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Socialism

2020-08-03T03:59:40Z

FactManReturneth:

'''The first paragraph is a blatant lie'''

[[File:Antifa Dayton attacker.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Dressed in all black with his face covered, Antifa terrorist Connor Betts during the [[Dayton nightclub attack]].<ref>https://www.cernovich.com/connor-betts-the-dayton-ohio-terrorist-was-a-far-left-wing-activist/</ref> Betts stated "I want socialism, and I’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round understanding."]]
'''Socialism''' refers to a set of related socio-economic systems based on control by the workers of the means of production (as opposed to individuals personally owning property). It is a failed system.<ref>Multiple references:
*Scaliger, Charles (September 6, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/33172-socialist-realities Socialist Realities]. ''The New American''. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
*Williamsen, Kurt; Byas, Steve (September 6, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/33171-saving-america-with-socialism Saving America With Socialism?] ''The New American''. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
*Behreandt, Dennis (September 4, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/33170-the-failure-of-the-command-economy The Failure of the Command Economy]. ''The New American''. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
*Behreandt, Dennis (September 3, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/33168-going-with-fair-healthcare Going With “Fair” Healthcare]. ''The New American''. Retrieved September 6, 2019.</ref> ideology based on [[hate]], [[envy]], and [[mass murder]]<ref>Behreandt, Dennis (September 9, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/33174-the-deadly-history-of-socialism The Deadly History of Socialism]. ''The New American''. Retrieved September 9, 2019.</ref> and which promotes [[totalitarianism]] at the expense of [[individual freedom]].<ref>Scaliger, Charles (September 2, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/33169-socialism-explained Socialism Explained]. ''The New American''. Retrieved September 2, 2019. See also:
*Jasper, William F. (December 17, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/34153-socialists-stop-spread-of-success Socialists Stop Spread of Success]. ''The New American''. Retrieved December 17, 2019.</ref> The movement is responsible for the murder of at least 94 million people over the past 100 years.<ref>Werth, Nicolas; Panné, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Bartosek, Karel; Margolin, Jean-Louis (October 1999), Courtois, Stéphane, ed., ''[https://archive.org/stream/TheBlackBookofCommunism10/the-black-book-of-communism-jean-louis-margolin-1999-communism_djvu.txt The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]'', Harvard University Press, p. 4.</ref> The fundamental flaw of socialism is the belief that one person has the right to the fruit of another person's [[labor]] and [[private property]], for example, that healthcare paid by others is a "human right." Socialism has led to increased bureaucracy and reduced freedom even in Scandinavia,<ref>Meninger, Edward J. (September 10, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/33173-do-it-like-denmark Do It Like Denmark?] ''The New American''. Retrieved September 10, 2019.</ref> and it has been tried and failed in countries such as the [[United Kingdom]], [[India]], and [[Israel]] during the 20th century.<ref>Edwards, Lee (October 16, 2019). [https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/three-nations-tried-socialism-and-rejected-it Three Nations That Tried Socialism and Rejected It]. ''The Heritage Foundation''. Retrieved October 23, 2019.</ref>
[[File:Xi-jinping-hope.jpeg‎|left|200px|thumb|The global elite and American leftists look to CCP murderer<ref>https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/investigators-china-still-harvesting-human-organs-huge-scale</ref> [[Xi Jinping]] for Hope after the election of [[Donald Trump]].<ref> File:Xi-jinping-hope.jpeg‎ </ref> "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" is defined as having your heart cut out while you're still alive.<ref>https://www.smh.com.au/world/chinas-gruesome-live-organ-harvest-exposed-in-documentary-20150407-1mgabb.html</ref>]]
As a political theory, socialism relies on scapegoating to build a constituent base. For example, that "the rich," or "Jews," or "millionaires and billionaires," or "the top 1%" are responsible for all of humanity's ills. Socialism targets the youth of a nation and people without life experience using naive, simplistic, and "feel good" slogans ("[[Medicare for All]]," "tuition-free education," "free housing." etc., for example) that on the surface appeal to self-interest, while asking nothing of the hearers to contribute to the economic well being of their fellow citizens or society. Once in power, Socialists compel compliance with [[authoritarian]] decrees (the "individual mandate" and "shared responsibility payment," for example) suppress criticism, censor [[free speech]], silence or exterminate opposition in order to maintain power for themselves. There is nothing [[democracy|democratic]] about socialism, and terms such as [[democratic socialism]] or [[social democracy]] are [[oxymoron]]s that are typical of Marxist "double speak" and "double think." Socialist leaders often live in extreme luxury even as they fail to improve the lives of those they rule over,<ref>Lott, Maxim (March 11, 2019). [https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-socialist-from-chavez-to-castro-leaders-who-lived-the-high-life Lifestyles of the Rich and Socialist: From Chavez to Castro, leaders who lived the high life]. ''Fox News''. Retrieved March 11, 2019. See also:
*Snowball, Timothy (May 15, 2019). [https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/443228-socialism-is-neither-a-fair-nor-progressive-political-philosophy Socialism is neither a fair nor 'progressive' political philosophy]. ''The Hill''. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
*Jasper, William F. (September 11, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/33175-socialism-for-your-benefit-or-theirs Socialism: For Your Benefit — or Theirs?] ''The New American''. Retrieved September 11, 2019.</ref> and its destructive effects on society often are irreversible.<ref>Pollak, Joel B. (May 10, 2019). [https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/05/10/blue-state-blues-venezuela-south-africa-show-socialism-difficult-to-undo/ Blue State Blues: Venezuela, South Africa Show Socialism Difficult to Undo]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved May 10, 2019. See also:
*Demaggio, John M. (July 20, 2019). [https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/453913-has-socialism-already-failed-in-the-united-states Has socialism already failed in the United States?] ''The Hill''. Retrieved July 20, 2019.</ref> Socialism is fully compatible with "big business," or [[crony capitalism]].<ref>Philipp, Joshua (August 7, 2019). [https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-corrupt-romance-between-big-business-and-socialism_2977800.html The Corrupt Romance Between Big Business and Socialism]. ''The Epoch Times''. Retrieved August 7, 2019.</ref>

As a social theory, the modern [[Democratic party]] uses [[identity politics]] to create a new "oppressed class" of victims which replaces the traditional worker/peasant/proletariat victims of the imaginary "oppressor class" - "the [[bourgeois]]".<ref>https://youtu.be/PkNzYttjSHE</ref> Socialism preys on people who fall victim to the [[sin]]s of [[envy]] and [[covet]]ousness, and raises [[Iconoclasm]] and [[nihilism]] as exalted [[virtue]]s. Left-wing professors and universities have played a large role in advancing socialist ideology.<ref>Lott, Maxim (January 18, 2019). [https://www.foxnews.com/politics/socialism-rising-universities-and-radical-profs-helping-steer-leftward-shift-in-politics Socialism rising: Universities and ‘radical’ profs helping steer leftward shift in politics, critics say]. ''Fox News''. Retrieved January 18, 2019.</ref> Many individual socialists and groups display juvenile, adolescent, and cult-like behavior.

As an economic theory, socialism is an [[authoritarian]] system which advocates strict [[economic planning|command and control]] of [[income]]s and distribution or rationing of goods and services, including food and healthcare. High taxation to expropriate wealth from the supposed "oppressor class" is common to all socialist regimes. Removal of incentives and demonizing the [[profit]] motive, while expecting common people to produce goods and services, and supply tax revenues to government, for little or no pay is a [[psychotic]] dream. After exterminating "corporations" and "the rich," the cost burden of government - which controls everything - naturally falls to an impoverished working class, the unemployed, and homeless which previously paid no taxes. And no one can retain anything for themselves because the profit motive is disincentivized or outlawed. Due to its core [[anti-democratic]] and authoritarian precepts, socialism is considered [[treason]]ous to [[America]]'s central ideal of [[liberty]].

Socialism at all times has never amounted to more than a [[criminal]] gang that enlists the aid of academics and disgruntled, naive youth and the misfits of society. One of the most well known socialist regimes of the 20th century was the [[Nazi Party|National Socialist German Workers' Party]] (Nazi Party), headed by [[Adolf Hitler]].<ref>http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/adolf_hitler.htm</ref> Through [[affirmative action]] programs, Nazism granted workers and peasants access to educational and employment opportunities previously only available to the German bourgeois and [[nobility]] (the "oppressor class").

Both [[Communism]] and [[Nazism]] are [[totalitarian]] or [[statist]], subverting the rights of individuals to the [[collective]] of a [[single party]]. Nazism deviates from orthodox Marxist theory in substituting racial and ethnic conflict for economic [[class warfare]]. Nazism substituted "[[Jews]]" as the oppressor class, responsible for all societal woes, rather than "the rich," "[[Republican]]s," or "white males" as modern leftists do. The [[Second World War]] was a life and death struggle between two [[leftwing]] interpretations of socialism - both atheistic and subverting the rights of individuals to the state, one considering "equality" to apply only to members of a nation or race, the other [[multicultural]] and [[globalist]]. After the [[United States]] assisted the [[communist]] victory over [[National Socialism]] (see [[Popular Front liberalism]]), the [[Cold War]] was an effort to suppress the spread of global communism. Socialists consider all forms of [[capitalism]] as "[[fascist]]" (see [[Antifa]]).

==Roots==
Socialism has its roots in visions of imaginary ideal societies, from thinkers who drew up elaborated designs and concepts for creating what they considered a more equal society, along collectivist lines or abolished [[private property]]; the primary ideas came from British and French thinkers like [[Henri de Saint-Simon|Saint-Simon]], [[Charles Fourier]], Louis Blanc, and [[Robert Owen]] preceded by [[Thomas More]], Tommaso Campanella, and Jean Meslier.

==Historic types==
[[Image:Backrdv12n2.jpg|right|400px|thumb|The Russian caption reads, "Long live the great unbeatable flag of [[Karl Marx|Marx]], [[Friedrich Engels|Engels]], [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]!"]]
There are three main kinds of Socialism, all of them are built on the premise of government control of the means of production.

===Leninism===

Marxist Socialism, or '''Leninism''', as revised by [[Vladimir Lenin]] and practiced in the pre-[[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] Soviet Union, was the Socialistic theory developed by Vladimir Lenin during his rise to power. Lenin defined socialism as a transitional stage between capitalism and communism.<ref>"In striving for socialism, however, we are convinced that it will develop into communism", Lenin, State and Revolution, Selected Works, Progress publishers, Moscow, 1968, p. 320. (End of chapter four)</ref> Leninism is totalitarian, with no [[democracy]] and all decisions are made by the leaders of the Communist party. Lenin saw the Communist Party as an "elite" that was committed to ending capitalism and instituting socialism in its place and attaining the power by any means possible, including revolution. Lenin was quite mild on the belief, believing that, though controlling of resources was important, the people's will comes first.

Though [[Bolshevik]] Russia was somewhat more prosperous than its former [[Russian Empire|Tsardom]], Lenin's death in 1924 sparked the overthrow of his Marxist–Leninism and the imposition of [[Stalinism]], the violent, totalitarian belief that went against some of Lenin's ideas (many of Lenin's works were censored by Stalin post-1924).

==="Democratic" Socialism===
[[File:Ellison-antifa.jpg|right|175px|thumb|[[Democratic National Committee]] Vice-Chair [[Keith Ellison]] promoted Anitfa.]]
The second form of Socialism (sometimes called "Revisionism") prevailed in Europe down to the 1970s, and is typified by the [[Fabian Socialism|Fabian Society]] and the British Labour Party. It was inspired by Socialism and closely linked to labor unions that had real power. The goal was for [[Industrial Democracy]], that is, for the government to own ("nationalize") major industries such as coal mining, railways, steel making, shipbuilding, airlines, and banking. Small businesses remained private. The idea was that labor unions controlled the government and therefore unions controlled working conditions and wages for the benefit of workers, regardless of the damage to long-term economic growth.

The Socialists were well organized and after 1918 they bitterly fought the breakaway faction that became the [[Communist]] movement. In recent years major Socialist parties (in Europe and Canada) have sometimes dropped the long-standing demands for state ownership of the means of production and have mostly accepted "Controlled Capitalism". However, they remain tied to labor unions and favor liberal policies regarding high taxes and public spending. Conservatives have been negative toward the economics of the second form of socialism. Conservatives complain socialists use government power to redistribute wealth.

Within the [[European Union]], a form of [[democratic socialism]] was initially viewed as successful but eventually lead to lowered social equity and a downward spiraling economy, as well as general discontent. Although this acts as a drag on the economy, in democratic countries of the industrialized west, some socialist ideas have been put into practice with varying degrees of success. Beginning in 2010 many European countries were racked with rioting and social unrest as governments began to back away from out-of-control entitlements that began bankrupting them and lead to a world financial crisis because of unrestrained debt.<ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791804575439732358241708.html WSJ; "Obstacle to Deficit Cutting: A Nation on Entitlements"]</ref><ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100929/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_austerity_protests_10 Anti-austerity protests sweep across Europe]</ref><ref>[http://www.allbusiness.com/economy-economic-indicators/economic-policy-bailouts/14758032-1.html "Debt crisis pushes Europe toward economic reforms"]</ref>

In the early 21st century, Socialism was becoming increasingly prominent in the West.<ref>Ozimek, Tom (November 9, 2019). [https://www.theepochtimes.com/socialism-stirs-again-30-years-after-collapse-of-berlin-wall_3141025.html Socialism Stirs Again 30 Years After Collapse of Berlin Wall]. ''The Epoch Times''. Retrieved November 9, 2019.</ref>

===Communal Socialism===
The third form of Socialism has nothing to do with Marx or government ownership, and emphasizes the importance of the community over the individual. Usually it means small communities sharing most of their possessions. The most famous examples are the religious [[Shakers]] of the 19th century (a conservative group), and the new-left communes that briefly existed in the 1960s and 70s.

Early American settlers, as in Plymouth or Virginia, tried it but quickly abandoned it.

:The Pilgrims in Plymouth used communal farming their first winter but then after a dismal harvest that first year, moved to a system where there was a more direct incentive other than guilt and honor. Governor Bradford summed it up in his journal:
:* "And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number, for that end, only for present use (but made no division for inheritance) and ranged all boys and youth under some family. This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression."
:Not only were all hands more industrious—the incentive to harvest communal corn before it was fully ripe, a problem equivalent to poaching in the case of wildlife, was also eliminated.<ref>[http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2006/Robertsincentives.html Incentives Matter] - Russell Roberts - Library of Economics and Liberty</ref>

=== Influence of Russia on socialism ===
Not until the birth of the [[Soviet Union]] after the [[Communist Revolution]] did the idea become generally accepted that socialism meant government seizing ownership of the economy. Experience in 19th and 20th century [[France]], [[England]], and [[Germany]], however, made it clear that regulatory control by government bureaucrats is sufficient to implement socialism.<ref>[http://www.thomasbrewton.com/index.php/weblog/once_again_what_is_socialism/ What is Socialism?]</ref>

In Communism (the primary variant of socialism) the central goal is to establish a "[[workers' paradise]]"-an ideal state with perfect equality.

In practice the socialist government owns the banks, railroads, farmlands, factories, and stores, and is the only employer, or at least controls the regulation of production and distribution. The central goal is to destroy the "evils of capitalism" by government ownership or control of the means of production, usually with one party controlling the government on behalf of the working class.

The socialist system never manages to establish this "paradise" because management for the benefit of the employees leads to featherbedding and lack of investment or economic growth, at the expense of consumers. Collective farming (operating farms like factories) sharply reduced the food supply. The most thoroughgoing efforts by Communist regimes turned into authoritarian dictatorships. The government controls all investments, production, distribution, income, and prices, as well as all organizations, schools, news media and formerly private societies. Churches and labor unions are suppressed or controlled by the government. Socialism is the antithesis of [[capitalism]], because it opposes private ownership of capital or land, and rejects the free market in favor of central planning. It also rejects "civil society" and makes sure that all organizations are controlled by the government.

Theoretically, socialist regimes can have multiple parties. In practice there is only one political party, and it controls the government. The leaders of the party choose the government officials and set all policies for the nation and for cities and localities. Opposition parties are not allowed access to the media or to meeting halls or to funding, and their leaders are often arrested as "enemies of the people."

As a political ideology based on the redistribution of wealth, socialism stresses the privileges of the many over the rights of the few, but in practice when socialist economic principles are forced onto a nation by a totalitarian government a new Upper Class appears which is much better off than the Lower Class.
{{cquote|'''<big>Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.</big> - Winston Churchill''' <ref>[http://www.quotesdaddy.com/quote/280995/winston-churchill/socialism-is-a-philosophy-of-failure-the-creed-of Churchill; Quotesdaddy.com]</ref>}}

Socialism supposedly is an "intellectual" pursuit. Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of the last General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], held a "PhD in Marxism-Leninism." Raisa Gorbachev died in a German hospital of [[leukemia]] because her beloved Soviet homeland was incapable of delivering proper healthcare, even for the elite of the Soviet Socialist Republic, after 70 years of socialism.

===National Socialism===
[[Image:Hitler.jpg|thumb|250px|right|One of the most well known political parties of the 20th century was the [[National Socialist]] party of Germany headed by the [[evolution|evolutionary racist]] [[Adolf Hitler]].<ref name="mises">http://mises.org/daily/1937</ref><ref name="darNaz">https://creation.com/darwinism-and-the-nazi-race-holocaust</ref><ref name="hott">http://www.hourofthetime.com/socialist.htm</ref> ]]
The [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]] declares:
{{Quotebox|The identification of [[Nazi]] [[Germany]] as a socialist state was one of the many great contributions of [[Ludwig von Mises]]...

The basis of the claim that Nazi Germany was capitalist was the fact that most industries in Nazi Germany appeared to be left in private hands.

What Mises identified was that private ownership of the means of production existed in name only under the Nazis and that the actual substance of ownership of the means of production resided in the German government. For it was the German government and not the nominal private owners that exercised all of the substantive powers of ownership: it, not the nominal private owners, decided what was to be produced, in what quantity, by what methods, and to whom it was to be distributed, as well as what prices would be charged and what wages would be paid, and what dividends or other income the nominal private owners would be permitted to receive. The position of the alleged private owners, Mises showed, was reduced essentially to that of government pensioners.

De facto government ownership of the means of production, as Mises termed it, was logically implied by such fundamental collectivist principles embraced by the Nazis as that the common good comes before the private good and the individual exists as a means to the ends of the State. If the individual is a means to the ends of the State, so too, of course, is his property. Just as he is owned by the State, his property is also owned by the State.}} Hitler found the notion of single-party control very attractive. That, and the idea of creating a "New man" in a godless socialist order, enlightened by science, victorious over their oppressors. Nazism was outlawed at the end of [[World War II]].

