Socialist Propaganda

Comments

[Just Say'n]

Stossel is the best

[BYODB]

Truly, a win for Reason.

[Migrant]

Former US Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger said on Fox News that Chavez's appeal to the Venezuelan people "only works so long as the population of Venezuela sees some ability for a better standard of living. If at some point the economy really gets bad, Chavez's popularity within the country will certainly decrease and it's the one weapon we have against him to begin with and which we should be using, namely the economic tools of trying to make the economy even worse so that his appeal in the country and the region goes down ? Anything we can do to make their economy more difficult for them at this moment is a good thing, but let's do it in ways that do not get us into direct conflict with Venezuela if we can get away with it." Chile got the same treatment. Stossel forgot to mention that the USA has been a very experienced and well resourced state controlled terrorism vector throughout the world. Lets have both sides of the picture next time ?

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

Migrant=Useful Idiot.

Perfectly.

[Kyle A]

Yup, he's the shit.

[DajjaI]

I've seen a huge explosion in Socialist propaganda on my Twitter and FB feeds. I follow a few prominent socialists as well as their detractors. (Though, I haven't seen any Telesur propaganda, at least, not referenced in a positive light.) Most of it is bullying in the form of, "If we don't have single payer, then people will be dying in the street." Actually, the truth is that if we had it, only bullies would get care, and the rich would travel to Mexico or Buenos Aires. And the truth is, people actually want to pay for their own care, and could afford it if the government stopped artificially raising prices.

[DajjaI]

For example, here's a recent Twitter exchange regarding Dr Bornsten (Trump's doc), which also shows how socialists have lost all sense of humor (which will be a critical factor in discrediting them):

Bolshie: This isn't funny. That doctor should lose his medical license. And every media outlet that treated that letter as credible, somehow, should issue retractions tonight. Laughing is normalizing this Kafka hellscape.

Me: No one treated the letter seriously. It was preposterous and everyone laughed at it. What I find Kafkaesque is how negative people are when we are experiencing the greatest prosperity in world history. And it's fun!

Bolshie: you're wrong. they laughed at the hyperbole of the letter but it was still accepted as an actual medical bill of health. that's the insanity.

[Flinch]

Since the GOP seems determined to save government run health care, the only way to get to fee for service might be suing to get legally declared a dog. Vet bills almost never approach todays deductible, and the standard of care is not warped by hideous medicare billing norms. And... you can still vote in Chicago, request senior discounts at 11 years of age, etc.

[SQRLSY One]

"...suing to get legally declared a dog."

Amen!!! Hot diggitty DAWG!!!!

I am SOOO gonna hafta steal yer line!!!!

[SQRLSY One]

I wanna self-ID as a dog, yes, when it comes to medical care...

But can I then also self-ID as a ROBOT when it comes to EARNING money?!?

The government does not require many (if any) benefits be paid to robots, nor require safe operating environments (for the robots as opposed to humans). Limited protections for humans is good, but have we gone too far? Corporations are required to pay Social Security, workman's comp, unemployment, self-esteem therapy, and tons and tons of insurance mandates for the humans. Whether or not I need or want (or object to, on a religious basis) alcohol and drug abuse therapy, organs transplants, sex assignment changes, or space alien abduction therapy, a lot of all this stuff is mandated, in insurance coverage. No opt-outs and price cuts for you, or for me! But not so for the robots! Should it be any surprise that the robots are taking our jobs?

I am thinking that we should disguise ourselves as robots, and assign ownership of our robotic selves to a trusted friend or family member. Trusted human owner (of myself) can then collect rental fees on me, take a small administrative fee, and kick the rest back to me! Problem solved! Now I can be allowed to compete with the robots, if I desire to bypass all the mandates!

[leninsmummy]

I just paid close to 800$ to get my cats teeth cleaned and pulled. Vets bills might be cheaper because you can put an animal to sleep when you can't afford the cost of care.

[Migrant]

Presumably you have never heard of the UK ,where nobody has to worry about paying for treatment since 1948 - but for some Americans like you that would be like exceptionally dim flat earthers seeing a picture of a globe and their heads exploding.

[Conchfritters]

Why does American journalist Abby Martin do propaganda for socialist murderers?

My guess is $$$$$$. I doubt they pay her in Bolivars.

[Sevo]

Or Cuban Pesos.

[BYODB]

They probably pay her in human capital, if you know what I mean.

