Contributed by Arthur Ahrens of Branchport, NY.
SOCIALISM!!!! Has been used for many years as a multi-purpose epithet. For those of us with short memories….
Black Lives Matter SOCIALISM!!!!
Social Security SOCIALISM!!!!
Remove Confedrate Monuments SOCIALISM!!!!
Medicare SOCIALISM!!!!
40 Hour Workweek SOCIALISM!!!!
Child labor laws SOCIALISM!!!!
One size fits all. And always from Republicans!
Now, let’s look at some items championed within the last couple of months by Republicans in Texas, North Carolina and so on…
- Ban or restrict abortion
- Limit access to voting
- Ban books they don’t like
- Retrench transgender rights
- Constrain teachers’ ability to discuss race and sexual orientation
- Install cameras in classrooms so political officials can monitor teachers’ compliance
- Remove existing restrictions on gun ownership and use
- Increase penalties for engaging in a protest
- Empower private citizens to bring lawsuits to enforce these items
To summarize it in two words, this is Authoritarian Fascism masquerading as democratic law making.
Not much different from what Mussolini did in Italy, Franco did in Spain, and the ultimate example—Germany in the 1930s (don’t want to mention the name.)
So here’s the question: What is scarier…so called Socialism or Fascism?
And why isn’t it called out for what it is?
New NY 23rd 
You hit the nail right on the head, Arthur!
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Here’s another Carole agreeing with Arthur…we have a neighbor who should read if…but he doe rd he watches Faux News and other trash!😱
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Conservative views
Black Lives Matter = Facism
Social Security = quasi capitalism form of Insurance FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax)
Remove Confederate Monuments = Facism
Medicare = quasi capitalism form of Insurance
40 Hour Work Week = Result of automation and free market competition in capitalism
Child Labor Laws = Result of automation and free market competition in capitalism
Now let’s address the next part where you are not being intellectually honest.
Your short and incomplete bullet points lack any explanations and sound like the same old tired talking points of Joy Reid, Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, Joy Behar and The Young Turks.
Ban or Restrict Abortion
Texas and other states legislated that abortion providers had to have admitting privileges with emergency care hospitals within a certain distance of the abortion provider to save the life of the abortion seeker if needed.
With an ever increasing number of people opposing the murder of babies there have been restrictions placed on the length of time allowable for abortions.
Many Democrats and an extremely high number of Catholics (many who are Democrats) oppose abortions.
Limit Access to Voting
These legislative actions have been put into place requiring photo IDs to prevent illegal voting.
They are also to help curb or eliminate “ballot harvesting”.
Eliminating unattended ballot drop boxes and 24 hour unattended drop boxes.
Many of these legislative changes have increased ballot access by increasing early voting hours and days for both primary and general elections.
Ban Books they don’t like
This has come about from parents objecting the teaching of the LGBQT teaching and indoctrine teaching to these types of materials to middle school and elementary school children.
No one is calling for the banning of books for adults. Just the teaching of them in our public schools to young children.
Retrenchment Transgender Rights
See above. Stop pushing this on young children by public schools
Constrain teachers from teaching race (CRT) and Transgender propaganda.
Yes. Absolutely. The Chinese and many other countries are eating our lunch when it comes to academics.
Let’s focus on teaching STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) subjects and enough with the social engineering taking place in far too many classrooms activists teachers.
Install cameras in classrooms.
Yes, absolutely to stop activist teachers and focus on the STEAM curriculum
Gun Regulations
Yes, remove unconstitutional 2nd Amendment laws and regulations
Increase penalties for engaging in a protest
Look at the current Biden administration. They are the ones fencing off entire blocks limiting access to protesters and the current far reaching investigation into and arrest at protestors form Jan 6th 2021.
Not one of those protestors has been charged with insurrection.
Look at the Canadian Priminister’s emergency declaration to end non violent protests in Canada .
ANTIFA and the BLM protests across the country and especially on college campuses to shut down invited conservative guest speakers and opposing views is the very essence of Facism.
The Nazi Party was officially the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party.
When you discard the minimalist sick white supremacists and stop trying to make them the face of the GOP and the Conservatives you end up with a large portion of Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Conservatives and Libertarians who believe in the US Constitution and the American Dream of Individualism and the Great melting pot that is America.
The progressive wing of the new Democrat Party has moved so far left that even Bill Mahre and Piers Morgan are disgusted in their behavior.
Former Democrat liberals Dave Rubin and Candace Owen’s are but a few of those on the left who have been “red pilled” to the liberty and freedom conservative side.
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Thanks for your comment, Gary. You complain about a lack of explanation. Yet you give a reader no good reason to believe your claims.
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Socialism; centralized ownership of the means of production.
Some well known Socialists:
Karl Marx
Hugo Chavez
Fidel Castro
Russian leaders Stalin & Lenin
Frederich Engels
Chairman Mao
Gorbachev
Check Guevara
Nickolas Maduro
These Socialists are recognized by many Socialists for not “doing it correctly”.
Pay no attention to the millions of deaths of their own citizens and road to poverty many of them lead their countries.
A good read is The Road to Serfdom by Frederich Hayek
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Have you read “The Road to Serfdom,” Gary? What did you find meaningful in it?
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Gary Perry-
Thank you for your thoughtless diatribe regurgitating far-right talking points. I find that people who don’t agree with me stir my creative juices. And your super power is just that. You’ve given me ideas for two and possibly three articles. WATCH THIS SPACE.
Unlike whungerford, I am quite sure that you haven’t read Hayek, but you know someone who says he has and who gave you some talking bullet points to inject into arguments when needed, which is just sad. Hayek made excellent points that would be a basis for a good discussion about socialism v capitalism.
Of course, many on the far-right don’t like discussions. It’s a lot easier to call names, a skill in which TFG excels.
And please forgive me…use a spelling check, please. Facism is not the correct spelling of something you are defending.
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“Hayek is familiar as an economist celebrated by the right, Paul Ryan for example, as having very conservative views. This seems to be a misconception. Hayek was concerned that the market economy would be replaced by a planned economy like that of the Soviet Union. This seems remote today, but perhaps not in the 1930s and 40s. The reinvented liberalism Hayek envisioned would reaffirm the free market — supply and demand — as the right and proper regulator of the economy.”
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Gary Perry
Thanks for the book recommendation. As you may have noticed, I am not unaware of Hayek.
Now I have a few for you!
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer. I may make this the subject of a future article.
Have you read ANYTHING?
by
Frederick Douglass, Ta-Nehisi Coates or Langston Hughes?
Douglass is of course one of the greatest minds this country ever produced.
Hughes provides a window not only to the black experience but what it means to be human. Coates is an active author with quite a few credits, including ‘Between the World and Me’, which in my humble opinion is a must read about the black experience in today’s United States.
Of course, these authors and books have been banned from some schools and libraries, which is ironic considering slaves (such as Douglass) were prohibited learning to read (with severe penalties) as knowledge would upend the institution of slavery.
There’s lots of grist in these books / authors for future articles. Maybe even a discussion of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson!
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Gary Perry —
I had a couple of minutes of time to waste so I reread your piece.
You are really a fan of cut & paste, aren’t you? You know, with very little effort it is possible for anyone to find the sources for your misinformation. Especially since conservative media is so good at providing talking points to its sheep.
How about using your own words sometime?
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