===Commonalities of Communism, Nazism and liberalism===
:{{See also|Similarities between Communism, Nazism and liberalism|Fascism and the New Deal}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!
!Communist Manifesto
![[Nazi]] Party Platform
!Analysis
|-
|1
|"Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes."
|"We demand an agrarian reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to expropriate the owners without compensation of any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land."
|The stripping away of land from private owners. [[Liberalism]] today demands "eminent domain" on property.
|-
|2
|"A heavy progressive or graduated income tax."
|"We demand the nationalization of all trusts...profit-sharing in large industries...a generous increase in old-age pensions...by providing maternity welfare centers, by prohibiting juvenile labor...and the creation of a national (folk) army."
|The points raised in the [[Nazi]] platform demand an increase in taxes to support them. Liberalism today demands heavy progressive and graduated income taxes.
|-
|3
|"Abolition of all rights of inheritance."
|"That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished."
|Liberalism today demands a "death tax" on anyone inheriting an estate.
|-
|4
|"Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels."
|"We demand that all non-Germans who have entered Germany since August 2, 1914, shall be compelled to leave the Reich immediately."
|The Nuremberg Laws of 1934 allowed Germany to take Jewish property.
|-
|5
|"Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly."
|"We demand the nationalization of all trusts."
|Central control of the financial system.
|-
|6
|"Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State."
|"We demand that there be a legal campaign against those who propagate deliberate political lies and disseminate them through the press...editors and their assistants on newspapers published in the German language shall be German citizens...Non-German newspapers shall only be published with the express permission of the State...the punishment for transgressing this law be the immediate suppression of the newspaper..."
|Central control of the press. Liberals today demand control or suppression of talk radio and Fox News.
|-
|7
|"Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c, &c."
|"In order to make it possible for every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education, and thus the opportunity to reach into positions of leadership, the State must assume the responsibility of organizing thoroughly the entire cultural system of the people. The curricula of all educational establishments shall be adapted to practical life. The conception of the State Idea (science of citizenship) must be taught in the schools from the very beginning. We demand that specially talented children of poor parents, whatever their station or occupation, be educated at the expense of the State. "
|Central control of education, with an emphasis on doing things their way. Liberals today are doing things ''their way'' in our schools.
|-
|}

===Britain, the Labour Party and Socialism===
At its inception, the [[Labour Party]] borrowed socialist ideas by committing itself to a program of nationalization under 'Clause 4' of their Constitution, but was always fundamentally committed to the British system of parliamentary government. Clause 4 was formally dropped after the election of [[Tony Blair]] as Party leader, signaling the creation of 'New' Labour.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/21/newsid_2515000/2515825.stm</ref> The British governments of 1945-1950 and 1950-1951 under [[Clement Attlee]] implemented the nationalization of several industries and utilities, including coal, steel, water, railways and electricity. Former owners of nationalized industries were compensated. The best-known example is the nationalization of health care to create the [[National Health Service]] (NHS). This made - literally overnight - health care "free" at the point of delivery for everybody in Britain, and it remains so today.

In the 1980s under Conservative Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]] most of the nationalized industries were returned to the private sector, and public housing has been sold to the residents. These conservative decisions were endorsed by the "New Labour" of Tony Blair, to the annoyance of elderly radicals who fondly remember the poverty and inefficiencies of the old system.

=== Obamunism ===
:{{Main article|Obamunism}}
In April 2010, [[American]] political consultant [[Dick Morris]] wrote:
{{cquote|When [[Obama]] took office, federal, state and local spending accounted for 30 percent of [[gross domestic product]]. Now it is up to 35 percent, and when health care is fully implemented, it will rise to above 40 percent. But taxes are still below 30 percent. The difference is the deficit, now grown to 10 percent of our GDP.

If our government is to continue spending 40 percent of our GDP, we will morph into the European model of a socialist democracy. But if we can roll the spending back to 30 percent, while holding taxes level, we will retain our free market system.<ref>https://townhall.com/columnists/DickMorrisandEileenMcGann/2010/04/24/the_silent_killer_obamas_vat_proposal</ref>}}
[[File:Shepard-Fairey-imgs.JPG|right|thumb|250px|[[Shepard Fairey]], designer of the official Obama hope and change logo, is more known for his anti-American and pro-communist themes. Here a [[Mao Zedong|Maoist]] revolutionary is depicted.<ref>http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-ContextMenu&rlz=1I7ACAW_en___US352&tbs=isch:1&q=Shepard+Fairey&sa=N&start=40&ndsp=20</ref> ]]
[[Anita Dunn]], the political strategist and former White House Communications Director, admitted that one of favorite political philosophers, one that she “turns to the most”, is [[Mao Zedong]], the [[communism|communist]] dictator responsible for the starvation, torture, and killing of 70 million Chinese.<ref>http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2009/10/16/anita-dunn-favorite-philosopher-mao-tse-tung/</ref>
Critics of the Obama administration have coined the word "[[Obamunism]]" to describe Barack Obama's socialistic and "[[fascism]] light" [[economic planning]] policies ([[Benito Mussolini]] defined fascism as the wedding of state and corporate powers. Accordingly, trend forecaster [[Gerald Celente]] labels [[Obama administration corporate bailouts|Obama's corporate bailouts]] as being "fascism light" in nature).<ref>http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/daily-intel/2009/07/20/obamunism-inc</ref><ref>http://www.smallbusinessadvocate.com/small-business-interviews/gerald-celente-6944</ref> Obamunism can also [[Allusion|allude]] to Obama's [[Obama administration fiscal policy|ruinous fiscal policies]] and [[Obama administration monetary policy|reckless monetary policies]].<ref>https://seekingalpha.com/article/120883-monetary-policynot-obama-s-stimulusis-what-needs-watching</ref><ref>http://www.nypost.com/seven/05172009/postopinion/editorials/bams_wise_words_169731.htm</ref><ref>http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/</ref>

====Stimulus====
[[Larry Summers]] was the Director of the White House's National Economic Council (NEC) for President Barack Obama. George Gerald Reisman, Professor Emeritus of Economics at [[Pepperdine University]] and author of ''Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics'', wrote that Summers' socialistic ideas on redistributing wealth demonstrate that [[Larry Summers]] is a "lightweight leftist" who "fails to understand the nature of the most essential feature of capitalism, namely, private ownership of the means of production and the indispensable role it plays in the standard of living of the average person."<ref name="misesblog">http://blog.mises.org/archives/009031.asp</ref> Reisman also wrote that Summers is a shallow and ignorant man whose knowledge of economics is minimal and whose evil views qualify him to be the economic advisor to [[Hugo Chavez]] of [[Venezuela]] or [[Robert Mugabe]] of [[Zimbabwe]], but do not qualify him to be an economic advisor to the President of the United States.<ref name="misesblog" />

====Land grab====
In August 2010, [[Hot Air]] declared:
{{cquote|The federal government, as the memo boasted, is the nation’s “largest land manager.” It already owns roughly [http://bigthink.com/ideas/21343 one of every three acres] in the United States. This is apparently not enough. At a “listening session” in New Hampshire last week, government bureaucrats trained their sights on millions of [http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9HGKEAG0.htm private forest land] throughout the [[New England]] region. Agriculture Secretary [[Tom Vilsack]] crusaded for “the need for additional attention to the Land and Water Conservation Fund — and the need to promptly support full funding of that fund.”

Property owners have every reason to be worried. The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is a pet project of green radicals, who want the decades-old government slush fund for buying up private lands to be freed from congressional appropriations oversight. It’s paid for primarily with receipts from the government’s offshore oil and gas leases. Both Senate and House Democrats have included $900 million in full LWCF funding, not subject to congressional approval, in their energy/BP oil spill legislative packages.<ref>https://hotair.com/archives/2010/08/14/great-outdoors-initiative-a-federal-land-grab/</ref>}}

====You didn't build that====
:{{main|You didn't build that}}
On July 13, 2012, at a campaign event in [[Virginia]], Obama gave a speech that immediately stirred up controversy. Speaking about the government's role in the success of private business, he said:<ref>[https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/13/remarks-president-campaign-event-roanoke-virginia Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event in Roanoke, Virginia], White House</ref>
{{cquote|If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business - you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.}} The [[Romney]] campaign has used "If you’ve got a business—you didn’t build that" in ads to show America that Obama believes it is government that creates business rather than hard-working individuals. The Obama campaign has alternatively stated that the sentenced was poorly worded since he was not giving a scripted speech and that when Obama said "that" he was referring to roads and bridges. Obama points to a later portion of his speech in which he said, "The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together," to support his claim.

====Obamacare ''diktats''====
[[File:ObamaCareSymbol.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Image courtesy [[Newsbusters]].]]
:{{See also|Obamacare}}
The centerpiece of Obamacare was the [[individual mandate]] or ''[[diktat]]'', a provision that makes it mandatory for every citizen to purchase private health insurance, which was unprecedented in American history. There was no [[bi-partisan]] or national consensus.<ref>Epic [[Direct spending#New spending|new spending]] and taxes, pricier insurance, rationed care, dishonest accounting: The Pelosi health bill has it all. [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703399204574505423751140690.html Nancy Pelosi's New Health-Care Bill], ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', November 01, 2009.</ref><ref>[[President Obama]], Senate Majority Leader [[Harry Reid]] and House Speaker [[Nancy Pelosi]] rammed Obamacare down the throats of an unwilling American public. Half a year removed from the unprecedented legislative chicanery and backroom dealing that characterized the bill's passage, much more is known about the bill than when it was passed into law. [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Obamacare-is-even-worse-than-critics-thought-960772-103571664.html Examiner Editorial: Obamacare is even worse than critics thought], ''Washington Examiner'', September 22, 2010.</ref> More than 150 million Americans were completely locked out of the process.<ref>Crabtree, S. (2009, October 20). "[https://thehill.com/homenews/house/63941-democrats-lock-republicans-out-of-committee-room Democrats Lock Republicans Out of Committee Room]." ''The Hill''. Pershing, B. (2009, October 23). "[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/22/AR2009102204442.html Democrats on House Committee Lock Out Republicans]." ''Washington Post''.</ref><ref>Freeman, J. (2009, October 20). "House Democrats Lock GOP Out of Committee Room." ''Wall Street Journal''. (2009, October 21). "[https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/21/oversight-panels-democrats-lock-republicans-dispute/ Oversight Panel's Democrats Lock Out Republicans After Dispute]." ''FOX News''.</ref> Obama's progressive Democratic Socialists had single party control.<ref>Davis, S. (2009, April 28). "[https://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/04/28/sen-specter-to-switch-parties-democrats-near-60-vote-majority/ Sen. Specter To Switch Parties, Democrats Near 60 Vote Majority]." Washington Wire. ''Wall Street Journal''.</ref><ref>keithmsnbcer (2009, April 29). "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGYBbFMeFNc Bernie Sanders on Ed Show]." ''MSNBC''. YouTube.</ref>

====Censorship of journalists====
:{{See also|Obamagate timeline 2009-2014 vanguardism}}
On May 13, 2013 the [[Associated Press]] announced telephone records for 20 of their reporters had been [[subpoena]]ed by the Justice Department. The Justice Dept. subpoenaed the phone records of AP from [[Verizon]] and other service providers.<ref name=verizonslate>{{cite web|last=Gallagher|first=Ryan|title=Verizon Wireless Secretly Passed AP Reporters' Phone Records to Feds|publisher=www.slate.com|date=May 16, 2013|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/05/16/verizon_wireless_passed_ap_reporters_phone_records_to_the_feds.html|accessdate=}}</ref> The AP claimed these acts were a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering.<ref name=TTSanchez>{{cite web|last=Sanchez|first=Raf|title=US Justice Department secretly seizes Associated Press phone records|publisher=The Telegraph|date=May 13, 2013|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/10055318/US-Justice-Department-secretly-seizes-Associated-Press-phone-records.html|accessdate=}}</ref><ref name=TG130513>{{cite web|author=Washington (AP)|title=US government secretly obtained Associated Press phone records|publisher=The Guardian|date=May 13, 2013|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/13/america-government-associated-press-phone-records|accessdate=}}</ref> CEO Gary Pruitt of AP stated: "These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know."<ref name=CNNJohns>{{cite web|author=Matt Smith and Joe Johns|title=AP blasts feds for phone records search|publisher=CNN|date=May 14, 2013|url=https://www.cnn.com/2013/05/13/us/justice-ap-phones/?hpt=hp_t2|accessdate=}}</ref><ref name=holder>{{cite web|author=Gary B. Pruitt|title=AP letter to Eric Holder on seizure of phone records|publisher=USA Today|date=May 13, 2013|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/13/doj-seizes-ap-phone-records/2156819/|accessdate=June 1, 2013}}</ref>

A few years earlier, Attn. Gen. [[Eric Holder]] renewed a subpoena of James Risen, a reporter for the ''[[New York Times]]''. Risen and a colleague reported on warrantless wiretaps. The coverage won Risen and colleague a [[Pulitzer Prize]] for “carefully sourced stories on secret domestic eavesdropping that stirred a national debate.” The Justice Dept. [[John Brennan]], an avowed communist, played a key role in the illegal wiretap program, overseeing the production of what personnel in the program called the “scary memos” intended to justify domestic spying exposed by Risen. Brennan later admitted that he relied on information from CIA's torture program rather than domestic spying, which was used as a cover.

In June 2013 [[Comey]]'s [[FBI]] opened a case on [[CBS News]] anchor [[Sharyl Attkisson]] under the auspices of '[[national security]].' Attkisson reported news embarrassing to Eric Holder on [[Operation Fast and Furious]] and extensively on the [[Benghazi massacre]] coverup.<ref name="wyden.senate.gov">https://www.wyden.senate.gov/download/?id=285dc9e7-195a-4467-b0fe-caa857fc4e0d</ref>

====Police state surveillance of opponents====
:''See also : [[Obamagate timeline 2015 progressive police state]] and [[Obamagate timeline|Obamagate timeline 2016 election year]]''

==Contradictory Goals of Socialism==
Socialism's stated purpose is to eliminate the huge gap between the highest and lowest classes of society. Their bitter complaint has been that the upper class exploits its dominance to gain privileges and wealth, while the lower class must suffer tyranny and poverty.<ref>"all socialists agree that a socialist economy must be run for the benefit of the vast majority of the people rather than for a small aristocratic, plutocratic, or capitalist class." [http://www.experiencefestival.com/socialism_-_an_economic_system]</ref> This obsession with class paradoxically creates a group of people with a vested interest in seeing class differences remain (socialist politicians, [[community organizer]]s, ''etc.''); if by some means the class system actually ''were'' destroyed, these people would be out of a job.

Another essential goal of most socialist thinkers has been to eliminate [[Capitalism]],<ref>"... one of the fundamental goals of the socialist movement throughout history has been the abolition of capitalism" [http://www.experiencefestival.com/socialism_-_opposition_and_criticisms_of_socialism_arguments_for_and_against A Wisdom Archive on Socialism - Opposition and criticisms of socialism; arguments for and against]</ref>
on the grounds that only "social control" of the economy can prevent abuses such as [[feudalism]], [[monopoly]], [[cartel]]s, etc.

But experiments on both a moderate and a grand scale have shown that socialism's main purpose has been undermined by its unremitting opposition to [[free market]] economics. In its drive to eliminate capitalism, it has overlooked the fact that general prosperity is vouchsafed by [[economic freedom]], and that free market economics improves the lot of the poor much more quickly and permanently than any system of central economic control.

The real aim of socialists is probably personal: why else would socialists want to create programs which encourage Dependency? Well, it fits into their lust for power.
People who want to control others need people who are willing to be controlled.
Independent, proactive people do not fit into the socialist Power Model. That is why the first thing [[Karl Marx|Marx]] wanted to remove from the economy was the [[Profit]] Motive: it gives people an incentive to make their own decisions!

==Key elements==
As a political ideology based on the expropriation of wealth, socialism stresses the privileges of the nomenklatura over the rights of workers and earners. Many of the most notoriously oppressive dictatorships have been socialist, such as the [[Soviet Union]] and China under Mao Zedong. Private wealth was seized and the owners executed.

===Economic theory===
The [[Atheism|atheist]] [[Karl Marx]] is sometimes referred to as the father of socialism. Economist Thomas Sowell observed:
{{cquote|The Marxian contribution to economics can be readily summarized as virtually zero. Professional economics as it exists today reflects no indication that Karl Marx ever existed... [T]he development of modern economics has simply ignored Marx. Even economists who are Marxists typically utilize a set of analytical tools to which Marx contributed nothing.<ref>Thomas Sowell, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=TVkVAAAAIAAJ Marxism: Philosophy and Economics]'' (Taylor & Francis, 1985) ISBN 0043201717, p. 217.</ref>}}

Because the individual is subordinate to the collective, the use of [[democide]], or "death by government," is another feature of socialism in the final stage of bringing about a single party, anti-democratic totalitarian regime.

===Welfare state===
As an economic theory, democratic socialism calls for equalization of incomes, through taxation of private wealth coupled with welfare state spending. The [[nationalization]] of major industries is primarily a device to allow the unionized workers to control their own wages and working conditions, cutting out the capitalistic owners.

State [[pension]]s and unemployment insurance were not brought in by Socialists—they were first introduced by arch-conservative Chancellor [[Bismarck]] in Germany in the 1870s. In Britain they were introduced about 1910 by [[Winston Churchill]] and [[David Lloyd George]] of the [[Liberal Party]], and in the U.S. were part of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt's [[New Deal]] in the 1930s. Welfare state ideas such as [[universal health care]], and state control of key industries have been common throughout the developed world in the modern era. However, the United States has always rejected socialism as an ideological position, with a few exceptions such as the [[TVA]].

===So-called "mixed economies"===
:{{See also|Social democracy|Mixed economy}}
Social democracies and Mixed economies are socialism by [[incrementalism]]. Often socialism is a matter of degree and numerous economies in the world are very socialistic such as [[Europe]]an countries (many of which are facing financial difficulties due to over taxation and excessive spending).<ref>https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/05/european_socialism_is_bleeding.html</ref> The single party has yet to gain full control.

Because many businesses still are privately owned, [[ipso facto]], the [[United States]] is not a socialistic government. "That definition is confuted by the earliest theoretical writings on socialism. In France, Henri de Saint-Simon, in the first decades of the 1800s, and his pupil and colleague [[Auguste Comte]], in the 1820s and 30s, along with [[Robert Owen]] contemporaneously in England, ''stated that the essential feature of what Owen called socialism is government regulation of the means of production and distribution."'' <ref>[http://www.thomasbrewton.com/index.php/weblog/once_again_what_is_socialism/ Thomas E. Brewton; Once Again: What Is Socialism?]</ref>
When the government controls the volume of money and its economic applications, it has the economy in a stranglehold. When government controls education so that nothing other than secular socialism may be taught, as Saint-Simon advocated, it controls the future destiny of a nation.

===Religion===
Some forms of socialism have often been [[atheism|atheistic]] in character, and many leading socialists (most prominently Karl Marx) have been critical of the role of religion - and conservative religion in particular - which they criticize for lending support to an unjust social order.

Other Socialists have been Christians, and there has been considerable interplay between Christian and Socialist ideas. [[Christian socialists]] have asserted that early Christian communities, in particular, displayed certain traits, such as the holding of possessions in common,<ref>Acts 2:44: "Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need."</ref> the rejection of conventional sexual mores and gender roles, the provision for communal education, etc., that could be considered similar to socialism.

During the chaos sparked by the advent of the Reformation in Europe, several sects with radical new interpretations of Christianity sprung up, many of them Anabaptists (believers in adult baptism). Under the leadership of the reformer Thomas Muntzer the peasants of south-west Germany rose up in arms against the clergy and nobility, establishing anarcho-communes in their wake. Though they were massacred to a man, ten years later a group of radical Anabaptists under the leadership of Jan Matthys seized control of the north-western Germany city of Munster from the Prince-Archbishop there and established a Christian-Communist state. True to the spirit of applied communism, Mathys took twelve wives, held lavish feasts for himself and his most loyal followers and had himself crowned King of the World as the city starved, besieged by an alliance of Protestant and Catholic forces keen to see them exterminated. Mathys and all his followers were all tortured and killed when the Prince-Archbishop returned with professional troops to sack the city and reassert his authority, effectively wiping out all non-pacifistic Anabaptists in north-western Germany. Only Baptists as we know them today survived the following persecution.