[Number 2]

So why isn't teleSUR being condemned as "fake news," as foreign "interference" in our democracy, or as a government-funded attempt to sow discord and undermine our society? When will Google, Twitter, and Facebook block its content or warn users of its untrustworthiness?

[Quo Usque Tandem]

If it's left, it's left alone. Something something diversity of opinion something.

[Cynical Asshole]

diversity of opinion

Social media allows plenty of diversity of opinion. There's the "center left," "democratic socialism," "Communism," and "anarchic Marxism." What more could you want? Anything else is "hate speech." All Right Thinking People know this.

[loveconstitution1789]

Don't forget those Nazis which were socialists too.
"Why Are We Socialists?

We are socialists because we see in socialism, that is the union of all citizens, the only chance to maintain our racial inheritance and to regain our political freedom and renew our German state.

Socialism is the doctrine of liberation for the working class. It promotes the rise of the fourth class and its incorporation in the political organism of our Fatherland, and is inextricably bound to breaking the present slavery and regaining German freedom. Socialism, therefore, is not merely a matter of the oppressed class, but a matter for everyone, for freeing the German people from slavery is the goal of contemporary policy. Socialism gains its true form only through a total fighting brotherhood with the forward-striving energies of a newly awakened nationalism. Without nationalism it is nothing, a phantom, a mere theory, a castle in the sky, a book. With it it is everything, the future, freedom, the fatherland!"
- Joseph Goebbels and Mj?lnir, Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (Munich: Verlag Frz. Eher, 1932).

[Flinch]

Fourth class... is that like Gabon Air? Sit in the aisles with the chickens and other odd pieces of 'luggage' that move about on their own.
Socialists are a disaster in any language, at any time: promoting the crab effect just tears down humanity.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

You just lit the Dipshit Dave Weigel signal with that comment.

[loveconstitution1789]

Which Weigel sock will arrive is the question though.

[Cynical Asshole]

I'll put $5 on Buttplug.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

Dipshit is obviously traveling or "working" today; he hasn't even tweeted one time.

[John C. Randolph]

journalist Abby Martin

Journalist, my ass. She's a latter-day Walter Duranty.

-jcr

[Flinch]

That's a good reference. Anyone receiving a Pulitzer prize is likely a threat to the nation [and humanity], and I sometimes wonder: how big a factor was Duranty in steering the NYT to not reporting the holocaust as it was unfolding? The bulk of his omissions outweighs whatever pen got put to paper.

[NebulousFocus]

She was just on Rogan's podcast making idiotic arguments.

[Kyfho Myoba]

The only thing she is remotely right on is US foreign policy in the mid east.

[Sevo]

"The Pulitzer board has twice declined to withdraw the award, most recently in November 2003, finding "no clear and convincing evidence of deliberate deception" in the 1931 reporting that won the prize (see Pulitzer Board statement), and The Times does not have the award in its possession."
https://www.nytco.com/new-york-times
-statement-about-1932-pulitzer-prize
-awarded-to-walter-duranty/

The link should make the NYT embarrassed as well.

[sarcasmic]

Socialists would rather be equally poor than unequally rich.

[Citizen X - #6]

Those advocating socialism now assume that they will be among the nomenklatura in the coming worker's paradise, with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto. Everyone else, however, will be equally poor.

[Mark22]

Not a good assumption if you look at history.

[Cynical Asshole]

^This^

Socialism even fails at making everyone equally poor. The party leaders and apparatchiks always seem to wind up "more equal than others." Funny how that works out.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Well, come on! The pigs have to have the milk and apples! If they don't get them, Jones will come back! Surely, comrades, you don't want Jones to come back!

[leninsmummy]

It's not about making people equal. It's about a moral society, and what could be more moral than some virtuously suffering for the common good (the 'working class'). Those who decide what is good are the priestly class hence the special privileges.

[Wizard with a Woodchipper]

For International Worker's Day, a.k.a., Victims of Communism Day, recommend the Little Back Book of Communism. It makes a perfect gift for friends or relatives who are still over the moon about Marx's fantasy of a worker's paradise.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

Why do American journalists carry water for socialist murderers?

Because for the most part, JournoLists are power-mad, yet largely unskilled, losers.

Those are the people who socialism most appeals to. Those who don't have very much in the way of useful skills and abilities, yet still think they should be "large and in charge".

