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    The fact that the far left rejects reality while capitalism embraces it might be the biggest issue of our time.

    I just got involved in a bit of an online discussion with some Reddit socialists/communists. What really strikes me is the complete disregard for any basic sense of reality. I believe in free speech and have no problem discussing the moral issues surrounding Western capitalism. But what annoys me is this complete rejection of basic objective facts by the modern radical left.

    I've already provided a few notable examples in the screenshots. My comments are all public, you can look at the rest for yourself. But to sum it up, the biggest excuses the socialists brought forward were probably "socialism would've worked, but the CIA stopped it" or "real socialism® was never tried."

    I don't even want to debunk these claims. I mean, every sane person should understand that there's an issue if all real life attempts at your ideology have failed miserably.

    On the other hand, you will almost never hear a capitalist blame a particular economic crash or failure entirely on some made up KGB boogeyman or simply deny that real capitalism ever actually existed. The fact that capitalists can actually argue over objective facts shows, imo., that it's a superior system. I mean, obviously, a discussion based on facts improves results.

    The problem is when it comes to open discussion. Socialists/communists have an enormous advantage in todays information warfare/political debate, because their arguments don't have to conform to objective reality. Especially now, with social media increasingly promoting emotions over facts, this becomes even more important.

    How do we counter this?

    Posted by Sebsibus

    View 14 Comments

    14 Comments

    2. Pandora_Palace on

      If you think that this is the biggest issue of our time you need to get off Reddit immediately.

      Look don’t get me wrong leftoids are annoying af but let’s please not act like they’re the most important thing going on right now.

    3. ticklemytaint340 on

      Discussing economics on Reddit is such an aggravating experience. Nobody tells a geologist igneous rocks are bullshit or something like that

    10. Mrc3mm3r on

      Well, I appreciate this spirit. Sadly, these people are pretty much completely gone; there really isn’t an approach that will win arguments directly. What needs to happen is a pro-capitalist cultural movement that emphasizes and valorises innovation, free will, and diligent work. This used to exist in America, but to a large degree does not anymore: both the right and left wings have gone down identity grievance-based rabbit holes, just with different people as the targets of their ire. (I will say that the right wing is currently much friendlier to the idea of capitalism than the left at the moment.) 

      It’s not enough to be right, and it’s not enough to even write books, ect the way Klein has. There needs to be a culture behind capitalism, expressed in print, but also media, and indeed values that go beyond the economics. We know that command economics doesn’t work. We need to show (not tell) how capitalism generates the surpluses that makes generosity possible. The old Protestant mainline churches used to do this; Trinity Church in New York City, among others, ran a collection of smaller parishes that provided education and charity that came from its prestigious and wealthy main congregation. The message has to be driven home and played out on media: this is what worked, and this is what American culture was, is and could be. 

    11. Alarming_Flow7066 on

      This really seems like something that should be posted in the discussion thread instead of making a whole ass post about it.

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