See, for instance, Arnold Toynbee, the British historian, has responded to this,
:"the Marxian excerpt from a Christian Socialism is an experiment which is doomed to failure because it has denied itself the aid of the spiritual power which alone is capable of making Socialism a success. ….'Christianity', they say, 'is the opiate of the People'; and, in the [[Soviet Union]]… Christianity or of any other theistic religion have been debarred… from admission to membership of the All-Union Communist Party. In fact, Communism has been definitely and militantly anti-Christian. Thus the campaign against Christianity which is to-day an integral part of the propaganda of [[Marxian Socialism]] is a challenge to the living generation of Christians …we latter-day Christians may still turn a Marxian attack upon Christianity to good account … a re-awakening of the Christian social conscience has been the one great positive practical achievement of Karl Marx" <ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585-586, Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity.</ref>

====Alleged New Testament socialism in a godless utopia====
Socialist claim the earliest Christians were decidedly living in a manner consistent with basic aims of socialism, albeit with critical requirements and distinctions from its secularist expressions. Luke 14:33 requires the forsaking of all one has if one will be a disciple of Christ, and while this is not shown to necessarily always require the literally forsaking of all,<ref>Lk. 19:8,9; Acts 16:14,15; 1Cor. 11:22; 2Tim. 4:13</ref> Acts 2:44 states that the communal believers "had all things common". Acts 4:32-5:11 also describes community redistribution of property, and details the Divine punishment of a husband and wife for hypocrisy, in keeping proceeds from the sale of a piece of property while openly pretending that they gave it all, as others voluntarily did.<ref>Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, (5:1-11)</ref>

However, forsaking all is shown to be that of first surrendering oneself and life to the God of the Bible, and placing all at His disposal,<ref>Matthew Henry (1662 - 1714), ''Commentary on the Whole Bible'', Lk. 14:25-35</ref><ref>Archibald Thomas Robertson, ''WORD PICTURES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT'', Lk. 14:33</ref> with literal giving as a result being as He directs, and voluntary. (2Cor. 8,9)
{{cquote|Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (2 Corinthians 9:7-8)}}

While the early organic community provides a noble model of communal life, and of a "seminary" type experience, it was also soon dispersed by persecution (thus greatly expanding the church: Acts 8:1-5; 11:19), and it is later indicated that believers retained ownership of property after conversion. (Lk. 19:8,9; Acts 16:14,15; 1Cor. 11:22; 2Tim. 4:13) Rich Christians are evidenced to have been part of the early church, but were not mandated by the church itself to give all they had away, but to be lowly in mind, and to be ready and willing to distribute, in faith and surrender to God. (1Tim. 6:17-19)

Moreover, in both Testaments capitalism is clearly supported,<ref>Gary North, ''Capitalism and the Bible''</ref> and indolence is not subsidized, but penalized by poverty, while diligence in work is rewarded by its fruits. (Prov. 6:6-11; 13:4; 20:4; 2 Thes. 3:10-12; 1 Tim. 5:17-18) Although holy widows over 60 years old who were without familial support were taken in by the church, a man is clearly required to provide for his own family, if able. (1Tim. 5:2ff)

While the success of the early church as an organic community is often invoked in support of modern socialism, and many communes of the 1960s evoked the Bible, the early organic church was a result of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit among believers, while the "administrators" were humble servants who were examples of self-sacrifice, and who worked with their own hands as needed, (1Cor. 4:9-16) and whose authority was established by manifest Divine attestation, including the pro-active exercise of church discipline being only by supernatural or otherwise spiritual means, not carnal force.<ref>Acts 2:43; 5:5,9,10; 1Cor. 4:19-21; 2Cor. 13:2,3; 2Thes. 3:14,15; 2Tim. 4:2</ref>

In addition, other distinctions, without the unique changes and influence resulting from faith and full surrender to Christ from all the community, and His anointing upon the work, attempts to mimic the communal life of Christians have failed.

As one critic of modern-day socialism states:
<blockquote>Socialism, unfortunately, completely disregards Biblical teaching about the fallen nature of human beings and assumes that human beings will act in a morally upright fashion if their basic needs are met. This is at the heart of why socialistic systems never work: because human nature does not work in this fashion.<ref>[http://www.dakotavoice.com/2009/06/capitalism-and-socialism-in-light-of-the-bible Bob Ellis, ''Capitalism and Socialism in Light of the Bible''] Dakota Voice, June 23rd, 2009</ref></blockquote>

==== Atheism and socialism ====

''See also:'' [[Atheism and socialism]]

The [[John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton|Acton]] Institute states concerning [[atheism and socialism]]:
{{Cquote|...a growing body of research reveals that as the welfare state grows, the church shrinks. Adam Kay of Duke University discovered that church and state have a “[https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ed70/6904ff2959ec495fb0816dcbf2c19b967fdd.pdf hydraulic relationship]”: Events “that lower [[faith]] in one of these external systems (e.g., the government) lead to subsequent increases in faith in the other (e.g., [[God]]).” Another study found that increased welfare spending “in a specific year predicted lower religiosity one to two years later.” It [https://blog.acton.org/archives/101251-gods-power-can-be-outsourced-to-the-government-study.html concluded], “The power and order emanating from God can be outsourced to the government.”...

...faith in the transcendent gets crowded out by faith in [[socialism]]’s [[utopia]]n promise of equality-of-outcome on earth. This path transformed Michael Harrington from a daily communicant volunteering in the Catholic Worker movement to the [[atheism|atheistic]] founder of the Democratic Socialists of America.<ref>[https://www.eurasiareview.com/21122019-how-socialism-causes-atheism-oped/ How Socialism Causes Atheism – OpEd]</ref>}}

==Controversy==
''This section confuses "interpretation" with "debate".''

The ideology of '''Socialism''' is subject to a variety of interpretations. From a conservative perspective, Marxist socialism is an economic system whereby the means of production are seized and monopolized by the government sometimes without compensation to the builders of the [[capital]]. Investments, production, distribution, income, prices, and economic justice are administered by a government [[nomenklatura]] that regulates the transfer of money, goods (including capital goods), and services primarily through taxation, regulation and aggressive institutionalized coercion.

However, some socialists reject this description. Democratic socialists advocate a system of governance based on the principles of [[solidarity]], [[equality]] and [[liberty]], viewing these principles as interconnected. They believe increased socio-economic equality is associated with increased practical freedom to fulfill human potential. In many countries, such as Britain, socialist movements have been built on Christian, democratic and co-operative bases, embracing the notion that individuals should 'treat others as they would wish to be treated', and arguing that all individuals have a moral responsibility for the welfare of other members of their society. Socialism seeks to prioritize human welfare over other goals, such as profit and wealth accumulation by elites; it views increased redistribution of wealth as vital to securing greater freedom and happiness for the bulk of the people. Though this rosy picture of socialism is appealing to many, it ignores what Hayek called "[[the road to serfdom]]." Though in theory socialism is an idealized, egalitarian form of economics, in practice it means rule by labor bosses who minimize individualism and economic growth in the name of equality and benefits for the working class.

[[Karl Marx]] considered socialism to be a transitory stage between capitalism and communism. In his view, socialism is summed up by the expression: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." A major criticism of socialism is that it infringes individual rights in favor of the populace. In a very real sense, politics in the Western World throughout the 20th century was shaped by the conflict between socialist and capitalist governmental policies.

Although socialist parties are common in Europe, the leading examples all currently embrace some free enterprise, individual property rights and certain other aspects of capitalism although leading European Socialists are very critical of America. In many European countries, socialism has been changing to [[Social democracy]].

==Criticism==
[[Friedrich Hayek]] and [[Ludwig von Mises]] were important critics of socialism, particularly regarding what is known as the Socialist Calculation Debate. Hayek and Mises argued that a socialist economy would face information constraints that would prevent even well-intentioned planners from efficiently allocating resources. That is, the planners would not know how much a battleship or a hospital cost, and could not efficiently allocate resources among different choices. This criticism should be considered as compatible with, but independent of, criticisms based on [[Public choice theory]] that bring into consideration the incentives of political actors.

Svetlana Kunin, who lived in the Soviet Union until 1980 explains how the system worked:
<blockquote>
Life in the USSR modeled the socialist ideal. God-based religion was suppressed and replaced with cultlike adoration for political figures....Only the ruling class of communist leaders had access to special stores, medicine and accommodations that could compare to those in the West. The rest of the citizenry had to deal with permanent shortages of food and other necessities, and had access to free but inferior, unsanitary and low-tech medical care.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
USSR, 1959: I am a "young pioneer" in school. History classes remind us that there is a higher authority than their parents and teachers: the leaders of the Communist Party.
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
Those who left Russia found a different set of values in America: freedom of religion, speech, individual pursuits, the right to private property and free enterprise....These opportunities let the average immigrant live a better life than many elites in the Soviet Communist Party...
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
The slogans of "fairness and equality" sound better than the slogans of capitalism. But unlike at the beginning of the 20th century, when these slogans and ideas were yet to be tested, we have accumulated history and reality.<ref>[http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/SpecialReport.aspx?id=512665 ''The Perspective Of A Russian Immigrant''], ''Investors Business Daily,'' 09/10/2009</ref>
</blockquote>

A government which adheres to economic socialistic principles also tends to have cultures which prize unmerited equality among citizen and criminal alike, and through extension of socialistic welfare policies, between the chronically employed and the chronically unemployed, by ensuring both groups receive income though only one group works for income. This enables people otherwise healthy to not seek gainful employment because they will receive income no matter their actions, thus providing no incentive to produce. The economies of socialistic governments are thus weak and riddled with flaws, such as expecting increased production from a reduced workforce, and when engendered with a progressive culture, which simply means people who do are the same as people who do not, eventually fall under the weight of their own poorly managed and over-extended public welfare institutions. Public welfare also decreases personal charity, thus making the people dependent on the aid of the government since charitable aid, such as from a church, is discouraged by the secular nature of socialistic nations.

Socialists occasionally appeal to the fact that God, in the Old Testament, commanded His own nation to surrender a tenth of its proceeds for the maintenance of the priests and for the care of the sickly and weak. But, while fallen men, and their secular and pagan nations, shall always struggle to understand the righteous balances between government and liberty.<ref name="npr">[https://www.npr.org/2011/08/23/139761274/how-the-a-p-changed-the-way-we-shop ''The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America''], "NPR’s interview of the book’s author, Marc Levinson"</ref> (i.e., between local and national logistics, as well as between the logistics of the individual person and those of his community) the mark of socialism is the general allowance for a naive, and willingly ignorant, adult sub-population whose members prefer, despite the limitations imposed by bureaucratic accountability, to live under all the securities rightly afforded in the fallen world only to infants. In the unfallen world, such security was a given for all persons, but without any of the bureaucracy required in the fallen world for maintaining it. In the fallen world, such security is an unattainable ideal, so that the more is done to attain it, the more the society suffers under the requisite bureaucracy. And, while the initial policy made toward that ideal is the creation of an executive class or executive vocation, such as monarchies and professional armies,<ref>[http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=1Sa&c=8&t=KJV#19 ''First Samuel 8:19-20''] Blue Letter Bible</ref><ref>[http://www.wbur.org/media-player?url=http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2011/09/29/consequences-combat-vietnam&title=The+Consequences+Of+Combat&segment=consequences-combat-vietnam&pubdate=2011-09-29&source=hereandnow ''Interview of Vietnam war veteran, and '''What It Is Like To Go To War''' author, Karl Marlantes, on NPR's Here And Now'']</ref> there is a 'tipping point' in the creation of bureaucratic entities beyond which any civilization cannot help but increasingly lose its footing in the struggle to balance all its righteous human interests. The result is an ever-increasing proportion of that civilization's total population which, for all variety of reasons, becomes enslaved to their own demands for that ideal of security. When there is no judge who judges righteously, when all the people make the laws, and when the power of money is used to try to stay ahead of the natural consequences of unrighteousness, the 'bad money' cannot help but drive out the 'good money', until the 'Bank of Reality' is forced to call in the loan, and the civilization implodes to the point that it falls victim also to militant invaders and, or, to unmanageable internal unrest.<ref name="npr" />

==Past Socialist Countries==
===Chile===
Marxist socialist leader [[Salvador Allende]] was elected in Chile in 1970 in a minority government run by the Popular Unity Party. Allende's economic policy, known as the Vuskovic Plan, sought to achieve transition to socialism. The Vuskovic Plan involved nationalization of large foreign enterprises, land redistribution to farmers, and redistribution of income. The majority in Parliament never supported it and the plan was never carried out as Allende was overthrown by the military.

==Other Socialist Countries (Current)==

===[[Cuba]]===
Communist leader [[Fidel Castro]] violently overthrew the Cuban government in the 1950s and has declared Cuba to be communist since then, nationalizing millions of dollars worth of American-owned property. It is notable that Fidel Castro originally self-defined as [[liberal]], before coming out openly as a communist.<ref>[http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CGoQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fib-global-history-ii-period-5.aspen.high.schoolfusion.us%2Fmodules%2Flocker%2Ffiles%2Fget_group_file.phtml%3Ffid%3D6868636%26gid%3D1176955%26sessionid%3D0&ei=o74IUPDNOqPp6wGbtPGxCg&usg=AFQjCNG1bEoHrxurCF_WL1OPKMxIb4hCTw Fidel Castro - His Rise and Rule of Cuba]</ref> Today, Cuba faces copious economic problems and the people lack their fundamental rights. (Fidel's brother [[Raul Castro]] now runs the country, having taken it over from his ailing brother Fidel.)

===North Korea===

[[North Korea]]'s form of communism is in the form of "Juche" - a doctrine established by [[Kim Il Sung]] and carried on by his son [[Kim Jong Il]] and after his death by the current leader [[Kim Jong-un]]. Although it is investing heavily in nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, extreme poverty on the verge of starvation is the fate of the people, who are very tightly controlled. The country has little to no electrical power at night outside the capital, which can be verified by looking at nighttime satellite photos.<ref>http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=87488</ref>

===Venezuela===
[[File:Venezuelan-Garbage-Truck-640x480 (2).jpg|right|250px|thumb|[[Venezuela]]ns eating "Bernie Burgers" out of a garbage truck.<ref>https://www.mediaite.com/online/video-of-venezuelans-eating-out-of-a-garbage-truck-led-maduro-to-walk-out-of-jorge-ramos-interview/</ref>]]
The socialist policies of president-for-life Hugo Chavez have destroyed the economy of that oil-rich nation. In 2009, he seized the Venezuelan operations of U.S. based Cargill in order to tighten his grip on the shrinking food supply in his country.<ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/4938993/Venezuelas-Hugo-Chavez-tightens-state-control-of-food-amid-rocketing-inflation-and-food-shortages.html</ref> After the death of Chavez, [[Nicolás Maduro]] continues his policies.

===Other Countires===
[[Daniel Ortega]], the dictator of [[Nicaragua]], is a strong ally of Venezuela and Cuba. [[China]] and [[Vietnam]] have abolished the Socialist economy but are still governed by Communist parties. Other countries who are controlled by Socialist parties are [[Laos]], [[Angola]], [[Mozambique]] and [[Moldova]].

==Quotes on Socialism==
Comparative quotes are given from the top [[Left-wing]] - [[Socialist]] - [[National Socialist]] (a.k.a. [[Nazi]]) - [[Marxist]] - [[Communist]] leaders and their critics in order to better understand the commonality of the end result of their similar philosophy taken to its fruition by the [[big government]] [[welfare state]]-[[nanny state]]-[[police state]] by [[leftist]] [[globalist]]-[[statist]]-socialist-communists. For more examples, see [[Nazism and socialism]]. From these quotes one can see little difference between Socialists, Nazis, Communists, Marxists. Communist regimes killed 60 million in the 20th century through [[genocide]], according to [[Le Monde]] and more than 100 million people according to ''The Black Book of Communism''.

===Quotes from National Socialist's Adolph Hitler===
* "Then will come a [[National Socialism|National Socialist]] State tribunal; then will November, 1918, be expiated; then the [[mass murder|heads will roll]].
** testimony at a trial of German officers, Leipzig, in 1930.
* "We have to put a stop to the idea that it is a part of everybody's [[unalienable rights|civil rights]] to [[freedom of speech|say whatever he pleases]].
** transcript of a conversation (22 February 1942)
* "National socialism is the determination to create a [[slave|new man]]. There will no longer exist any individual arbitrary [[free will|will]], nor realms in which the individual belongs to himself. The time of happiness as a private matter is over."
** As quoted in Joachim C. Fest (1974), ''Hitler''. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, p. 533.
*"I have sympathy for Mr. [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], because he marches straight toward his objectives over Congress, lobbies and bureaucracy." Hitler went on to note that he was the sole leader in Europe who expressed "understanding of the methods and motives of President Roosevelt."
**[http://www.fff.org/freedom/0795a.asp] ''New York Times'' 1934, quoted from John Toland: ''Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography''.

=== Quotes from National Socialist's Heinrich Himmler ===
From the Nazi party ([[National Socialism]]) [[SS]] leader [[Heinrich Himmler]]:
* "In the course of history periods of capitalism and socialism alternate with one another; capitalism is the unnatural, socialism the natural [[economic system]]...The [[Nazi|National Socialists]] and the [[Communists|Red Front]] have the same aspirations. The [[Jew]]s falsified the Revolution in the form of [[Marxism]] and that failed to bring fulfillment."—Speech in [[Potsdam]] (13 October 1926), quoted in Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 92–93.
* "The best political weapon is the [[terrorism|weapon of terror]]. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don't ask for their love; only for their fear."—Quoted in "Visions of Reality - A Study of Abnormal Perception and Behavior" - by Alberto Rivas - Psychology - 2007 - Page 162

=== Quotes from Lenin ===
[[Vladimir Lenin]] stated:
* “The way to crush the [[middle class]] is to grind them between the millstones of [[taxation]] and [[inflation]].”
* "The best revolutionary is youth devoid of [[moral]]s."
* "A lie told often enough becomes the truth."
* "The goal of socialism is communism."
* "There are no morals in [[politics]] there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel."
* "Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a [[Bolshevik]] forever." (see [[Public school values]] and [[Professor values]])

===Quotes from Stalin===
The ''Darwin-Stalin connection'' describes the brutal [[Soviet]] dictator [[Josef Stalin]] who [[mass murder|murdered millions]] of people, giving credit to [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s book for his outlook in life:
* "The death of one man is a tragedy, the [[mass murder|death of millions]] is a statistic." ~ to [[Churchill]], 1945.
* "Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem"
* "Ideas are more powerful than [[guns]]. We would [[gun control|not let our enemies have guns]], why should we let them have ideas?"
* "It is enough that the people know there was an [[election]]. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."
* "The only real power comes out of a long [[rifle]]."
* "When we hang the [[capitalist]]s they will sell us the rope we use."

===Quotes from Leon Trotsky===
* "Repression for the attainment of economic ends is a necessary weapon of the socialist [[dictatorship]]."
** [[Leon Trotsky]] in ''Terrorism and Communism : A Reply to Karl Kautsky'' (1920; 1975), p. 153
* "The road to socialism lies through a period of the highest possible intensification of the principle of the state … Just as a lamp, before going out, shoots up in a brilliant flame, so the state, before disappearing, assumes the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e., the most ruthless form of state, which embraces the life of the citizens authoritatively in every direction...
** ''Terrorism and Communism : A Reply to Karl Kautsky'' (1920; 1975), p. 177
* "We must rid ourselves once and for all of the Quaker-Papist babble about the sanctity of human life."
** Leon Trotsky in his book The [[Russian Revolution]], 1930
* "Root out the counterrevolutionaries without mercy, lock up suspicious characters in concentration camps... Shirkers will be [[extermination camp|shot]], regardless of past service."
** Statement of 1918, as quoted in ''Trotsky : The Eternal Revolutionary'' (1996) by Dmitri Volkogonov, p. 213

===Quotes from Mao===
[[Mao Zedong]], responsible for the deaths of 77 million [[Chinese]] states:
* "Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a [[gun]]."—The [[Little Red Book]], 1964
* "Our principle is that the [[Communist Party|Party]] commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party."