[$park? leftist poser]

Ironic

[TuIpa]

That you replied to him when he insulted you?

[TuIpa]

(any second now we'll get that "aww cute" thing he does when he's been shut the fuck up and can't muster a response without showing how upset he is)

[Citizen X - #6]

Even Simple Mikey's conspiracy theories are shitty and uninspired.

[loveconstitution1789]

What are some reasons journalists do it then, smart guy?

[Cynical Asshole]

My guess would be because they actually believe in that non-sense they're spewing and because they're paid far more money than the average Venezuelan or Cuban peasant will see in several lifetimes to spew bullshit.

[loveconstitution1789]

Pretty good reason. Some people double-down on being wrong too. They just cannot stand to admit they were wrong.

Even Stossel used to be a lefty. He admits he was wrong.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Yeah, that's the thing I've noticed about socialists: the loudest and proudest of them are not coal miners, construction workers, carpenters, steelworkers, etc. They're people who, to use the old joke, think manual labor is the president of Mexico. Privileged little turds who tell themselves that they're important because they "fight for the workers" (so long as they don't have to actually meet any workers or have any living in their posh neighborhood).

[colorblindkid]

Occupy Wall Street was nothing but a combination of ultra-wealthy white kids and dirty hippies.

I know a girl who went to boarding school and fancy colleges and had a $300,000 education to get a degree in women's history or whatnot, and she's a full-blown Marxist, buying "Communism for kids" for kids, constantly peddling the worst of the worst SJW bullshit, and thinking she is an expert on it and knows better than anybody else because her parents bought her a $300,000 education that taught her no practical skills.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

I like to hope that people making money off pro-communist books are actually hardcore capitalists exploiting a market opportunity.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

Yep. Most of the honest-to-goodness workers that I know despise the anti-American Weigelian turds in the media.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Reminds me of the bosses son in the movie "Car Wash: 'Woik'n people of da woild, I have come to unite wid ju!" One of the employees offered to shove Mao's little red book up his ass when the "real revolution" happened.

[Microaggressor]

I mean it makes sense. People who work for a living know that socialism isn't for their benefit - it explicitly promises to tax their hard earned income and blow it on worthless shit. Workers know that their property rights are their livelihood. It's amazing to me that I don't see much pushback to the myth that socialism is a worker's movement. Just take one look at Venezuela - the "Worker's President" has created conditions where medical doctors can't even make a living in their legal job so they're forced to supplement their income in the black market. And bad things will happen to you if you get caught committing such economic crimes. Workers must feel so liberated.

[Freddy the Jerk]

Privileged little turds who tell themselves that they're important because they "fight for the workers"

That reminds me -- we haven't heard from Tony today.

[John C. Randolph]

Privileged little turds who tell themselves that they're important because they "fight for the workers"

Just like Marx itself.

-jcr

[gaoxiaen]

Che's cool beard and baret?

[Cynical Asshole]

Che: the original hipster.

[Chuckles the Snarky Piggy]

Che: just one in a long line of handsome, charismatic, child-murdering douchebags throughout history

[Quo Usque Tandem]

"Those are the people who socialism most appeals to. Those who don't have very much in the way of useful skills and abilities, yet still think they should be "large and in charge".

I think you are on to something there. Or they may just be psychopaths looking for a legalized way to vent their anger and violence upon others. Those types certainly come out of the woodwork when totalitarianism raises its ugly ass.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

I've got news for you. I work with plenty of educated, skilled people (mostly engineers) who espouse socialist views. It's not really a question of ability. It's whether or not you see yourself as a victim.

Yes, there are folks out there with 6-figure salaries who think the world has been unfair to them.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

As I said, they may just be looking to take it out on others, regardless of their innate abilities, or lack thereof. With engineers [as I have known] it may even be a case of massive nerd's revenge.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Instead, they spend their dwindling funds on teleSUR propaganda videos.

If only all the world would abandon capitalism for socialism, the words "dwindling funds" wouldn't even have any meaning and youtube videos would flow like wine from a bottomless carafe.

[Mark22]

youtube videos would flow like wine from a bottomless carafe.

When socialists promise a "bottomless carafe" you have in mind something that gives you an infinite supply of wine; but they actually just mean a "carafe with a big hole in the bottom", something entirely different.

[gaoxiaen]

The leaders hold a cup under the hole, so it's all cool.

