti Klein (@noirbettie) January 23, 2019


These are some very, very, Evil people.

I think Klein is making a reference to a Game Show Ben had on cable TV, where people answered trivia questions posed by Mr. Genius for cash, hence the name of the program:  "Take Ben Stein's Money."

Attempted joke or not, they're evil....