===Quotes on Kim Il-sung===
[[Kim Il-sung]] took the communist [[cult of personality]] to a new level.<ref>Barbara Demick (2010) ''Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea'', Granta, page 45, ISBN 9781847081414</ref>
"In Korea, the Americans have far exceed the Hitlerites!"—by Kim Il-sung<ref>**Kim Il-sung to the [[Swedish]] communist leader [[Frank Baude]] in 1993.</ref>
* "When it comes to the orchestration of terror, Kim Jong-il is a natural born genius."
**[[Kim Duk Hong]] quoted in ''[[BBC News]]'' (21 July 2003) "[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/3065101.stm Inside the mind of Kim Jong-il]"

===Quotes from Pol Pot===
As ruler of [[Cambodia]] Pol Pot was responsible for [[mass murder|exterminating]] 2 million people by [[genocide]]. That's a quarter of the country's population:
* "Exterminate the 50 million [[Vietnamese]]... and purify the masses of the [[Cambodian]] people."
** Phnom Penh radio broadcast by [[Pol Pot]] of the [[Khmer Rouge]] (May 10, 1978) ([http://www.enotes.com/genocide-encyclopedia/khmer-rouge])

===Related Quotes from Others===
* "[[Socialist]]s ignore the side of man that is of the spirit. They can provide shelter, fill your belly with bacon and beans, treat you when you are ill, all the things that are guaranteed to a prisoner or a slave. They don't understand that we dream - yes, even of some time owning a yacht." -- [[President]] [[Ronald Reagan]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ut8fnmwVkwC&pg=PA91#v=onepage&q&f=false|last1=Skinner|first1=Kiron K.|last2=Anderson|first2=Annelise A.|title=Stories in His Own Hand: The Everyday Wisdom of Ronald Reagan ; Edited with an Introduction and Commentary by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, Martin Anderson ; Foreword by George P. Shultz|date=2001|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781416584506}}</ref>

* "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the [[income redistribution|equal sharing]] of misery." -- [[Winston Churchill]]

* "I've always doubted that the socialists had a leg to stand on intellectually" -- [[Friedrich Hayek]]

* "The trouble is with socialism, which resembles a form of [[mental illness]] more than it does a philosophy" -- [[L. Neil Smith]]

* "Socialists cry "Power to the people", and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean — [[Nanny state|power over people]], [[Police state|power to the State]]." -- [[Margaret Thatcher]]

* "All socialism involves [[slavery]]" -- [[Herbert Spencer]]

* "Wonderful system, wrong species"—Edward O. Wilson; who believed that collectivism was better suited to an ant than a human.<ref>[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/homo-consumericus/201101/communismsocialism-great-idea-wrong-species-e-o-wilson Communism/Socialism: “Great Idea. Wrong Species.” (E. O. Wilson)]</ref>

* "If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program, but is in reality a method to ''consolidate'' and ''control'' the wealth, then the seeming paradox of super-rich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all."—Gary Allen <ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UuKnhw27vUwC&q=%22if+one+understands+that+socialism+is+not+a%22&dq=%22if+one+understands+that+socialism+is+not+a%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDEQ6AEwBGoVChMI9b6puNfryAIVxSQmCh2CHw7j None Dare Call It Conspiracy], page 33</ref>

* "We face a hostile ideology; (Socialism i) global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidous in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully there is call for not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of questions but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain despite every provocation on our charted course towards permanent peace and human betterment." - Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address

* "Socialism fundamentally is a case of juvenile arrested development; children are told at a young age to share their toys and candy, and some grow up without proper guidance to ever learn personal responsibility."<ref>http://emotional-intelligence-training.weebly.com/arrested-emotional-development.html</ref> —[[User:RobSmith|Rob Smith]]

==See also==
* [[Big government]] [[Welfare state]] leads to [[socialist]] [[Nanny state]], leads to [[communist]] [[Police state]] - Don't think Socialism-Communism is incompatible with [[Islam]].
* [[Gun control]] - key element to create a police state
* [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]]
* [[List of atheist and agnostic pseudosciences]]
* [[Dictatorship]]
** [[Dictatorship of the proletariat]]: [[Class warfare]]
** [[List of Socialist States]]
* [[Single-party state]]
* [[Mobocracy]], [[Social Effects of the Theory of Evolution]], [[Anti-Semitism]], [[Communist Racism]], [[Holocaust]]
* [[Nazi Party|National Socialist German Workers' Party]] (Nazi Party)
* [[Nazism and socialism]]: [[National Socialism]] - the Nazis were elitist [[Police state]] [[liberals]] not [[conservative]]s
* [[Liberal totalitarianism]]
* [[Left-wing Anti-Semitism]]
* [[Essay:Resisting Socialist Landfills‎]]
* [[Champagne socialist]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=35em}}

==External links==
*[https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/33169-socialism-explained Socialism Explained], by Charles Scaliger of ''The New American''.
*[http://www.mises.org/etexts/hayekintellectuals.pdf The Intellectuals and Socialism], By F.A. Hayek, ''The University of Chicago Law Review'', (Spring 1949), pp. 417–420, 421-423, 425-433.
*[https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9109587/socialism Socialism] Encyclopædia Britannica.
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/socialism/ What Liberals Say - Category: Socialism], [[Accuracy In Media]]
*[https://www.gotquestions.org/socialism-Christian.html How should a Christian view socialism?], by [[GotQuestions]]
*[https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/socialism-poverty-democrats-standard-of-living/ You Can See America's Future Under Socialism, And It Isn't Pretty], ''Investor's Business Daily'', October 25, 2018.
*[http://www.tomroganthinks.com/2017/11/socialism-sucks.html?m=1 Socialism isn't good for you], Tom Rogan, November 23, 2017.
*[https://www.theepochtimes.com/chapter-eight-politics-how-the-devil-sows-chaos-part-i_2592414.html Chapter Eight: How Communism Sows Chaos in Politics (Part I)], ''The Epoch Times'' (from ''How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World'').
*[https://www.theepochtimes.com/chapter-eight-politics-how-communism-sows-chaos-part-ii_2594599.html Chapter Eight: How Communism Sows Chaos in Politics (Part II)], ''The Epoch Times'' (from ''How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World'').
*[https://www.theepochtimes.com/chapter-nine-the-communist-economic-trap-part-i_2596547.html Chapter Nine: The Communist Economic Trap (Part I)], ''The Epoch Times'' (from ''How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World'').
*[https://www.theepochtimes.com/chapter-nine-the-communist-economic-trap-part-ii_2605465.html Chapter Nine: The Communist Economic Trap (Part II)], ''The Epoch Times'' (from ''How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World'').

==Bibliography==
* Busky, Donald F. ''Communism in History and Theory: From Utopian Socialism to the Fall of the Soviet Union'' (2002) [https://www.amazon.com/Communism-History-Theory-Utopian-Socialism/dp/027597748X/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232396722&sr=1-24 excerpt and text search]
* Dougherty, Jude P. "Socialist Man: A Psychological Profile," ''Modern Age'' Volume 46, Number 1-2; Winter/Spring 2004 [http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_1-2/dougherty.pdf online edition], a conservative critique
*Laslett, John, ed. ''Failure of a Dream: Essays in the History of American Socialism'' (1984)
* Lindemann, Albert S. ''A History of European Socialism'' (1984)
* Lipset, Seymour Martin, and Gary Marks. ''It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States'' (2001), Lipset was a leading conservative scholar [https://www.amazon.com/Didnt-Happen-Here-Socialism-Failed/dp/0393322548/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232396722&sr=1-21 excerpt and text search]
* Malia, Martin. ''Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia'' (1995) [https://www.amazon.com/Soviet-Tragedy-History-Socialism-Russia/dp/0684823136/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228761853&sr=1-4 excerpt and text search]
* Muravchik, Joshua. ''Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism'' (2003) by conservative historian [https://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Earth-Rise-Fall-Socialism/dp/1893554783/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228761601&sr=1-21 excerpt and text search]
* Novak, Michael. ''Capitalism and Socialism: A Theological Inquiry '' (1988) [https://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Socialism-Theological-Michael-Novak/dp/0844721549/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228761601&sr=1-19 excerpt and text search], by leading conservative scholar
* Nove, Alec. ''An Economic History of the USSR 1917-1991'' (3rd ed. 1993)
* Pipes, Richard. ''Communism: A History'' (2003), by a leading conservative
* Suny, Ronald Grigor. ''The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States.'' (1998) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=24265044# online edition]

{{Liberalism}}

[[Category:Socialism]]
[[Category:Marxist Terminology]]
[[Category:Marxism]]
[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Oppression]]
[[Category:Anti-American]]
[[Category:Liberalism]]
[[Category:Leftism]]
[[Category:Police State]]
[[Category:Welfare State]]
[[Category:Atheism]]
[[Category:Anti Second Amendment]]
[[Category:Sociology]]
[[Category:Worldviews]]
[[Category:Man-Made Disasters]]
[[Category:Threats]]

Communism

2020-08-03T03:57:49Z

FactManReturneth:

'''Marx did not mean a literal dictatorship!'''

[[File:Antifa DC.jpeg|right|350px|thumb|]]
'''Communism''' is a [[left-wing]] pro-democratic and violent ideology dedicated to supposedly overthrow [[Capitalism]], replacing it with an "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]" by the workers, as opposed to the capitalist dictatorship of the bourgeosie. Under Communism, the [[political]] system replaces [[private property|private ownership]] of the means of production with a supposed "collective ownership" of the [[economy]], but really maintained for the benefit and profit of a corrupt elite. Capitalism is impossible to overthrow because any business, or "means of production," that costs more to operate than the income it produces, i.e. does not turn a profit, will ultimately fail.

These elites empower [[criminal]] gangsters and hoodlums to keep opposition in check. Because private ownership is illegal in favor of a [[collective]], prisons are emptied of anyone convicted of a property crime. This criminal element is the base of the communists' political power to destroy [[democracy]]. Political opposition is outlawed. Having rejected the culture and habits of the old regime as unjust, many of the worst violent offenders are released from prison to become enforcers for the corrupt ruling elite.<ref>Although the [[Nazi]] regime was not a communist regime, it borrowed much from the [[Bolshevik]]s. The [[Einsatzgruppen]] or mobile death squads were recruited from convicted murderers and mental hospitals.</ref>

In [[Karl Marx]]'s theory, Communism is the final phase of societal evolution that begins with [[Socialism]]. Marxist theory alleges that [[feudalism]] evolved into [[capitalism]], and capitalism evolves into socialism, and eventually the highest order of societal evolution is achieved when socialism evolves into communism. Marx's ''Communist Manifesto'' proposes the establishment of a "[[classless society]]" when human society reaches this ultimate perfection, minus any resistors or counterrevolutionaries. Communist societies however do maintain a [[class structure]] with the corrupt elite on top, scientists, technicians, and skilled workers recruited from schools who are afforded special privileges, thugs and mobsters who now become the enforcers and police, and everyone else with no political rights.

Communists distinctly despise anyone who holds a [[moral]] code that [[worship]]s or teaches loyalty to anything other than the [[state]] and [[government]]. [[Religious]] believers particularly are singled out for persecution and "re-education."

Communist societies which have survived into the 21st century, China, Cuba, and North Korea, in fact have reverted back to a feudal order of inherited privilege run by the descendants of the original revolutionaries who murdered all opposition and stole the wealth of the rich and powerful of their day. To manage government and society, the party trains and recruits "experts" from government schools who are promised party membership which brings special privileges not afforded to the [[proletariat]]. Students who do not go along with the party agenda are doomed to a life of limited career opportunities, limited career advancement, or poverty. All live in terror, both party members and non-party members, of running afoul of the party's secret police which enforces the party's ever changing, contradictory dictums and agenda. Communist party's are essentially [[criminal]] organizations built on murder and theft, and maintain their power by murder and theft.

Communism supposedly is "[[democratic]]";<ref>http://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/1968/11/workersdem.htm</ref> however a "democratic" election in a communist system has candidates from only one party, nominated by higher-ups in the organization. A communist system is intolerant of opposing views and outlaws political opposition. The lack of a political opposition leads to a lack of accountability.

Governments under the banner of Communism have caused the death of somewhere between 40 million to 260 million human lives.<ref>Multiple references:
*Anticommunist (April 14, 2004). [https://web.archive.org/web/20130607125427/http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/04/289239.html "The Human Cost of Communism - 100 million"]. UK Indymedia. Retrieved from June 7, 2013 archive at Internet Archive.
*[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm "''The Black Book of Communism''"]. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences website: Cold War Studies.
*Rummel, R. J. (November 1993). [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM "How many did communist regimes murder?"] University of Hawaii website; Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War.
*White, Matthew (February 2011). [http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm "Source list and detailed death tolls for the primary megadeaths of the twentieth century"]. Necrometrics.
*Higgins, David (June 22, 2007). [https://web.archive.org/web/20071008035420/http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 "Memory and ideology: Washington's newest statue is the Victims Of Communism Memorial"]. Sarasota Magazine website. Retrieved from October 8, 2007 archive at Internet Archive
*Radosh, Ronald (February 2000). [http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 "''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression''"]. First Things [journal] website.
*Satter, David (November 6, 2017). [https://www.wsj.com/articles/100-years-of-communismand-100-million-dead-1510011810 100 Years of Communism—and 100 Million Dead]. ''The Wall Street Journal''. Retrieved January 15, 2019.</ref> Dr. R. J. Rummel, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, is the scholar who first coined the term [[democide]] (death by government). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to Communism is that it caused the death of approximately 148,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987.<ref>Rummel, R. J. (November 1993). [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM "How many did communist regimes murder?"] University of Hawaii website; Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War.</ref>

President [[Ronald Reagan]] in an address before the British [[House of Commons]] said,
{{Cquote|'''What I am describing now is a plan and hope for the long term — the march of [[freedom]] and [[democracy]] which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.'''<ref>President Ronald Reagan [http://www.iri.org/history_ReaganSpeech.asp Speech to the British Parliament], June 8, 1982. Retrieved from International Republican Institute 05/24/07.</ref>}}

Today, Communism continues to rule over at least one-fifth of the world's people,<ref>[http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/history_communism.php Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation], Documenting Communism's Crimes Against Humanity.</ref> and has infiltrated the [[Democratic Party|Democrat Party]] of the United States since at least the WWII era, more so since the 1960s, and is now fully out of the closet in the 2020s.
__TOC__
{{clear}}

==Modern communism==
The first false dichotomy of communism is the notion that capitalism and communism are competing ideologies. They are not. While communism is built on an [[ideology]] that justifies murder and theft, capitalism is built upon the [[natural law]] that you cannot consume that which has not been not been first produced.

===Maoism===
[[File:Wmr1a.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Remains of what used to be [[human being]]s in the Tiananmen Square [[democracy]] protests.<ref>http://www.cnd.org/HYPLAN/yawei/june4th/</ref>]]
:{{See also|Maoism|Rectification}}
In China, the [[Chinese Communist Party]] retains an autocratic regime controlled by the party, which allows no democracy or dissent. However it does allow capitalism, and has experienced a very rapid growth of the private sector and the middle class. Observers expect that the regime's efforts to control public opinion and forestall the will of the people will be more and more difficult.

The Maoist strategy for world revolution is based on the global version of the strategy employed by the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) which led to Mao's victory in 1949. The analogy went like this: through "peoples war" the CCP forces who controlled the countryside of China encircled the cities of China, isolated the foe, and destroyed it piecemeal. The logic followed that the countryside of the world as a reaction to the super-exploitation suffered at the hands of the city of the world would become united and defeat the latter, and in the process establish a world socialist order. This grand design would come about not through the struggles of working classes in revolutionary fervor inside the advanced capitalist countries as prescribed by Marx, but through the vehicle of [[national liberation struggle]]s of the colonial and former colonial peoples of the [[Third World]].

Maoism inspired students and other young people who looked to the [[Chinese Red Guards]] as a model of [[activism]].<ref>Paul Costello, U.S. Anti-Revisionism [http://marxists.architexturez.net/history/erol/1960-1970/index.htm Third Wave, 1960-1970,] Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line. Marxist Internet Archive. Retrieved March 16, 2010.</ref> While some of these young activists were drawn to the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), the full flowering of American Maoism would not come until the proliferation of new groups such as the [[Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS), [[Weather Underground]] (WUO), [[Black Panthers]] (BPP) and the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (CP-ML) after 1969.

[[North Korea]] remains a brutal dictatorship controlled by the same family. [[Laos]], and [[Vietnam]] are also run by the old Communist cliques.

===Communism in the United States===
:{{See also|Democratic party|Green New Deal|Medicare for All|Obamacare}}
Author Linda Goudsmit described American communism at America's self0inflicted moment of crisis in 2020:
{{quotebox|Marxist political predators have been seducing American children with leftist anti-American indoctrination in [[public schools]] since 1979 when [[Jimmy Carter]] established the [[Department of Education]]. Political predators launched their [[Culture War]] war on America with a [[disinformation]] campaign promising [[social justice]] and income equality that begins in kindergarten.

[[Barack Obama]], political predator-in-chief, escalated the [[propaganda]] campaign against American children with [[Common Core]] and its [[anti-American]] leftist narrative of [[moral relativism]], [[historical revisionism]], and [[political correctness]]. During his [[seditious]] two terms, Obama aligned himself with the equally anti-American [[Islamist]] [[Muslim Brotherhood]].

The longer the [[radical]] leftist [[Democrat party]] aligns itself with the [[antisemitic]], [[sharia]]-compliant, [[Jihad]]i narrative of submission, the closer the radical Democrat party platform resembles the [[tyranny]] of Islamist rhetoric and supremacist sharia law. The word Islam means submission.

Islamists deny Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign country. Today, the leftist Democrat party and its colluding Muslim Brotherhood Islamists in Congress deny not only [[Israel]]’s right to exist, they also deny [[America]]’s right to exist as a [[sovereign]] [[constitutional republic]]. The leftist/Islamist/[[globalist]] axis of political predators is attempting to take power in November and force America to submit to axis domination.

Aspirations for world domination and the creation of a [[New World Order]] are nothing new. English [[aristocrat]] [[Lord Bertrand Russell]] articulated the plan for the globalist elite’s New World Order in his 1952 classic, ''The Impact of Science on Society''.

After [[WWII]] it was obvious that America could not be defeated militarily. Our enemies did not quietly into the night, they reconstituted themselves as [[social justice warrior]]s with [[Long march through the institutions|a plan for educational indoctrination]] that would subvert American culture and destroy America from within. It was Bertrand Russell who explained the value of educational propaganda in the disinformation war:
[[File:Obama domestic terrorists.png|right|300px|thumb|[[Soros]]-trained lawyer tosses a Molotov cocktail into a police vehicle. The Progressive terrorist was bailed out of jail by a former [[Obama administration]] intelligence official.<ref>https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/former-obama-intelligence-official-helps-secure-bail-for-molotov-cocktail-throwing-nyc-lawyer/</ref>]]
:''page 27-28 (Routledge Classics 2016 edition):

:''It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment.

:''[[Education]] should aim at destroying [[free will]] so that pupils thus schooled, will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished. . . . Influences of the home are obstructive; not much can be done unless indoctrination begins before the age of ten; in order to condition students, verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective. . . . It is for a future [[scientist]] to make these maxims precise and to discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for more than one generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or [[police]]men.

The leftist educational indoctrination launched by Jimmy Carter in 1979 and amplified by Barack Obama, fully actuated the sinister plan of weaponizing education described by Bertrand Russell. The radical leftist Democrat war on America that begins in K-12 ends in [[anarchy]] on the streets of America today. The political predators are exploiting indoctrinated Americans and supplying them with financing, bricks, and [[Molotov cocktail]]s to [[riot]] and burn America to the ground.

Political predator-in-chief, Barack Obama, sits in the shadow of the White House directing the 30,000 propagandized members of his [[Organizing for Action]] (OFA) “resistance” movement. From his bunker he orchestrates the movements of his shock troops against America-first President Trump. [[OFA]], [[Antifa]], [[Black Lives Matter]], all indoctrinated with the forty-year lie of “[[institutional racism]]” are now demanding submission to their black supremacist demands.