[MatthewSlyfield]

They would spill out on the floor leaving YouTube empty?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I stand by my phrasing.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Holes, spilling. Why is this sounding like a plot for a porn movie?

[Cynical Asshole]

Why does American journalist Abby Martin do propaganda for socialist murderers?

Because she's a True Believer?

[Unicorn Abattoir]

How many true believers have ended up in camps or up against walls? All just innocent clerical errors, I guess.

[Migrant]

Why do Americans vote for a pig ignorant, racist,sex pervert with the emotional continence of a four year old and the vocabulary of a drunk on a bar stool ? Because so many of them are like him?

[leninsmummy]

Don't forget, love trumps hate.

[RabbitHead]

Because they wanted to drop a turd in the progressives punchbowl.

[Mark22]

I'd love to hear Abby Martin's explanation for why she chooses to help push that socialist propaganda.

She's an ignorant, power hungry, evil bitch. And she hopes to meet lots of virile young revolutionaries. And she gets paid for it, and presumably quite well.

Aren't those good enough reasons?

[gaoxiaen]

Well, she's not as hideous as Debbie Wasserman Shultz.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Look up British academic radical Malcolm Caldwell for a good example; his Cambodian hosts killed him in 1978, right after he commented that the Khmer Rouge massacres were "worth it" in order to bring about a workers paradise. I call it poetic justice.

[Microaggressor]

+1938

[Migrant]

yep ......like the American generals who destroyed Vietnamese villages in order to save them and poisoned forests with Agent Orange- or the ones who murdered millions of North Koreans in order to save them from Communism ?? ... all because it was 'worth it'

[leninsmummy]

Let's not forget the millions upon millions of Chinese and Russians starved to death by your preferred murderers. They definitely could have done better in Vietnam than we did.. if only they'd had a chance to try South Korea too.

[Kyle A]

Look, a lot of terrible things happened in Vietnam, we all know it.
We actually had a firm foothold in the southern part of the country and would have a North/south korea type situation if the democrats kept funding the weapons program to the southern vietnamese.

See Venezuela or Cuba or the Soviet Union to learn how awful Communism is.

[The Laissez-Ferret]

I still remember students at my college wearing Che Guevara shirts (it was when RATM was popular) and their surprise to know that he was a sociopath who hated blacks and gays and murdered people. Apparently they'd never read anything Che had written himself and the ones who had read it would shake their heads and make excuses.

[gaoxiaen]

Cool beard and beret, it all evens out in the end.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Made a cute Taco Bell ad when they put it on a chihuahua.

[Rhywun]

I was vaguely team left in college but even I wasn't that stupid. You have to be willfully ignorant and/or malign to run with that crowd (Rage types, antifa, etc.).

[Migrant]

So the statues to racist traitors who fought a war for slavery all over the South will be taken down soon and replaced with statues of the leaders of slave revolts , right ? And the useful idiots who plaster confederate flags over themselves and their possessions will be told that it is the same as the Swastika? And the Alamo museum will have a nice big exhibition about the racists and slave owners who created Texas in order to spread slavery ? No, I thought not

[RabbitHead]

Other than the Alamo thing, yeah, that's pretty much what's happening.

[mjerryfuerst]

One wonders what Mr Stossel uses as his definition of "socialist"?

[albo]

I'd be curious to read a story about the various Reason authors who used to appear on Putin's house organ, RT, in the near future. Make it happen?

[Let freedom ring]

Of course socialism sux, but what is called capitalism today is not actual capitalism.
And Russia did not invade the Ukraine, and NATO and the US does wage wars of aggression.

[MikeyParks]

Did you say "teleSewer"?

[Kyle A]

And don't forget, Abby Fartin.
Aha......haaaaaaaaa..........ha..

[Hank Phillips]

Good, relevant journalism on a topic that matters. Most communo-fascist propaganda in Latin America is made viable by Republican and Democratic party policies. Every prohibition law the US enforces abroad with puppet judges and death squads tells Latin Americans the USA hates free trade, free choice, rights or scientific inquiry. Every stolen handout the Dems dangle over the drooling jaws of the juntas elected by rigged voting machines tells their victims the US hates initiative, independence, democracy and honest dealings. Thanks, Stossel, but do realize that the communist party is being rejected in Russian elections even as the LP is gaining ground in These States.

