Captain Obvious Presents: Communism is Bad

For instance, to say that only women have vaginas and give birth would make a stupid article.
To pen a lengthy post in which I argue the sun is hot would be nonsense.
To write with sincerity and conviction that the Pope is Catholic would be a waste of time.

And up until recently, writing an article entitled “Communism Is Bad” would have been a colossal waste of time. It would have been met with remarks like:
”Duh.”
”Shocker.”
”Way to tell us something we already know, Captain Obvious.”

I mean, it ain’t hard to see that, right? Just look at history. Look at every single country that has lived/lives under Communism. There is no shortage of real world examples. No shortage of deaths. No shortage of hunger. No shortage of oppression. No shortage of political imprisonment, censorship and economic collapse.

In short, no shortage of the horrors associated with Communism. History is replete with examples.

It’s not a fair system by any stretch, although it’s sold as such. And the marketing behind it is astounding.

Every failed Communist movement begins with a stellar sales pitch.
I mean, real informercial type appeal.
After all, nobody campaigns on:

You’ll wait six hours for old bread.
Your children will report you to the state.
You’ll live where we tell you to live.
You will go to bed each night hungry.
You’ll own nothing.
We’ll build concrete apartment blocks where everyone is equally miserable.

That would look terrible on a campaign poster.

Instead, they campaign on stuff like:
You’ll work less. You’ll have more.
Healthcare, housing, equity, fairness, justice, the RICH WILL PAY.
YOU ARE A VICTIM. (that last one is super important)

And that, right there, is the bait. And that bait is always dressed up in compassion. It has to be or no one would buy it. If Karl Marx had opened with:
“Gather ‘round Comrades! Someday you will stand in line for hours with a ration card for a cup of sugar, two loaves of old bread and a half a pound of rice, and that’s on a good day,” history might have gone a different direction.

Remember, Communist Revolutions are never advertised with pictures of empty grocery shelves.
EVER.

So, just for fun, let’s look at some of the promises of the DSA.
And please, let’s not start with the whole “Socialism is not Communism” argument. Before anyone starts typing, “BUT SWEDEN!” let's be clear about the distinction.

Marxist socialism and communism are closely related. They are tight. They are brothers from another mother.

In Marxist theory, socialism isn’t the final product. It isn’t the destination. It is the transitional stage on the way to Communism. The on-ramp, if you will.
Sure, some countries, like the United States, have extensive social welfare programs. But these government programs are funded through…wait for it…Capitalism.

Capitalism creates the wealth. Capitalism fills the coffers from which the Socialism shovel digs. In baking terms, Capitalism bakes the pie. Socialism slices it up and distributes it. I mean, you can’t redistribute wealth until someone creates wealth.
(Which of course begs the question: Where does the pie come from once you’ve chased all the bakers away?)

But according to the Socialists and Communists infiltrating the Democrat party with seemingly little resistance from the moderate Democrats, they will do it better. (Says EVERY country who’s ever tried the same.)
Take my hand and let’s look at some of the things these folks want.

Their actual sales pitch reads like a utopian (or more accurately, dystopian) informercial:

”Imagine taking a day off from work in a future without capitalism. It might not feel as badly needed as it does now. You enjoy your work; it’s interesting to you, and you’re well trained for it. You work as much as you are able and no more than needed, and you would control your own labor and see it going to good use. It’s not just a job to pay the bills.

Speaking of bills: you don’t really have them anymore. You have no debt. You don’t need health insurance. You don’t pay a mortgage or have a landlord, because comfortable housing is a human right.

OK, enough about bills.

The level of absurdity in this platform has me torn between laughing and crying. And checking the basement to make sure I haven’t run out of wine.

Mind you, and this is important, none of the loudest advocates for these ideas has ever lived under true Socialism or Communism. Most of the leaders of this movement have never even lived in poverty.
Quite the opposite. They came from affluent families. Attended the best schools. They grew up quite comfortably. Some came from considerable wealth.

They visit Socialist/Communist countries to highlight how awful the US is. And they do it wearing Cartier gold jewelry, Cartier sunglasses and $700 designer shirts before retiring for the evening in a luxury 5-star hotel.

Ahhh…Communist leaders in action.
Yeah, looking at YOU, Hasan Piker.

Remember, dear readers, there are many places in this world where one can live under true Socialism and Communism. Amazing that all those advocating for it so passionately in the US haven’t chosen to move there. If I genuinely believed people elsewhere had discovered a modern day utopia, I would beg, borrow or steal to get there.

Equally interesting? When the Berlin Wall came down in Germany, people weren’t scrambling to get into East Berlin.
Huh. Weird.

Dear readers, if you come away from this article remembering NOTHING else, remember this about human beings:

”If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.”

Those words were written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a former Red Army Captain who was thrown in the Gulag for his anti-Soviet/Communism beliefs.

In his “Warning to the West” he writes:
“It is astonishing that Communism has been writing about itself in the most open way, in black and white, for 125 years, and even more openly, more candidly in the beginning. The [book:Communist Manifesto|30474, for instance, which everyone knows by name and which almost no one takes the trouble to read, contains even more terrible things than what has actually been done. It is perfectly amazing. The whole world can read, everyone is literate, yet somehow no one wants to understand. Humanity acts as if it does not understand what Communism is, as if it does not want to understand, is not capable of understanding.”

Aleksandr wasn’t writing for hearts, likes and subscribers. He was warning us. He had lived under the very system so many people now romanticize and herald as “the solution.”