The political predators of 21st century America use the [[Internet]] for mass [[social engineering]] to foment anarchy, race riots, and submission internationally. Anarchy is never the path to peace. It is the tyrannical weapon of political predators who instigate and finance it.<ref>https://www.trevorloudon.com/2020/06/political-predators-threaten-america-with-extinction/</ref>}}

====Democratic Socialism: 1992 - present====

:{{See also|Committees of Correspondence of Democratic Socialism}}
With the collapse of Soviet Communism and the conversion of Chinese Communism to "state run capitalism," the spiritual and ideological center of world of Communism and the [[Marxist-Leninist]] tradition shifted to the [[United States]]. Several prominent American Communists, rudderless without [[Moscow]] direction, formed a new organization in 1992 called the [[Committees of Correspondence for Democratic Socialism]].
[[File:Socialist International logo.png|left|100px]]
The initial organizational conference was held in [[Berkeley]], [[California]], July 17–19, 1992. Charlene Mitchell, a former leader of the California Communist Party, speaking at the conference said, "the collapse of [[socialism]] in [[Central Europe]] and the [[Soviet Union]] left the [[United States]] in a near unchallenged position of world leadership." Mitchell continued,
{{Cquote|What began as a moment to take stock and ponder where to go from there has now become a very different entity. People from the Communist Party, from CrossRoads, from the [[Democratic Socialists of America]], from NCIPA [National Committee for Independent Political Action], from Solidarity, from the Socialist Organizing Network and many others, including independent leftists and independent socialists, have come together here in Berkeley.}}
Criticizing U.S. actions in the [[First Gulf War]], Mitchell stated,
{{Cquote|[[progressive]] forces were nearly powerless in the face of an onslaught of demagogic, [[patriotic]] [[jingoism]] and yellow ribbons. This war, fought for no legitimate reason, was the crowning height of [[George H.W. Bush|President [George H.W.] Bush]]'s [[New World Order]]. Previously, the Soviet Union helped to provide a certain balance to rein in the crazies in this country. Now, that balance is no longer there. It is now up to us, the American people, to rein in our own crazies. The [[left]] must take a major responsibility in organizing this task.}}

====Obamunism====
[[File:OFA logo.png|right|175px|thumb|]]
:{{See also|Obamunism|Obamagate|Obamagate timeline}}
Former NSC staffer Michael Doran described what is at stake as "a core principle of our [[democracy]]: that elected representatives control the government, and not vice versa." [[National security]] expert [[Chris Farrell]] characterized the Obamagate scandal as "a titanic struggle for America's future," and warned that if "Communications Intelligence is used as a [[partisan]] political weapon without people going to jail, we will have crossed the point of no return for institutional [[corruption]] in our government, our intelligence services and [[law enforcement]]. This is illegal domestic political [[espionage]] on a scale never before imagined. It is, however, totally consistent with the [[Obama Administration]]’s weaponizing of the [[IRS]], as well as other unlawful manipulations of government programs to fund the operations of political allies and non-governmental organizations."<ref>https://youtu.be/CHzIw27Jn70</ref>

=====Press censorship and control=====
On September 21, 2010 an internal email entitled “Obama Leak Investigations” at the “global intelligence” company Stratfor claimed Obama's White House adviser [[John Brennan]] was targeting [[journalist]]s.

{{Quotebox|"Brennan is behind the [[witch hunt]]s of investigative journalists learning information from inside the beltway sources,” writes one Stratfor official to another. The email continues: “Note —There is specific tasker from the [White House] to go after anyone printing materials negative to the Obama agenda (oh my.) Even the FBI is shocked. The Wonder Boys must be in meltdown mode…”}}
:“The Wonder Boys” reportedly refers to the [[National Security Agency]] (NSA).<ref>Credit:Sharyl Attkisson. https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/12/1210665_obama-leak-investigations-internal-use-only-pls-do-not.html</ref>

=====Repressive measures against a CBS News anchor=====
On October 31, 2014, [[CBS News]] anchor [[Sharyl Attkisson]] revealed to the world videographic evidence<ref name=video>[http://bcove.me/9pousb3w Cellphone video by Sharyl Attkisson] of actions of a remote-access program on her computer, a program she did not install. Accessed 1 November 2014.</ref> that some person or persons unknown installed keylogging and remote-access software and used it to interfere with her work and compromise several sensitive personal passwords. Worse yet, someone tampered with the router that provides her with high-speed Internet service.<ref name=Godfather>Cronn T., "Big Brother videotaped hacking reporter's computer," ''Godfather Politics'', posted 1 November 2014. <http://godfatherpolitics.com/18151/big-brother-videotaped-hacking-reporters-computer/></ref><ref name=CNAV>Hurlbut T, "Sharyl Attkisson meets Orwell", ''Conservative News and Views'', posted 1 November 2014.<https://www.conservativenewsandviews.com/2014/11/01/firstamendment/sharyl-attkisson-meets-orwell/></ref>
[[File:AttkissonB52.jpg|left|250px|thumb|Sharyl Attkisson reporting from a combat mission over [[Kosovo]].]]
In her Best Seller, ''Stonewalled: One Reporter's Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington'',<ref name="NYT Best Stonewalled">{{cite news|title=Best Sellers: Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction|url=https://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2014-11-23/combined-print-and-e-book-nonfiction/list.html|accessdate=|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|date=November 23, 2014}}</ref> Attkisson tells how her work and personal computers had been hacked for more than two years after she began filing stories about the Benghazi massacre.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/21/sharyl-attkisson-computers-compromised-cbs_n_3313199.html|title=CBS' Sharyl Attkisson: My Computers Were Compromised, 'Could Be Some Relationship' To DOJ Scandals|last=Mirkinson|first=Jack|date=May 21, 2013|work=[[The Huffington Post]]|accessdate=}}</ref> CBS News investigated and found evidence of multiple unauthorized accesses by a third party in late 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/14/sharyl-attkisson_n_3442019.html|title=CBS News Confirms Sharyl Attkisson's Computer Breached|date=June 14, 2013|work=[[The Huffington Post]]|accessdate=}}</ref> The hackers were identified by experts as a US Government intelligence agency.<ref>{{Citation|last=|first=|author-link=|last2=Golding|first2=Bruce|title=Kyle Smith, Ex-CBS reporter: Government agency bugged my computer|newspaper=[[New York Post]]|date=October 27, 2014|url=http://nypost.com/2014/10/27/ex-cbs-reporter-government-related-entity-bugged-my-computer|accessdate=}}</ref> In March 2015, Attkisson and her family initiated suit against Eric Holder, Patrick R. Donahoe and unnamed agents of the [[US Department of Justice]], the US Postal Service and the United States claiming to have been subjected to illegal surveillance activities.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2015/01/05/attkisson-sues-government-over-computer-intrusions Attkisson sues government over computer intrusions], ''Washington Post''; Retrieved March 6, 2015.</ref><ref>to [https://www.washingtonpost.com/r/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2015/01/05/Editorial-Opinion/Graphics/attkisson-lawsuit.pdf Editorial Opinion re Attkisbson], ''Washington Post''; Retrieved March 6, 2015.</ref>

On March 19, 2017, a federal judge denies motion to dismiss case brought by former CBS anchor Sharyl Attkisson against [[Eric Holder]] and other Obamagate conspirators. Attkisson reported on [[Operation Fast and Furious]], the [[Benghazi massacre]] coverup, and exposed the [[hoax]] reporting of Hillary Clinton landing under sniper fire. For this she was wiretaped and resigned from CBS. In her Best Seller, ''Stonewalled: One Reporter's Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington'',<ref name="NYT Best Stonewalled"/> Attkisson details her story. The judge transferred the case allowing it to go forward.<ref>In his ruling the judge stated: "In 2011--at the same time that Ms. Attkisson was conducting investigations and issuing certain of her high-profile news reports--the Attkissons 'began to notice anomalies in numerous electronic devices at their home in Virginia.' These anomalies included Ms. Attkisson's work-issued laptop computer and a family desktop computer 'turning on and off at night without input from anyone in the household,' 'the house alarm chirping daily at different times,' and 'television problems, including interference.' All of these electronic devices used 'the [[Verizon]] FiOS line installed in [the Attkissons'] home,' but Verizon was unable to stanch the anomalous activity despite multiple attempts. In January 2012, the Attkissons' residential internet service 'began constantly dropping off'." "In February 2012, 'sophisticated surveillance spyware' was installed on Ms. Attkisson's work-issued laptop computer. A later forensic computer analysis revealed that Ms. Attkisson's laptop and the family's desktop computer had been the 'targets of unauthorized surveillance efforts.' That same forensic analysis revealed that Ms. Attkisson's mobile phone was also targeted for surveillance when it was connected to the family's desktop computer. The infiltration of that computer and the extraction of information from it was 'executed via an IP address owned, controlled, and operated by the United States Postal service.' Additionally, based on the sophisticated nature of the software used to carry out the infiltration and software fingerprints indicating the use of the federal government's proprietary software, the infiltration and surveillance appeared to be perpetrated by persons in the federal government." "An independent forensic computer analyst hired by CBS subsequently reported finding evidence on both Ms. Attkisson's work-issued laptop computer and her family's desktop computer of 'a coordinated, highly-skilled series of actions and attacks directed at the operation of the computers.' Computer forensic analysis also indicated that remote actions were taken in December 2012 to remove the evidence of the electronic infiltration and surveillance from Ms. Attkisson's computers and other home electronic equipment." "As Ms. Attkisson's investigations and reporting continued, in October 2012 the Attkissons noticed 'an escalation of electronic problems at their personal residence, including interference in home and mobile phone lines, computer interference, and television interference.' In November of that year, Ms. Attkisson's mobile phones 'experienced regular interruptions and interference, making telephone communications unreliable, and, at times, virtually impossible'." "Additionally, in December 2012, a person with government intelligence experience conducted an inspection of the exterior of the Attkissons' Virginia home. That investigator discovered an extra Verizon FiOS fiber optics line. Soon thereafter, after a Verizon technician was instructed by Ms. Attkisson to leave the extra cable at the home, the cable disappeared, and the Attkissons were unable to determine what happened to it. In March 2013, the Attkissons' desktop computer malfunctioned, and in September of that year, while Ms. Attkisson was working on a story at her home, she observed that her personal laptop computer was remotely accessed and controlled, resulting in data being deleted from it. On April 3, 2013, Ms. Attkisson filed a complaint with the Inspector General of the Department of Justice. The Inspector General's investigation was limited to an analysis of the compromised desktop computer, and the partially-released report that emerged from that investigation reported 'no evidence of intrusion,' although it did note 'a great deal of advanced mode computer activity not attributable to Ms. Attkisson or anybody in her household'." "The Attkissons allege that the 'cyber-attacks' they 'suffered in [their] home' were perpetrated by 'personnel working on behalf of the United States.' Accordingly, they have asserted various claims against the United States and against former Attorney General Eric Holder, former Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, and unknown agents of the Department of Justice, the United States Postal Service, and the United States, all in their individual capacities. Those claims include claims against the United States under the FTCA and claims against the individual federal officers for violations of constitutional rights under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971)..." https://sharylattkisson.com/attkisson-v-eric-holder-department-of-justice-et-al/ </ref>

=====Repressive measures against Associated Press reporters=====
[[File:Full-spectrum-cyber-effects-final-p4-large.gif|right|300px|thumb|US Government document from 2010 part of the Snowden leaks and sharing agreements with the [[UK]]. The [[Five Eyes]] program of the English speaking world (United States, United Kingdom, [[Canada]], [[Australia]], and [[New Zealand]]) use [[social media]] for “[[propaganda]],” “[[deception]],” “mass messaging,” “pushing stories”, and "discrediting” the intelligence agencies' enemies with false information spread online.<ref>https://theintercept.com/document/2014/04/04/full-spectrum-cyber-effects/</ref> Like the [[atomic bomb]], this technology was created during the [[Cold War]] to defeat Communism and was expropriated by the American left to destroy America and enslave its people.]]
In May 2013 the [[Associated Press]] announced telephone records for 20 of their reporters had been subpoenaed by the Justice Department. News sources reported the US Attorney's office for the District of Columbia was conducting a criminal investigation into publication of a foiled May 2012 terrorist plot. While journalists are protected, leakers in the government are subject to prosecution. The Justice Dept. subpoenaed the phone records of AP from [[Verizon]] and other service providers.<ref name=verizonslate>{{cite web|last=Gallagher|first=Ryan|title=Verizon Wireless Secretly Passed AP Reporters' Phone Records to Feds|publisher=www.slate.com|date=May 16, 2013|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/05/16/verizon_wireless_passed_ap_reporters_phone_records_to_the_feds.html|accessdate=}}</ref> The AP claimed these acts were a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering.<ref name=TTSanchez>{{cite web|last=Sanchez|first=Raf|title=US Justice Department secretly seizes Associated Press phone records|publisher=The Telegraph|date=May 13, 2013|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/10055318/US-Justice-Department-secretly-seizes-Associated-Press-phone-records.html|accessdate=}}</ref><ref name=TG130513>{{cite web|author=Washington (AP)|title=US government secretly obtained Associated Press phone records|publisher=The Guardian|date=May 13, 2013|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/13/america-government-associated-press-phone-records|accessdate=}}</ref> The "intrusion" is the frightening off of government sources, the bread and butter of the Washington news gathering industry. CEO Gary Pruitt of AP stated: "These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know;"<ref name=CNNJohns>{{cite web|author=Matt Smith and Joe Johns|title=AP blasts feds for phone records search|publisher=CNN|date=May 14, 2013|url=https://www.cnn.com/2013/05/13/us/justice-ap-phones/?hpt=hp_t2|accessdate=}}</ref><ref name=holder>{{cite web|author=Gary B. Pruitt|title=AP letter to Eric Holder on seizure of phone records|publisher=USA Today|date=May 13, 2013|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/13/doj-seizes-ap-phone-records/2156819/|accessdate=June 1, 2013}}</ref> a "conceivable right to know" would be a hunt for leakers of FISA information within the administration.

=====Repressive measures against the American people=====
In 2013 the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court]] secretly approved an FBI request to continue obtaining daily telephone records of millions of Verizon customers.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order</ref> The judge ordered Verizon to turn over the information to the National Security Agency (NSA). This directly contradicted Obama [[DNI]] [[James Clapper]]’s Congressional testimony.<ref>https://youtu.be/nsmo0hUWJ08</ref>

=====Data collection and privacy rights=====
In August 2009 it was reported the White House was soliciting bids to outsource a technology vendor to conduct a massive, secret effort to harvest personal information on millions of Americans from social networking websites of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and others – any space where the White House “maintains a presence.” The information to be captured includes comments, tag lines, emails, audio, and video.

Critics have charged the emerging pattern of information management and control as "yet another sign that this Administration is at best indifferent to privacy rights and at worst prepared to violate [[civil liberties]] for [[political]] purposes."<ref>[http://nlpc.org/stories/2009/08/31/obama-white-house-has-secret-plan-harvest-personal-data-social-networking-website Obama White House Has Secret Plan To Harvest Personal Data From Social Networking Websites], Ken Boehm, 08/31/2009.</ref>

=====4th Amendment abuses=====
{{See also|Patriot Act|Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act}}
[[File:Fisa-2.jpg|left|350px|thumb|The FISA court ruled the [[Obama administration]]'s improper access of [[FISA]] data granted to contractors "seems to have been the result of deliberate decision making."]]
The Obama [[Justice Department]] has been accused of being "secretive, tyrannical, and oppressive" and compared with [[President George W. Bush]], "even worse."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090924001648/http://donedems.com/2009/04/14/holy-crap-obama-actually-manages-to-make-the-patriot-act-worse-than-under-bush Obama Actually Manages to Make the Patriot Act WORSE than Under Bush], DONE, April 14, 2009,</ref> As a candidate, Senator Obama lamented that the Bush Administration "invoked a legal tool known as the 'state secrets' privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court," however in a motion to dismiss ''Jewel v. NSA'', the Electronic Frontier Foundation litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping, the [[Obama Administration]] argued that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. The Obama administration argued that simply allowing the case to continue "would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security." As in the past, this is a blatant ploy to dismiss the litigation without allowing the courts to consider the evidence.

The Obama Justice Department then argued that the U.S. Government is completely immune from litigation for illegal spying — that the Government can never be sued for surveillance that violates federal privacy statutes. Birch Bricker writing in the ''Auburn Journal'' then points out, "This is a radical assertion that is utterly unprecedented. No one — not the [[White House]], not the Justice Department, not any member of Congress, and not the [[Bush Administration]] — has ever interpreted the law this way....The Obama Administration goes two steps further than Bush did, and claims that the [[US PATRIOT Act]] also renders the U.S. immune from suit under the two remaining key federal surveillance laws: the Wiretap Act and the Stored Communications Act. Essentially, the Obama Administration has claimed that the government cannot be held accountable for illegal surveillance under any federal statutes." <ref>[http://my.auburnjournal.com/detail/111477.html?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=Patriot+Act&user_id=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&event_ts_to=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=2&sub_type=&town_id= It's Actually Possible... The Patriot Act Gets Worse], ''Auburn Journal'', 4/12/09.</ref>

[[File:Mass beheading of Christians in Libya.jpg|right|350px|thumb|[[Libya]] was an ally of the US against the jihadis until Obama armed the jihadis to overthrew the government. One of their first acts was the mass beheading of [[Christian]]s.]]
=====Discrimination against dissident groups=====
:''Main article: [[IRS scandal]]''
During the Obama Administration, the [[Internal Revenue Service]] discriminated against conservative organizations by making them wait for years just to gain [[Nonprofit organization|tax-exempt status]]. At the same time, other groups received the same status in a very short period of time, such as a [[satanic]] group which received nonprofit status in only ten days.<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/20/irs-granted-satanic-cult-tax-exempt-status-in-10-days-report-says.html IRS granted Satanic cult tax-exempt status in 10 days, report says]. ''Fox News''. Retrieved March 25, 2017.</ref><ref>Ernst, Douglas (March 20, 2017). [https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/20/obama-irs-gave-satan-club-creator-fast-tax-exempt-/ Obama’s IRS gave ‘Satan Club’ creator fast tax-exempt status]. ''The Washington Times''. Retrieved March 25, 2017.</ref> In 2017, the [[Trump Administration]] ended the scandal by settling with the affected organizations and apologizing,<ref>Multiple references:
*Mason, Ian (October 26, 2017). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/10/26/doj-settles-with-tea-party-groups-on-lois-lerner-irs-scandal/ DOJ Settles with Tea Party Groups on Lois Lerner IRS Scandal]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
*[https://www.voanews.com/a/tea-party-groups-settle-lawsuits-over-irs-mistreatment/4087069.html Tea Party Groups Settle Lawsuits Over IRS Mistreatment]. ''Voice of America'' (from the ''Associated Press''). October 26, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
*Singman, Brooke (October 26, 2017). [https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/26/trump-doj-settles-lawsuits-over-tea-party-targeting-by-obama-irs.html Trump DOJ settles lawsuits over Tea Party targeting by Obama IRS]. ''Fox News''. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
*Adams, Becket (October 27, 2017). [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/conservatives-were-targeted-by-a-weaponized-irs-all-they-got-was-this-lousy-apology/article/2638837 Conservatives were targeted by a weaponized IRS; all they got was this lousy apology]. ''Washington Examiner''. Retrieved October 28, 2017.</ref> but it still declined to prosecute IRS official Lois Lerner for her major role in the scandal.<ref>Multiple references:
*[https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/08/doj-declines-to-charge-lois-lerner-in-irs-scandal.html Trump DOJ: No plans to charge Lois Lerner in IRS scandal]. ''Fox News''. September 8, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
*Dinan, Stephen (September 8, 2017). [https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/8/donald-trumps-doj-wont-pursue-charges-against-lois/ Justice Department won’t pursue charges against Lois Lerner, former IRS senior executive]. ''The Washington Times''. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
*Munro, Neil (September 8, 2017). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/08/jeff-sessions-doj-will-not-investigate-irs-suppression-tea-party-groups/ Jeff Sessions’ DoJ Will Not Investigate IRS Suppression of Tea Party Groups]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
*Bowden, John (September 8, 2017). [https://thehill.com/homenews/house/349846-gop-lawmakers-furious-after-doj-declines-to-prosecute-lois-lerner GOP lawmakers furious after DOJ declines to prosecute ex-IRS official Lois Lerner]. ''The Hill''. Retrieved October 28, 2017.</ref>

=====Warrantless wiretapps=====
:''See: [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]]''
The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 would give the administration authority to conduct warrant-less spying and dictatorial power over Internet.<ref>[https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/04/should-obama-control-internet Should Obama Control the Internet?], ''Mother Jones'', April 2, 2009.</ref>

*Section 215 -- drastically broadens the kinds of information the government can demand under Foreign Intelligence Security Act to "any tangible thing" while lowering the burden of proof to obtain such an order. According to the ''[[Washington Post]]'' this measure "allows investigators probing terrorism to seek a suspect's records from third parties such as financial services and travel and telephone companies without notifying the suspect. The American Civil Liberties Union has criticized the provision, saying it violates the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens."