[RabbitHead]

Socialists: zoo animals who bitch about the food instead of the cages.

[Kyfho Myoba]

Stolen!

[buybuydandavis]

"What are paragraphs?"

[John B. Egan]

Why do useful idiots like Stossel keep prattling on about Socialists? At what point do false equivalents die a natural death and not be used as red meat for his right-wing fans? On and off, I've read articles and coments by Stossel for decades and he still seems stuck in his neverending recycling of old and tired 60's and 70's concepts, like he's starring ins abad remake of 'GroundHog Day'!

[Kyle A]

Because there are millions of people dying right now in 2018 from Socialism.
Children literally starving in droves.
Venezuela was once a beautiful place that is now essentially a wasteland because of communism.

Give us an example of a false equivalent that you speak of.

[Migrant]

Former US Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger said on Fox News that Chavez's appeal to the Venezuelan people "only works so long as the population of Venezuela sees some ability for a better standard of living. If at some point the economy really gets bad, Chavez's popularity within the country will certainly decrease and it's the one weapon we have against him to begin with and which we should be using, namely the economic tools of trying to make the economy even worse so that his appeal in the country and the region goes down ? Anything we can do to make their economy more difficult for them at this moment is a good thing, but let's do it in ways that do not get us into direct conflict with Venezuela if we can get away with it." Chile got the same treatment. The USA is a state controlled terrorism vector.

[Carter Mitchell]

John, you may be absolutely right about the socialist propaganda, but by giving what appears to be a counterpoint example

"Her videos describe "U.S. death squads" and claim that NATO and the U.S. lead "constant wars of aggression." In the U.S., racism is "entrenched...political opposition quashed" while the U.S. "empire...runs on death and destruction and kills thousands of our brothers and sisters every day."

you are effectively debunking your own report because - as you very well know, and we see reported here at Reason, on antiwar.com, and many other non-"legitimate" news sites, those claims are facts. Venezuela may worse, but there's no denying the rising tyranny here in the good ol' USA.

[AD-RtR/OS!]

Why?
Simple - They're wittingly or unwittingly Leftists.
They graduated from some of the finest Indoctrination Centers ever built, and they've got the Credentials to prove it.
Unfortunately, they forgot to get an education.

[a2plusb2]

First, you have to suppose that Abby Martin believes in all the stuff she is reporting. (Maybe sometimes feels it necessary to fudge the facts, like that report on supermarket shelves at five supermarkets in Venezuela.)
- So then one has to ask what defines her beliefs. - It wouldn't surprise me if she thinks American political leaders and business persons are such criminals that Che Guevara should shoot them.

[Deconstructed Potato]

Objective truth and rational arguments have no influence. The indefensible stupidity of people blindly sharing state-sponsored propaganda from tyrannical foreign governments is, in fact, defended with vitriol, insinuation, ad hom, slander, and non sequitur. Outrage groupthink hate will always be louder in many forums of "discussion" than reason and objectivity.

It's totally bizzarre how early 20th century tyrannical ideologies are still flocked to by so many, despite having been proved disastrous many times throughout the world. Humanity is doomed to repeat it's most egregious and terrible mistakes.

[Cloudbuster]

One teleSUR video lists countries where "capitalism failed": Canada, Mexico, England, Peru, Panama, Switzerland, the United States...

Choose fast. Live in one of those places, or live in one of the places where socialism failed:

Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, South Africa....

[Kyle A]

Uhh uhhh THE US OF A BABY!!!!

[commentator]

They hire "useful idiots," as Communists once called naive leftists who spread tyrants' propaganda.

Repeating this cliche is actually repeating capitalist propaganda about communists, with effectively zero basis in fact. Almost like some kind of...convenient moron, if you will.

[drisco304]

Why do people do such things? For the money, John, for the money. Look at what people do for money. They sell people into slavery. They sell illicitly obtained body parts. They sell out their country. If I were the dictator of some country I would generate good press by paying celebrities, editors, journalists, anyone who already had a platform. To write nice stories about how wonderful I am. My guess is that it wouldn't take much.

[gclancy51]

"Why do American journalists carry water for socialist murderers?"

It's not like there aren't enough home-grown murderers to carry water for. Obama and Kissenger immediately spring to mind.

[Kyle A]

John, Abby Martin and that entire website just makes me sick. The ignorance displayed in their clear cut bias just shows how lacking in basic economics and common sense these people are.