Zimbabwe's collapse under Robert Mugabe. The fall of the Soviet Union. Cuba's disastrous unraveling in the 1990s. TODAY NYT
Notice any common factor in those three countries? (This being the opening para of the front page story in today's New York Times).
Answer: All are or were socialist countries. Socialism fails to the exact extent that it is implemented. The more socialist the more the failure. From North Korea, a disaster, to Cuba, merely indigent.
But the New York Times doesn't bother to mention the word "socialist" even once. In a long front-page article. That purports to examine the reasons for failure.
In any case, Socialists — and the New York Times is definitely warm to the ideology — have the perfect get-out, in the shape of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy. Socialism didn't work? Then it wasn't true socialism.
We see that now in the United States. The Democratic Socialists of America claim they will succeed where others have failed because they understand socialism better. Those countries that failed under socialism? They weren't practicing true socialism. (The cartoon above).
Well, I've lived in a true socialist economy, China of the seventies, and it don't work. Or like China now works as a State capitalist economy.
And I've looked at the policies of the DSA. They are pure and simple down the line, plain-vanilla failed-every-time-it's-been-tried socialist policies, state control of the means of production and all.
So folks like AOC must be treated with suspicion. As a powerfully-persuasive, telegenic, social media-savvy youngster Ocasio Cortez reaches millions with a single tweet, and can convince many of her followers down the socialist road, despite socialism's egregious record of failure every single time it's been implemented. The extent of its implementation being the extent of its failure. More socialism = more failure.
To repeat. This front page article on Venezuela mentions the word "socialism" exactly ZERO times. Despite the fact that it's the single largest reason why Venezuela's economy is in ruins.
Way to go, Times! You paper of record, you!