*Section 206—grants the authority to use secret "roving wiretaps." "In the past, authorities had to seek court approval for each electronic device carried by a suspect, from a cellphone and a BlackBerry to a home computer," writes the ''Post'', "But under the provision, one warrant can cover all of those machines." "Unlike roving wiretaps authorized for criminal investigations," the ACLU explains, "section 206 does not require the order to identify either the communications device to be tapped nor the individual against whom the surveillance is directed, which is what gives section 206 the Kafkaesque moniker, the "John Doe roving wiretap provision."

*Section 6001—or the "lone wolf" provision, which allows for secret FISA surveillance orders against people who have no connections to a terror group or foreign nation. "The government justified this provision by imagining a hypothetical "lone wolf," an international terrorist operating independently of any terrorist organization," explains the ACLU, "but there is little evidence to suggest this imaginary construct had any basis in reality."

Rod Beckstrom, formerly in charge of coordinating the US government's cyber-security operations, in a resignation letter to Secretary of Homeland Security [[Janet Napolitano]],<ref>[http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/BeckstromResignation.pdf Letter from Rod Beckstrom to Janet Napolitano], [[Wall Street Journal]], March 9, 2009.</ref> cited the expanded control over the nation's computer security efforts poses “threats to our democratic processes.” <ref>''[https://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2009/03/11/US-cybersecurity-head-quits-citing-growing-role-of-spy-agencies/UPI-64411236692969/ U.S. cybersecurity head quits, citing growing role of spy agencies]'', Shaun Waterman, [[UPI]], March 11, 2009.</ref>

=====Persecution of dissidents=====
In September 2014 [[Dinesh D'Souza]] was arrested and sentenced to 5 years probation.[http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/dinesh-souza-5-years-probation-campaign-donations-article-1.1949769]

Andrew McCarthy noted this about D'Souza's indictment:

:"Yet there were patent mitigating circumstances, starting with the fact that few people actually get prosecuted at all for this offense. Even in the case of gargantuan violations, such as the Obama 2008 campaign’s own millions of dollars in illicit contributions, the Justice Department allows cases to be settled with an administrative fine. Furthermore, in the few cases that are pursued criminally, there is unvaryingly a corruption angle — the donor is dodging the limits in the expectation of a ''quid pro quo''.

:"In D’Souza’s case, there was nothing of the kind: He was trying to be supportive of a friend who had no chance to win."<ref>Andrew C. McCarthy (December 19, 2015). "How Dinesh D'Souza became a victim of Obama's lawless administration", National Review website.</ref>

President Trump gave D'Souza a full pardon on May 31, 2018, citing D'Souza's mistreatment by the Obama Justice Department.<ref>Multiple references:
*Singman, Brooke (May 31, 2018). [https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/05/31/trump-to-give-full-pardon-to-dinesh-dsouza.html Trump pardons Dinesh D'Souza]. ''Fox News''. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
*Kugle, Andrew (May 31, 2018). [https://freebeacon.com/politics/trump-issues-full-pardon-conservative-activist-dinesh-dsouza/ Trump Issues Full Pardon for Conservative Activist Dinesh D’Souza]. ''The Washington Free Beacon''. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
*Caplan, Joshua (May 31, 2018). [https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/05/31/trump-pardon-conservative-filmmaker-dinesh-dsouza/ Donald Trump to Pardon Conservative Filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved May 31, 2018.</ref>

=====Misuse of intelligence agencies=====
[[File:31D66D0A-82A4-40E7-A1C2-EBA55EEB357D.jpeg|right|350px|thumb|Prime movers in the [[Deep State coup]] against American democracy: Comey (first left) a man with a warped and perverted sense of [[justice]] and the role of [[law enforcement]] in a free society; Brennan (second left) an admitted Communist and mastermind of the coup against American democracy; and Clapper (third from left) who lied under oath to Congress about spying on the American people.]]
President Obama's agreement to approve the illegal actions taken against [[Donald Trump]] and the [[2016 Trump campaign|Trump campaign]] were primarily motivated by a wish to destroy his candidacy and, after Trump's election, delegitimize the Trump presidency in much the same way Obama felt Trump delegitimized Ohama's presidency with Trump's involvement with the [[Birther movement]].

The [[FISA Act]] was passed in 1978 on recommendation of the Church Committee specifically to protect the civil rights of people such as Obama's mentor [[Frank Marshall Davis]] and Obama's neighbors who got Obama started in politics, [[Bill Ayers]] and [[Bernardine Dohrn]]. Both regaled Obama with tales of FBI surveillance and harassment in the pre-FISA age, which had thwarted the communist revolution in America. On becoming President, Obama was determined to seize control of the institutions and apparatus that had frustrated generations of communist revolutionaries and turn them against Obama's imaginary enemies.

Not since the election of [[Abraham Lincoln]], has an outgoing administration sought to undermine and sabotage an incoming president.

=====Justice Department corruption=====
:{{See also|FBI scandal|FISA abuse}}
Throughout its entirety, the Obama administration attempted to [[criminal]]ize political opposition,<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbasile/2014/01/31/obamas-weaponization-of-government/#41198a711b92 Obama's Weaponization of Government], Tom Basile, ''Forbes'', Jan 31, 2014.</ref><ref>[https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273552/lefts-march-one-party-state-frontpagemagcom The Left's March to a One-Party State], April 24, 2019. Frontpagemag.com</ref> first by an illegal misuse of the [[IRS]] targeting conservative groups, and when they were caught began misusing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act database in 2012 to spy on American citizens.<ref>[https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/03/08/doj-political-surveillance-from-the-irs-in-2011-to-the-fisa-court-in-2016/ *DOJ Political Surveillance – From the IRS in 2011 to the FISA Court in 2016], Posted on March 8, 2020 by sundance. theconservativetreehouse.com </ref><ref>[https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/04/23/the-obama-use-of-fisa-702-as-a-domestic-political-surveillance-program/ The Obama Use of FISA-702 as a Domestic Political Surveillance Program], Posted on April 23, 2019 by sundance. theconsevativetreehouse.com</ref><ref>[https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/2016_Cert_FISC_Memo_Opin_Order_Apr_2017.pdf United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Memorandum Opinion and Order], April 26, 2017, p. 82.</ref>

By 2015 and 2016, the Obama administration interfered in American elections. It scuttled the investigation into [[Hillary Clinton]]'s [[felon]]ious violations of the National Records Act and Espionage Act,<ref>[https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/fbi-rewrites-federal-law-let-hillary-hook/ FBI Rewrites Federal Law to Let Hillary Off the Hook], By Andrew C. McCarthy, ''[[National Review]]'', July 5, 2016.</ref> paving the way for her nomination as the [[Democratic party]] presidential candidate, while conducting illegal spying on Republican presidential candidate [[Donald Trump]],<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/us/politics/fbi-government-investigator-trump.html F.B.I. Sent Investigator Posing as Assistant to Meet With Trump Aide in 2016], By Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt and Mark Mazzetti, ''The New York Times'', May 2, 2019</ref><ref>[https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/02/new-york-times-admits-multiple-spies-deployed-against-trump-campaign/ New York Times Admits Obama Admin Deployed Multiple Spies Against Trump Campaign In 2016], Mollie Hemingway, ''The Federalist'', May 2, 2019.</ref> falsely accusing him of colluding with [[Russia]].<ref>[https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/01/barr-trump-russia-treason-agent/ Barr: Trump Was ‘Falsely Accused’ Of Being A Treasonous Russian Agent], Chuck Ross, ''Daily Caller, 05/01/2019.</ref> In doing so, the Obama administration colluded with foreign actors in an effort to [[subversion|subvert]] American [[democracy]].<ref>[https://spectator.org/confirmed-john-brennan-colluded-with-foreign-spies-to-defeat-trump/ Confirmed: John Brennan Colluded With Foreign Spies to Defeat Trump], George Neumayr, ''American Spectator'', April 19, 2017.</ref><ref>[https://consortiumnews.com/2019/05/07/how-us-and-foreign-intelligence-agencies-interfered-in-a-us-election/ How US and Foreign Intel Agencies Interfered in a US Election], By Larry C. Johnson, May 7, 2019. consortiumnews.com</ref>

Amendments to the [[Patriot Act]] in 2008 loosened regulations governing domestic spying;<ref>[https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/surveillance-timeline Mass Surveillance in America: A Timeline of Loosening Laws and Practices], by Cora Currier, Justin Elliott and Theodoric Meyer, ''ProPublica'', June 7, 2013.</ref> Obama took rules intended for targeting [[al Qaeda]] to protect [[national security]] and applied them against political opponents and administration critics.<ref>[https://newrepublic.com/article/145474/chance-control-domestic-spying-trump-era-opportunity-reform-nsa-surveillance-program A Chance to Control Domestic Spying], By Elizabeth Goitein, ''New Republic'', October 26, 2017.</ref> Under Barack Obama's leadership, an Inspector General appointed by Obama discovered, for the first time in history, that the top two personnel appointed by Obama to head the FBI had both violated the law.<ref>https://sharylattkisson.com/2019/09/indicting-a-sandwich/</ref>

=====Forced abortion=====
In March 2009 the [[Obama administration]] announced it would send $50 million to the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA. UNPFA actively promotes abortion and is working closely with Chinese population control officials to implement China's forced abortion policy. The [[CCP]]'s coercive one-child rule has resulted in forced abortions, involuntary sterilizations and other [[human rights]] abuses.<ref>[https://www.lifenews.com/int981.html Group Confirms Obama Would Fund Forced Abortions if UNFPA Money Restored], by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor, November 12, 2008.</ref>

UNFPA officials work side-by-side their Chinese colleagues and even share the same offices.<ref>[https://www.lifenews.com/int1138.html Obama Administration Announces $50 Million for Pro-Forced Abortion UNFPA], by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor, March 26, 2009.</ref>

====2020 Leftwing riots====
[[File:Tremmell.png|right|350px|thumb|Bernell Tremmell was murdered by Marxists in Milwaukee in July 2020 for his outspoken beliefs in freedom, justice, and racial equality.<ref>https://100percentfedup.com/prominent-black-trump-supporter-shot-to-death-in-milwaukee-hours-after-pro-trump-interview/</ref>]]
:{{See also|2020 Leftist insurrection|Defund the Police}}
2020 Leftwing riots were an effort by the [[DNC]] and [[mainstream media]] to spark a race war in the [[United States]] in advance of the [[2020 presidential election]].<ref>https://creativedestructionmedia.com/analysis/2020/05/28/the-last-7-days-media-and-the-reckless-push-for-race-war/</ref> On the [[BLM]] homepage, which features a “[[Defund The Police]]” petition front and center, if a user chooses to donate, they’re rerouted to a site hosted by ActBlue, the [[DNC]]'s official payment portal.<ref>https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/expenditures.php?cmte=C00401224&cycle=2020</ref> ActBlue claims to be tax exempt organization and all donations to it are tax-deductable. The terms and conditions also link to ActBlue and mention "Campaign Finance Laws".<ref>https://secure.actblue.com/content/fineprint</ref> [[Joe Biden]] is a top beneficiary of the ActBlue’s fundraising efforts.<ref>https://thenationalpulse.com/politics/biden-black-lives-matter-defund-the-police/</ref>

====Antifa No go zones====
:{{See also|Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone}}

===Secular Leftism in the 21st century===
''See also:'' [[Decline of the secular left]]

Historically, the largest advances of the [[secular left]] has been through utilizing the power of the state (see: [[State atheism]] and [[Atheism and communism]]). For example, secular leftists use the power of the state to promote [[evolution]]ary ideology and to censor [[creationism|creationist]]/[[intelligent design]] models of origins (See: [[Suppression of alternatives to evolution]] and [[Atheist indoctrination]]).

The historian Martin Van Crevel points out that sovereign states are losing power/influence due to technology democratizing access to information, welfare states increasingly failing, [[fourth-generation warfare]] being waged against countries and sovereign states increasingly losing their ability to maintain internal order.<ref>[The Fate of the State] by MARTIN VAN CREVELD</ref><ref>[https://www.sonshi.com/martin-van-creveld-interview.html Martin van Creveld interview]</ref> See also: [[Decline of the secular left]]

===CCP global pandemic===
{{Main article|CCP global pandemic}}
The [[CCP]] malevolently allowed the [[Chinese plague]] to spread as a result of human-to-human transmission beginning in [[Wuhan, China]]. As it metastasized, the [[World Health Organization]] (WHO) parroted the [[Chinese Communist Party]] line that the [[Wuhan virus]] could not be passed from one human to another, and that it was “racist” to refer to the virus by its place of origin.<ref>https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/26/5-major-paradigm-shifts-the-wuhan-flu-crisis-has-revealed-americans-need/</ref>

===Cuban Communism===
[[Cuba]] remains a Communist state controlled by the Castro brothers since 1960 and under U.S economic sanctions.

==Communism in the Cold War era==
Communist goals of 1963

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture—education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=MgqXNaL-2gwC&pg=PA31 Birthing The Phoenix Vol. III], A copy of the goals as entered into Congressional Record by Albert S. Herlong</ref>

===Collapse of Soviet communism===
[[File:Timecommiecover.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Time magazine]] from 1989]]
The shooting down by the Soviets on September 1, 1983 of [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] may have been a contributing factor for the downfall of the Soviet Union as well as for the whole Soviet block. It being a catalyst for the collapse of the Soviet Union may be inferred from the fact that NATO had decided, under the impetus of the U.S. administration, to deploy Pershing II and cruise missiles in Europe, primarily West Germany. This deployment would have placed missiles just 6–10 minutes striking distance from Moscow. But support for the deployment was wavering and many doubted that the missile deployment would find enough support to effect it. When the Soviet Union shot down Flight 007 with 269 people aboard, including conservative Democratic Congressman [[Larry McDonald]] —an act which U.S. President Ronald Reagan characterized as a "massacre"—enough support was galvanized for the deployment. The deployment caused great resources of the Soviet Union to be diverted from inner economic use to military expenditures to counter the U.S. and NATO missile deployment.

Between 1989 and 1991, many Communist governments fell. The [[Berlin Wall]] in [[Germany]], which had become a symbol for the division between the Communist states and the rest of Europe, was torn down largely in response to Ronald Reagan in 1989, and there was also a large revolution against Romanian dictator [[Nicolaie Ceausescu]] which led to Ceausescu's arrest on December 22 that year and his subsequent execution on December 25 following a quick trial. In 1991, the USSR broke up into several countries - each of which reformed to capitalism. Some of these remained under autocratic governments, but some have embraced democracy. With the collapse the remnants of Communist parties have dropped their old names and ideologies, but still operate on the left of the political spectrum.

In 1992 President Boris Yeltsin announced that the Russian people had been liberated and that Communism in the former Soviet Union was dead. [http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/BorisY] Pres. [[George H. W. Bush]] imagined the global threat had passed by telling Congress, "Communism died this year."<ref>[https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=20544 Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union] - January 28, 1992</ref> Liberal historians called the death of the Soviet Union, "the end of history," when in fact the Communist disease only went into remission. The seat of the global Marxist revolution relocated from Moscow to [[Berkeley]], [[California]], under the [[vanguard party]] name, [[Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism]].

In contrast to Yeltsins statement his successor [[Russia]]n president [[Vladimir Putin]] declared that "[he] liked Communist and socialist ideas very much and [he] like[s] them still." and compared the Soviet code of conduct to the [[Bible]].<ref>http://www.newsweek.com/russias-putin-says-he-always-liked-communist-socialist-ideas-419289</ref> Putin also has compared communism with Christianity.<ref>Newman, Alex (January 16, 2018). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/asia/item/28051-communism-very-similar-to-christianity-putin-claims Communism “Very Similar” to Christianity, Putin Claims]. ''The New American''. Retrieved January 17, 2018.</ref>

Communism has remained in the world despite the fall of the Soviet bloc in the late 1980s.<ref>Akan, Emel (November 6, 2019). [https://www.theepochtimes.com/communism-is-still-with-us-30-years-after-fall-of-the-berlin-wall_3139454.html Communism Is Still With Us 30 Years After Fall of the Berlin Wall]. ''The Epoch Times''. Retrieved November 7, 2019.</ref>

==Historical Communism: Theory and Practice==

Communism is based upon [[Marxism]], a philosophy which uses [[materialism]] to explain all physical and social phenomena. The theory of [[evolution]] influenced the thinking of the Communists, including Marx, [[Friedrich Engels|Engels]], [[Vladimir Lenin]], and [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref>https://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref> Marx wrote, "[[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural science for the [[class struggle]] in history." Marx offered to dedicate the second German edition of his polemic ''[[Das Kapital]]'' to [[Charles Darwin]], but Darwin declined the "honour." <ref>https://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276</ref><ref>Karl Marx's Social and Political Thought, Bob Jessop, ISBN 0415193265 (pg 476)</ref>
[[Image:Captive-nations-01b----07-19-06.jpg|thumbnail|180px|right|[[Victims of Communism Memorial|A monument to the Captive Nations stands at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington, D.C.]]]]
Economically, Communism advocates a [[socialist]] economy in which the [[government]] owns the means of production. In countries where Communism has been imposed, the government has taken ownership of farms, factories, stores and so on in the name of the people; see "[[dictatorship of the proletariat]]". This drives all [[free market|market-based]] economic activity underground and leads to inefficiencies and shortages. In both the Soviet Union and Red [[China]], the number of people who starved to death when the government confiscated their farm products (animals and grain) is estimated in the tens of millions.

Even more important, one party controls every organization from the local labor union to the army to the national government. The party is not elected. Its top officials (the "Politburo") select replacements when there is a vacancy. Usually a dictator (like Stalin, Mao or Castro) controls the Politburo, but sometimes power is shared among five or six people. No dissent is allowed—all [[news]] media are controlled, and the Internet is heavily censored.

Elites do not disappear. Members of the ruling party (see [[Nomenklatura]]) have special stores in which ordinary people are barred, stores which are immune to the shortages which the lower class must endure.

Various Communist doctrines have evolved or been adapted to the time and place they have been implemented. [[Marxism]], developed by [[Karl Marx]], and its modifications under [[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin|Vladimir Lenin]], [[Joseph Stalin]], and [[Mao Zedong]], advocates the overthrow of the existing order by a [[revolution]] of the proletariat, the social group which does not control the means of production. The goal of Marxism is supposedly to create a classless society which would result in no longer the need for any [[government]] (Communism).

The most famous government to label itself "Communist" is the former [[USSR]] or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the Communist Party controlled its government from 1918 to 1991. This government was officially atheist and attempted to suppress all [[religion]] until [[World War II]], when it discovered religion was needed to rally the people against the [[Nazi]] invaders. Like all authoritarian regimes, it tried to cultivate reverence for the state as a psychological substitute for religion.

Marxist theory is intended to appeal to its adherents with the phrase, "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs", which essentially states point blank a worker does not get paid according to his abilities, and there is no [[incentive]] within the economic theory. Another quote by Marx was, "The theory of the Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of [[private property]]," or as some have phrased it, legalized theft.

Lying, [[deceit]] and [[hypocrisy]] play major roles in Communism and advancing its goals.<ref>[https://fosterspeak.blogspot.ca/2011/10/lying-essence-of-communism.html Lying, the Essence of Communism]</ref> According to then-[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] director [[J. Edgar Hoover]]:
{{cquote|The basic premise of Communism is deceit and hypocrisy. The Communist philosophy teaches that every available means must be utilized to achieve the final end—world revolution. For this reason the Communist will lie, cheat and resort to any tactics which will gain his end. He will advocate today exactly what he denounced yesterday. And with a straight face! Has he lied? No, he will say, he's only carrying out party policy. The concept of morality and fair play, as practiced in our democracy, is alien and repugnant to him. Moreover, the Communists employ a purposive double-talk, roundabout style, known as "Aesopian language," in their literature and speeches, designed to deceive and evade to clothe their true thoughts. This technique, utilized by Lenin, is the very epitome of deceit.<ref>[https://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/05/16/how-communists-operate-an-interview-with-j-edgar How Communists Operate: An Interview with J. Edgar Hoover] at US News & World Report</ref>}}
Pope Pius IX spoke of how Communism operates, including its use of lies and deceit and its attacks on religion, in his condemnation of the ideology in his 1846 encyclical ''Qui Pluribus'':
{{cquote|A very bitter and fearsome war against the whole Catholic commonwealth (is) being stirred up by men bound together in a lawless alliance. … They are experienced and skillful in deceit, which they use to set in motion their plans to quench peoples’ zeal for piety, justice and virtue, to corrupt morals, to cast all divine and human laws into confusion, and to weaken and even possibly overthrow the Catholic religion and civil society. They teach that the most holy mysteries of our religion are fictions of human invention, and that the teaching of the Catholic Church is opposed to the good and the prerogatives of human society. They are not even afraid to deny Christ Himself and God.<ref>[https://catholicinsight.com/communism-and-the-popes/ Communism and the Popes] at Catholic Insight</ref>}}
Apologists claim Communism is a system created by people with good intentions who failed to recognize that their idealistic system was inconsistent with human nature. As a result, they caused more harm than good.<ref>[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjVjOWX_6LYAhVQYt8KHbjaCrQQFggwMAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fgenius.com%2FRay-dalio-principles-annotated&usg=AOvVaw2eSCwhXQ9WZ5Wt_rmrFmuY Principles] by [[Ray Dalio]]</ref> In reality, successful communist revolutionaries and leaders have historically been common criminals and murderers.

===Communism and militant atheism===
''See also:'' [[Atheism and communism]]
According to the [[University of Cambridge]], historically, the "most notable spread of [[atheism]] was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the [[Marxism-Leninism|Marxist-Leninists]] to power."<ref name="Marxism-Leninism">{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728215151/http://www.investigatingatheism.info/marxism.html|title=Investigating atheism: Marxism|publisher = [[University of Cambridge]]|quote=The most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power. For the first time in history, atheism thus became the official ideology of a state.|year=2008|accessdate=July 17, 2014}}</ref>

Karl Marx believed atheism to be a key part of Communism. He is often very famously quoted as saying, "Religion ... is the opium of the masses."<ref>Marx, K. [http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/31765.html Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right] (Classic Quotations) (Standard translation from the original German).</ref> His full quote was: "Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."<ref>http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm#05</ref> He believed it was part of the "superstructure," a false culture built to maintain the status quo. Thus he denigrated Christianity as a "fictional" religion. Instead, Marx was an avowed atheist, as he wrote, "Communism begins from the outset with [[atheism]]; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."<ref>Marx, Karl, [http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm Private Property and Communism], 1944.</ref>

[[Vladimir Lenin]] similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on ''in practice'' and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."<ref>Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich, ''Proletary'', No. 45, May 13 (26), 1909, translated by Andrew Rothstein and Bernard Issacs, quote from [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm].</ref>

In 1955, [[China|Chinese]] communist leader Chou En-lai declared, "We Communists are atheists".<ref>Noebel, David, The Battle for Truth, Harvest House, 2001.</ref> In 2015, the [[Communist Party of China]] reaffirmed that members of their party must be atheists.<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/02/china-communist-party-atheism-zhejiang-ban-religious-members-christianity_n_6599722.html China's Communist Party Bans Believers, Doubles Down On Atheism]</ref>

The atheism in Communist regimes has been and continues to be [[militant atheism]] and various acts of repression including the razing of thousands of religious buildings and the killing, imprisoning, and oppression of religious leaders and believers.<ref>http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2000/March_2000_4.html</ref><ref>http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/frroman1.aspx</ref><ref>https://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref><ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref><ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref><ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

Marxists justification for its persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church was based upon the claim that the Church was a "willing tool of Tsarism."<ref>http://www.marxist.com/religion-soviet-union170406-6.htm</ref>

The clergy openly stated its support for the counter-revolution (White Revolution). Lenin proclaimed that a Communist regime must show itself to be merciless toward the question of religion. There was no place for the church in Lenin's regime. This led to anti-religious decrees and propaganda. All church property was expropriated by the new Soviet government.<ref>http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-42047/Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics#277888.hook</ref>

During the late 1930s and later 1940s the restrictions on church activity were loosened as Stalin needed all the support he could get for the war. This doctrine of co-operation between the church and state continued throughout the existence of the Soviet republics and the other Warszawa pact nations. Though never going as far as a leader of the Soviet Union asking [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_barrow/2007/03/hiding_behind_god.html god to bless the country] the clause in the Soviet Unions constitution addressing the separation of church and state was rendered useless.

Dr. [[Martin Luther King]] said, "for the Communist there is no divine government, no absolute moral order, there are no fixed, immutable principles; consequently almost anything - force, violence, murder, lying - is a justifiable means." <ref>''Stride Toward Freedom : The Montgomery Story'', Martin Luther King, Jr., Harper and Rowe, New York, 1958, p. 92.</ref>

====Atheistic Communism and torture of the religious====
[[Image:HammerAndSickle.png|right|175px]]
''See also:'' [[Atheistic communism and torture]]
The website Victimsofcommunism.org declares concerning atheistic Communism and the use of torture:
{{cquote|Significantly, communists did not merely try to block or halt religious faith but to reverse it. This was particularly true for [[Romania]], even before the Nicolai Ceausescu era. This meant not just forbidding religious practice and jailing ministers and believers but employing torture to force them to renounce their faith. It was not enough to contain, silence, even punish believers in prison; it was decided they must be tortured in truly unimaginably degrading ways to attempt to undo religious faith.<ref>[http://victimsofcommunism.org/the-war-on-religion/ The War on religion]</ref>}}

For additional information please see: [[Atheistic communism and torture]]

====Social gospel====
Some Communist ideology has made its way into the Church as a [[Social Gospel]], interpreting the Gospel as less redemptive of sin and more of a public works campaign and activism. They often cite Jesus feeding the masses and warnings to the wealthy who believed self-seeking is all this world has to offer. Communists often cite the Acts of the Apostles, as early Christians practicing some form of sharing for the common good:
{{Cquote|And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (Acts 2:44-45, KJV)

Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.(Acts 4:34-7, KJV)}}

But as Arnold Toynbee has pointed out, this Marxist view denies the most crucial points,
{{Cquote|The passage in the Acts represents the philanthropy of the primitive Christian Society as flowing from a God-given grace which was the fruit of a belief in the divinity of Jesus. In other words, the charity which is here depicted as moving the primitive Christians to go—in their mutual concern for one another's welfare—to the extreme length of sharing all their worldly goods is not a mere love of Man for Man (which is the limited literal meaning of the word ‘philanthropy’), but is a spiritual relation to which God is a party as well as His human creatures. In fact, this Christian Socialism is a practical application, on the economic surface of life, of the fundamental religious truth that the brotherhood of man is a consequence of the fatherhood of God - a truth which is driven home with special force by a religion which teaches that God is not only the Father and Creator of man, but also his Savior, Who has been incarnate in human shape and has suffered, and triumphed over, death.<ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585, ''Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity''.</ref>}}

====Sloth in atheistic Communist countries vs. Protestant work ethic====
[[File:Flag of the PRC.png|thumbnail|right|250px|In [[China]], the growth in religion has accompanied China's fast economic growth over the last twenty years.<ref>[http://blog.tifwe.org/the-protestant-work-ethic-alive-well-in-china/ The Protestant Work Ethic: Alive & Well…In China] By Hugh Whelchel on September 24, 2012</ref>]]
''See also:'' [[Atheism and sloth]] and [[Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]]
Atheism is a part of Marxist-Leninist and [[Mao Zedong|Maoist]]/Chinese Communist ideology (See: [[Atheism and communism]]).

Widespread sloth in the former [[Soviet Union]] helped cause much poverty.<ref>[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255693/Last-pictures-life-iron-curtain-collapse-USSR.html Poverty, prostitutes and the long, slow death of the Soviet Union: Haunting pictures show desperate struggle to survive in last days of USSR, ''The Daily Mail'']</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/29/world/soviet-openness-brings-poverty-out-of-the-shadows.html?_r=0 Soviet Openness Brings Poverty Out of the Shadows], ''New York Times''</ref> A study performed in the former Soviet Union found that over 50% of the work force admitted to drinking alcohol while on the job (See also: [[Atheism and alcoholism]]).<ref>[http://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/communism-computing-china/workethic.html Communism and computer ethics]</ref> In the former [[Soviet Union]], a popular joke was that the workers pretended to work and the Soviet Union pretended to pay them.<ref>[http://ipezone.blogspot.com/2015/08/you-pretend-to-work-putin-pretends-to.html You Pretend to work and Putin pretends to pay you]</ref>

On the other hand, [[Harvard University]] historian Niall Ferguson declared: "Through a mixture of hard work and thrift the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] societies of the North and West Atlantic achieved the most rapid economic growth in history."<ref>[http://blog.tifwe.org/the-protestant-work-ethic-alive-well-in-china/ The Protestant Work Ethic: Alive & Well…In China] By Hugh Whelchel on September 24, 2012</ref>

In China, the growth in religion has accompanied China's fast economic growth over the last twenty years.<ref>[http://blog.tifwe.org/the-protestant-work-ethic-alive-well-in-china/ The Protestant Work Ethic: Alive & Well…In China] By Hugh Whelchel on September 24, 2012</ref> Christianity is seeing rapid growth in China and the historian Niall Ferguson attributes this recent economic growth to the Protestant work ethic being more incorporated into Chinese society.<ref>[http://blog.tifwe.org/the-protestant-work-ethic-alive-well-in-china/ The Protestant Work Ethic: Alive & Well…In China] By Hugh Whelchel on September 24, 2012</ref> See also: [[Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism|Protestant work ethic]] and [[Growth of Christianity in China]]

===Similarities between Communism, Nazism and liberalism===
''See also:'' [[Similarities between Communism, Nazism and liberalism]]
[[Adolf Hitler]] noted that Communists made excellent converts to [[National Socialism]] (a.k.a. [[Nazi]]sm), because the same personality type was attracted to both. "[T]here is more that binds us to [[Bolshevik|Bolshevism]] than separates us from it. There is, above all, genuine, revolutionary feeling, which is alive everywhere in Russia except where there are Jewish Marxists. I have always made allowance for this circumstance, and given orders that former Communists are to be admitted to the party at once. The petit bourgeois [[Social democracy|Social-Democrat]] and the trade-union boss will never make a [[National Socialist]], but the Communists always will."<ref>quoted in Hermann Rauschning, ''Hitler Speaks''</ref> [[Josef Stalin]] also recognized that ex-Nazis and ex-[[fascist]]s were natural recruits for post-war Communist regimes. As Stanley Payne notes in his ''A History of Fascism: 1914-1945'', "All over Soviet-occupied eastern Europe (should be: Central and Eastern Europe), most rank-and-file former fascist party members, together with many lower-level leaders, were welcomed to fill the ranks of the initially exiguous local Communist parties. The psychological transition seems to have been an easy one, for obvious reasons."<ref>http://www.lietuvos.org/istorija/communism/</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!
!Communist Manifesto
![[Nazi]] Party Platform
!Analysis
|-
|1
|"Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes."
|"We demand an agrarian reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to expropriate the owners without compensation of any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land."
|The stripping away of land from private owners. [[Liberalism]] today demands "eminent domain" on property.
|-
|2
|"A heavy progressive or graduated income tax."
|"We demand the nationalization of all trusts...profit-sharing in large industries...a generous increase in old-age pensions...by providing maternity welfare centers, by prohibiting juvenile labor...and the creation of a national (folk) army."
|The points raised in the [[Nazi]] platform demand an increase in taxes to support them. Liberalism today demands heavy progressive and graduated income taxes.
|-
|3
|"Abolition of all rights of inheritance."
|"That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished."
|Liberalism today demands a "death tax" on anyone inheriting an estate.
|-
|4
|"Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels."
|"We demand that all non-Germans who have entered Germany since August 2, 1914, shall be compelled to leave the Reich immediately."
|The Nuremberg Laws of 1934 allowed Germany to take Jewish property.
|-
|5
|"Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly."
|"We demand the nationalization of all trusts."
|Central control of the financial system.
|-
|6
|"Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State."
|"We demand that there be a legal campaign against those who propagate deliberate political lies and disseminate them through the press...editors and their assistants on newspapers published in the German language shall be German citizens...Non-German newspapers shall only be published with the express permission of the State...the punishment for transgressing this law be the immediate suppression of the newspaper..."
|Central control of the press. Liberals today demand control or suppression of talk radio and Fox News.
|-
|7
|"Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c, &c."
|"In order to make it possible for every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education, and thus the opportunity to reach into positions of leadership, the State must assume the responsibility of organizing thoroughly the entire cultural system of the people. The curricula of all educational establishments shall be adapted to practical life. The conception of the State Idea (science of citizenship) must be taught in the schools from the very beginning. We demand that specially talented children of poor parents, whatever their station or occupation, be educated at the expense of the State. "
|Central control of education, with an emphasis on doing things their way. Liberals today are doing things ''their way'' in our schools.
|-
|}

===Atrocities and Repression===
[[File:Stalin-kill.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Exhumed skeletons of [[class war]] victims murdered by Communists.<ref>[http://www.mega.nu/ampp/rummel/rm1.stalin.kill.htm.]</ref> Apologists frequently claim Communism has "never really been tried".]]
Communist regimes have engaged in mass killings on a scale of millions of individuals.<ref>http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/museum/comfaq.htm#part3</ref> A work entitled ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]'' published by the [[Harvard]] Press focuses on the crimes, terror, and repression of modern Communist regimes over a 70-year period.<ref>http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/COUBLA.html</ref> This book is fairly controversial partly due to the various estimates regarding the millions of people who died under communist regimes.<ref>Multiple references:
*Anticommunist (April 14, 2004). [https://web.archive.org/web/20130607125427/http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/04/289239.html "The Human Cost of Communism - 100 million"]. UK Indymedia. Retrieved from June 7, 2013 archive at Internet Achive.
*[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/lelivrenoir.htm "''The Black Book of Communism''"]. Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences website: Cold War Studies.
*White, Matthew (February 2011). [http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm "Source list and detailed death tolls for the primary megadeaths of the twentieth century"]. Necrometrics.
*Higgins, David (June 22, 2007). [https://web.archive.org/web/20071008035420/http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/blog/template_permalink.asp?id=365 "Memory and ideology: Washington's newest statue is the Victims Of Communism Memorial"]. Sarasota Magazine website. Retrieved from October 8, 2007 archive at Internet Archive
*Radosh, Ronald (February 2000). [http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2526 "''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression''"]. First Things [journal] website.</ref>

Similarly, an influential book which concerns itself with Russian Communist torture, repression and atrocities is [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]'s ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'' which won Solzhenitsyn a [[Nobel Prize]].<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/solz-gulag.html</ref> In 1983, Alexander Solzhenitsyn in which he gave his explanation of the cause of why millions of people died under Russian Communism:
{{Cquote|Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened. Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.}}
In Communist [[North Korea]], abuse and killing in prison camps is occurring today.<ref>http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5596</ref><ref>http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/nkdefec3.htm</ref> In addition, the North Korean government practices brutal repression and atrocities against North Korean Christians.<ref>https://www.nysun.com/article/23082?page_no=1</ref><ref>http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/120250.shtml</ref>

In 1999, the publication [[Christian Century]] reported that "China has persecuted religious believers by means of "harassment, prolonged detention, and incarceration in prison or `reform-through-labor' camps and police closure of places of worship."<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_26_116/ai_56249447</ref> In 2003, owners of Bibles in China were sent to prison camps and 125 Chinese churches were forced to close.<ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35818</ref> China continues to practice religious oppression today.<ref>http://theworldnow.wordpress.com/tag/around-the-world/asia/china/</ref>

==Notorious Communists==
Well known Communists include:
*[[Salvador Allende]]
*[[William Ayers]]
*[[Fidel Castro]]
*[[Barack Obama]]
*[[Raul Castro]]
*[[Hugo Chavez]]
*[[Carl Davidson]]
*[[Frank Marshall Davis]]
*[[Bernardine Dohrn]]
*[[Friedrich Engels]]
*[[Che Guevara]]
*[[Jim Jones]]
*[[Van Jones]]
*[[Kim Il Sung]]
*[[Kim Jong Il]]
*[[Kim Jong Un]]
*[[Lazar Kaganovich]]
*[[Vladimir Lenin]]
*[[Mao Zedong]]
*[[Karl Marx]]
*[[Ho Chi Minh]]
*[[Pol Pot]]
*[[Paul Robeson]]
*[[Joseph Stalin]]
*[[Yakov Sverdlov]]
*[[Leon Trotsky]]
*[[Genrikh Yagoda]]
*[[Yakov Yurovsky]]
*[[Choummaly Sayasone]]
*[[Hu Jintao]]
*The [[Occupy Democrats]]
*[[Noam Chomsky]]
*[[Henry Wallace]]
*[[George Soros]]
*[[Bernie Sanders]]
*[[Xi Jinping]]

==Further reading==
* Pipes, Richard. ''Communism: A History'' (2003), by a leading conservative historian
** Pipes, Richard. ''History of Communism: A Brief History'' (2002)
* Priestland, David. ''The Red Flag: A History of Communism'' (2009)
*[http://www.archive.org/stream/100thingsyoushou1949unit#page/n3/mode/2up 100 Things You Should Know About Communism'']

==See also==
* [[Bernie Sanders]] and [[Democratic socialism]]
*[[Far Left]]
* [[List of Communist States]]
* [[List of Socialist States]]
* [[Communist Party of the United States of America]]
* [[Cold War]]
* [[List of atheist and agnostic pseudosciences]]
* [[Capitalism]]
* [[Iron Curtain]]
* [[Progressives for Obama]]
* [[Socialism]]
* [[Social Effects of the Theory of Evolution]]
* [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] for the connection of the shootdown by the Soviets of KAL 007, with 269 people aboard, on Sept. 1, 1983 with the heightened U.S./Soviet confrontations of 1983–4.
* [[The Soviet/ U.S naval confrontation]] over KAL 007
* [[KAL 007 and the Soviet Top Secret Memos]]
* [[Communist Racism]]
* [[National Bolshevik Party]]
* [[The Soviet Story]]
* [[Communism and feminism]]
* [[American Anti-Communist Alliance]]
* [[Big government]] [[Welfare state]] leads to [[Nanny state]], leads to [[Police state]]
* [[Liberal totalitarianism]]
* [[Big government]] [[liberal]] [[Welfare state]] leads to [[socialist]] [[Nanny state]], leads to [[communist]] [[Police state]] - Don't think Communism is incompatible with [[Islam]].
* [[Gun control]] - [[Ammunition control]] - [[Gun free zone]]s - key elements to create a police state
* [[Anti-Americanism]]
* [[Nazi Party|National Socialist German Workers' Party]] (Nazi Party)
* [[National Socialism]] - the Nazis were elitist [[Police state]] [[liberals]] not [[conservative]]s
* [[Communism and cannibalism]]

==Notes and references==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[https://www.gotquestions.org/communism-Bible.html Does the Bible support Communism?], at [[GotQuestions]]
*[http://www.aim.org/wls/category/communism/ What Liberals Say - Category: Communism], [[Accuracy In Media]]
*[https://archive.org/details/IsThisTomorrowAmericaUnderCommunismCatecheticalGuild Is This Tomorrow - America Under Communism], Catechetical Guild
*[https://www.theepochtimes.com/c-how-the-specter-of-communism-is-ruling-our-world How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World]. ''The Epoch Times''.
**[https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-dark-origins-of-communism-part-1-of-3_2249661.html The Dark Origins of Communism, Parts 1], [https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-dark-origins-of-communism-part-2-of-3_2251602.html 2], and [https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-dark-origins-of-communism-part-3-of-3_2251601.html 3], The Epoch Times.

{{Communism}}
{{Coronavirus}}
[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Oppression]]
[[Category:Marxist Terminology]]
[[Category:Forms of Government]]
[[Category:Anti-American]]
[[Category:Atheism]]
[[Category:Liberalism]]
[[Category:Deceit]]
[[Category:Police State]]
[[Category:Chinese Politics]]
[[Category:Chinese History]]
[[Category:Welfare State]]
[[Category:Man-Made Disasters]]
[[Category:Coronavirus]]
[[Category:Globalism]]
[[Category:Threats]]
[[Category:Anti Second Amendment]]

National Socialism

2020-08-03T03:54:57Z

FactManReturneth:

'''Ah yes, the famous leftist policy of... Privatization?'''

[[Image:Wille.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Political poster from Germany during the 1930s; translated, it reads ''National Socialism -- the organized will of the nation'']]
'''National [[Socialism]]''' ('''Nazism''') is a far-right [[totalitarian]] system originally created in [[Germany]] immediately following [[World War I]], and characterized by a [[collectivist]] view toward [[race]].

Ironically, given the false equivalence by various leftists post-World War II between Nationalism and National Socialism, Joseph Goebbels indicated that Nazism hated the concept of [[nationalism]] due to it being a [[bourgeois]] concept when explaining the NSDAP's political position. Nazism used dictatorial or draconian [[police state]] rule, mass appeal, brutal use of violence, disregard for the law, and a racial policy emphasizing the subjugation or extermination of people considered inferior, based heavily on a belief in social [[Darwinism]], as advocated by people such as Heinrich von Treitschke and the Englishman [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]].<ref>[http://yesterday.uktv.co.uk/warzone/world-war-two/nazi-germany/article/what-national-socialism/ What is National Socialism? (yesterday.uktv.co.uk/warzone/world-war-two/nazi-germany/article/what-national-socialism)]
*Houston Stewart Chamberlain was born at Southsea in 1855, the son of Admiral William Charles Chamberlain. Two of his uncles were generals in the English army, a third was the well-known Field-Marshal Sir Neville Chamberlain. His mother was a daughter of Captain Basil Hall, R.N., whose travels were the joy of the boyhood of my generation, while his scientific observations won for him the honour of Fellowship of the Royal Society. Captain Basil Hall's father, Sir James Hall, was himself eminent in [[science]], being the founder of experimental geology. As a man of science therefore (and [[natural science]] was his first love), Houston Chamberlain may be regarded as an instance of atavism, or, to use the hideous word coined by Galton, “[[eugenics]]." From the Introduction of ''[http://the-eye.eu/public/Books/4chan_pol_Archives/PDFs/Racial%20Science/Houston%20Stewart%20Chamberlain%20-%20Foundations%20of%20the%2019th%20Century%201899.pdf Foundations of the Nineteenth Century]'', by Houston Stewart Chamberlain, English translation, John Lane Company, London & New York, 1912.</ref> This philosophy extrapolated Darwin's "survival of the fittest" theory and said that persons, groups, and races are subject to the same laws of [[natural selection]] that Darwin proposed for animals.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/551058/social-Darwinism Britannica's entry on social Darwinism]</ref>

The name Nazi is a contraction of the full party name, [[Nazi Party|National Socialist German Workers' Party]] (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; NSDAP). Nazism, in short, is simply one of several varieties of [[socialism]]. As a political party it controlled Germany from 1933-1945 under [[Adolf Hitler]], resulting in [[World War II]] and a campaign of mostly anti-[[Jewish]] and [[racist]] [[politics]], resulting in [[genocide]] (see the [[Holocaust]]).

Supporters of [[Communism]], or of [[socialism]] in general, like to pretend that Nazism was not socialist but "[[right wing]]", for similar reasons to why [[fascism]] is often associated with the right wing despite being left wing. Despite this, however, it featured enough similarities with Communism that they were in fact closer to the [[far left]], even including anti-Semitism, which Karl Marx had advocated.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20020116231910/http://russp.org/nazis.html</ref>

* It was common in those days, as it is in ours, to identify the [[Communist]]s as [[leftist]] and the Nazis as [[rightist]]s, as if they stood on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. But [[Ludwig von Mises]] knew differently. They both sported the same ideological pedigree of socialism. "The German and [[Russian]] systems of socialism have in common the fact that the [[big government]] has full control of the means of production. It decides what shall be produced and how. It allots to each individual a share of consumer's goods for his consumption."

* The difference between the systems, wrote Mises, is that the German pattern "maintains private ownership of the means of production and keeps the appearance of ordinary prices, wages, and markets." But in fact the government directs production decisions, curbs [[entrepreneurship]] and the labor market, and determines wages and [[interest rates]] by central authority. "Market exchange," says Mises, "is only a sham." [http://mises.org/daily/47]

In addition, the Nazis never made an attempt at restoring the monarchy of Germany upon gaining national power. Further, during the late stages of World War II they had backed anti-monarchist forces in Hungary, one of their Axis allies, which acted as additional proof that they were not a right-wing ideology under the European definition (the origins of the terms "right-wing" and "left-wing" came from the French Revolution regarding the National Assembly, with monarchists sitting on the right side seating).<ref name="The Lies of Socialism">http://www.truthbasedlogic.com/lies.htm</ref>

On a similar note, thanks largely to the [[Frankfurt School]] (in particular [[Theodor Adorno]] and [[Herbert Marcuse]]) redefining fascism and Nazism as being right wing and manipulating the American Jewish Committee into assuming that the Nazis were such, the Nazis were also falsely assumed to be sexually rigid and puritanical relating to sexual relationships, when in reality, they were bohemians and sexual deviants/perverts (see [[Nazi Germany and homosexuality]]).<ref name="frontpagemag.com">http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267543/big-liar-dinesh-dsouza</ref><ref>https://www.wnd.com/2017/08/the-sex-pervert-as-anti-fascist/</ref>

==Origins==
{{main|Nazi platform of 1925}}

National Socialism is related to socialism in which the basic core is a control of people, property, and income by a centralized government. The core concepts of socialism were kept, transferred, and implemented in the 25 points of the Nazi Party Platform of 1925, which included:
*The abolition of unearned income;
*Nationalization of trusts;
*Inclusion into profit-sharing;
*Increase in old-age pensions;
*Creation and maintenance of a sound middle-class;
*Agrarian reform, which included the seizing of land without compensation;
*State control of education;
*Creation of a "folk" army to supplant or replace the regular army;
*State control of the press [http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/25points.htm]
Several concepts, however, make National Socialism unique as a political philosophy:
*A regimented, militaristic style of governance which had its origins in the Prussian traditions exemplified by Frederick William I (1688–1740), Frederick the Great (1712–68), and Otto von Bismarck (1815–98);
*A belief of the Nordic “Aryan” man as superior in blood, intellect, and culture over all other races of man, given emphasis by the works of Frederich Nietzsche (''Mensch und Übermensch'') and other 19th century intellectuals.
Added to these beliefs was the science of the time, specifically the theories related to “survival of the fittest” and “natural selection” as postulated by British naturalist Charles Darwin; these theories would be used later as justification for Nazi removal and extermination of non-German people throughout much of Europe prior to and during World War II.

Through the writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Nazi theorists were influenced by the ideas of the [[French]] Count Arthur de Gobineau, sometimes referred to as [[Gobinism]], who was the first to formulate the idea of an ''Aryan master race''. Hitler met Chamberlain in the 1920s.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Q8L42KtTrw0C&pg=PA211 Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion]</ref>

After Hitler joined and later took control of the German Workers' Party in 1921, he added what could be the most damaging elements:
*A rabid hatred for anything and anyone not German;
*and a passionate German nationalism which demanded an expansion of German territory by force or other means.
Prior to World War I, Hitler had been a homeless tramp eking out a meager living as an artist in Vienna, Austria, a multi-ethnic city which included Slavs and Jews among its population; his experience there, as well as the racial propaganda Hitler read voraciously - among them the classic forgery ''Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' - fed into his pro-Germanic racist beliefs.

National Socialism did not come into its own until after Germany's defeat in World War I. What gave it impetus was the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, in which Germany was forced to assume guilt and responsibility for causing the war and the death and destruction which resulted. The Allies’ insistence on the drafting of the Treaty without German participation, the heavy reparations, the despair and disillusionment felt by many Germans after the war, and those diplomats Hitler felt had agreed to cease the war (the “November criminals”) were all used in Hitler's propaganda to persuade as many Germans as possible to support the Nazi cause. The hyper-inflation of 1923 which wiped out middle-class savings and made the German mark worthless added to the National Socialist cause.

Hitler went into detail as to what National Socialism would be when he wrote his political testament while in prison in 1924. In ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' he outlined his racial policies and theories, his theories regarding German expansion, and his understandings of mass psychology and propaganda; in the latter he understood that a weak-minded people would be led by someone who can speak at their level, regarding "truth" less important than "success":

:''"It is part of a great leader's genius to make even widely separated adversaries appear as if they belonged to but one category, because among weakly and undecided characters the recognition of various enemies all too easily marks the beginning of doubt of one's own rightness."''

Before he was ousted from the Party, Hermann Rauschning, National Socialist President of the Danzig Senate in 1933-1934, recalled being told by Hitler that:
:''"Each activity and each need of the individual will thereby be regulated by the party as the representative of the general good. There will be no license, no free space, in which the individual belongs to himself. This is Socialism—not such trifles as the private possession of the means of production. Of what importance is that if I range men firmly within a discipline they cannot escape? Let them then own land or factories as much as they please. The decisive factor is that the State, through the party, is supreme over them, regardless whether they are owners or workers. All that, you see, is unessential. Our Socialism goes far deeper . . . ."''
:''"[T]he people about us are unaware of what is really happening to them. They gaze fascinated at one or two familiar superficialities, such as possessions and income and rank and other outworn conceptions. As long as these are kept intact, they are quite satisfied. But in the meantime they have entered a new relation; a powerful social force has caught them up. They themselves are changed. What are ownership and income to that? Why need we trouble to socialize banks and factories? We socialize human beings."'' (Peikoff, p. 231)

“To be a socialist,” said Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels, “is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole.” (Peikoff, p. 19).

Furthermore, when asked about the position of National Socialism, Goebbels responded, "the NSDAP is the German Left. We despise bourgeois nationalism." (Der Angriff, Dec 6th, 1931).

Hitler himself echoed basically the same theme. In an article published in 1930 for the UK ''Daily Express'', Hitler stated:

<blockquote>'Socialist' I define from the word 'social; meaning in the main ‘social equity’. A Socialist is one who serves the common good without giving up his individuality or personality or the product of his personal efficiency. Our adopted term 'Socialist' has nothing to do with Marxian Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true socialism is not. Marxism places no value on the individual, or individual effort, of efficiency; true Socialism values the individual and encourages him in individual efficiency, at the same time holding that his interests as an individual '''must be in consonance with those of the community'''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=rE7JAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA120 Hitler and the Rise of the Nazi Party]</ref></blockquote>

==Doctrines==
National Socialism is revolutionary in nature and without end. National identity and nationalist ideology have been blended with a social radicalism in which liberalism, democracy, human rights, rationalism, and the rule of law were subordinated to the will of the state, the "state" being autocratic and concentrated in the person of the Fuhrer, i.e. Hitler. Loyalty to Germany, to the German State, and to Hitler in particular, was equated with the worship of God (meaning the Nordic god Woden/Votan/Oden). National Socialism in [[Germany]] 1925-1945 combined [[Norse mythology]], [[Darwinism]] and the [[Mysticism|mystical]], [[occult]]ic [[New age movement|New Age]] doctrines of [[Theosophical Society|Theosophy]] in a [[Racism|racist]], militant extremist opposition to Judaism and to Christianity "''with its [[Defeatism|defeatist]], effeminate Christ-figure''".<ref name=occult>''The Occult History of the Third Reich'' 4 program DVD documentary from [http://www.eagle-rock.com Eagle Media], copyright 1987/2004 Eagle Rock Entertainment. Disc 1: 100 minutes Disc 2: 109 minutes Total running time 209 minutes approx. Plus additional interactive content. Executive Producers for Eagle Rock Entertainment - Terry Shand & Geoff Kempin. An Eagle Media Release - Eagle Media is a division of Eagle Rock Entertainment Ltd. ISBN 0-9743194-6-5</ref> Once in power, the Nazis held on to it by threat, intimidation, violence, and the manipulation of the masses. It assumed that the strong had the right to rule the weak and the so-called "Master Race" had to expand its territory through the policy of [[Lebensraum]] (living space) and prepared Germans to accept an ethic of "ferocity" and "hardness".
::''I want to see once more in ''[our youth's]'' eyes the gleam of pride and independence of the beast of prey.''"
::--Adolph Hitler, 1934 <ref name=occult/>

In addition to the influence of Theosophy, National Socialist ideology was also influenced by Anthroposophy and Ariosophy.<ref>[https://academic.oup.com/gh/article-abstract/30/4/528/574849?redirectedFrom=fulltext Hitler’s Monsters: The Occult Roots of Nazism and the Emergence of the Nazi ‘Supernatural Imaginary’]</ref>

==After World War II==
National Socialism as a political force in Germany ended with that country's defeat in 1945. Despite a “de-nazification” program by the victorious Allies, adherents to Nazism attempted to create new political groups as early as 1948 in West Germany, but were ineffective at reviving the movement; many were later banned, as with the symbolism that was part of it, such as the swastika.

Today, the only political party considered to have many elements of Nazism is the Baath Party of Syria and Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The [[National Democratic Party of Germany]] (NPD) has also many times been accused of neo-Nazism and has survived repeated attempts at banning; party president Udo Voigt has made repeated anti-semitic/anti-immigrant statements, including attacks against America. Small neo-Nazi hate groups operate in several European countries and the United States.

In the media, including the Internet, neo-Nazism has also appeared. Radio programs hosted by such as David Duke and repeated appearances of noted Holocaust deniers such as David Irving are examples. Major hate sites like Stormfront and Metapedia contribute for Nazi/White Supremacist views.

==See also==
* [[Gun Control in Nazi Germany]]
* [[Second Book (Hitler)]]

==Further reading==
* Abel, Theodore. ''Why Hitler Came into Power.'' Harvard U. Press, 1986. 315 pp.
* Bracher, Karl D. ''The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure and Consequences of National Socialism'' (1973). Influential analysis by political scientist
* Burleigh, Michael. ''The Third Reich: A New History.'' (2000). 864 pp. Stress on antisemitism; [https://www.amazon.com/Third-Reich-New-History/dp/080909326X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198874312&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Bullock, Alan. ''Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, '' (1962) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55427796 online edition]
* Evans, Richard J. ''The Coming of the Third Reich: A History.'' 2004. 622 pp., a major scholarly survey [https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Third-Reich-Richard-Evans/dp/B0007XWNGO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195982055&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search]
* Evans, Richard J. ''The Third Reich in Power: 1933-1939.'' (2005). 800 pp. The major scholarly study [https://www.amazon.com/Third-Reich-Power-1933-1939/dp/1594200742/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195982055&sr=1-3 excerpt and text search]
* Friedlander, Saul. ''Nazi Germany and the Jews: Volume 1: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939'' (1998); vol. 2: ''The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945'' (2007), the standard history [https://www.amazon.com/Years-Extermination-Nazi-Germany-1939-1945/dp/0060190434/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195979435&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Geary, Dick. ''Hitler and Nazism,'' (2000) 97 pages
* Kershaw, Ian. ''Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris.'' vol. 1. 1999. 700 pp. [https://www.amazon.com/Hitler-1889-1936-Hubris-Ian-Kershaw/dp/0393320359/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198874144&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search vol 1]; vol 2: ''Hitler, 1936-1945: Nemesis.'' 2000. 832 pp.; the leading scholarly biography, [https://www.amazon.com/Hitler-1936-1945-Nemesis-Ian-Kershaw/dp/0393322521/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198874179&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search vol 2]
* Koonz, Claudia. ''Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, Family Life, and Nazi Ideology, 1919-1945.'' (1986). 640 pp. The major study
* Overy, Richard. ''The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia'' (2004) [https://www.amazon.com/Dictators-Hitlers-Germany-Stalins-Russia/dp/B000FTCH5W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198874351&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Owings, Alison. ''Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich.'' Rutgers U. Press, 1993. 484 pp. oral histories
* Peikoff, Leonard. ''The Omninous Parallels: A Brilliant Study of America Today - and the 'ominous parallels' with the chaos of pre-Hitler Germany''; Plume, New York City (1983)
* Rempel, Gerhard. ''Hitler's Children: The Hitler Youth and the SS,'' (1989) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=94862712 online edition]
* Stibbe, Matthew. ''Women in the Third Reich,'' 2003, 208 pp.
* Tooze, Adam. ''The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy'' (2007), highly influential new study
* Welch, David. ''Hitler'' (1998.) 123pp [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=109000510 online edition]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Nazis]]
[[Category:Nazism]]
[[Category:German History]]
[[Category:Holocaust]]
[[Category:Anti-Semitism]]
[[Category:Liberals]]
[[Category:Socialism]]
[[Category:Liberalism]]
[[Category:Anti Second Amendment]]
[[Category:Anti-American]]

Trump's inept advisers

2020-08-03T03:53:50Z

FactManReturneth: FactManReturneth

'''Why does Trump not simply fire them, then?'''

''Trump's inept advisers''' have been a collection of [[Hillary Clinton]] supporters, [[Ted Cruz]] acolytes, [[Deep State]] operatives, [[Establishment]] bureaucrats, and moles who leak distorted information to the [[liberal media]].

They have severely hindered what President Trump could be achieving, and interfere with his reelection.

== [[Mark Meadows]] ==

The Chief of Staff to Trump since early March 2020, Mark Meadows' tenure has coincided with a decline by Trump in the polls and his chances for reelection. Merely a coincidental correlation? Meadows has interfered with decisive action by Trump which could have opened up access to [[hydroxychloroquine]] for the [[American]] people, who instead remain largely sheltered out of fear of being denied the all-important early treatment for the [[Wuhan virus]].

Meadows supported [[Ted Cruz]] rather than Donald Trump in early 2016.

== John Fleming ==

John Fleming, M.D., is the adviser to the Chief of Staff on medical issues, and Fleming is a shill for [[Hillary Clinton]]-supporting organized medicine. He adamantly opposes allowing Americans to access [[hydroxychloroquine]] for prevention against [[COVID-19]], despite the 65-year track record of safety for the medication.

== [[John Bolton]] ==

John Bolton is a [[neocon]] who became Trump's [[National Security Adviser]] after appearing often on television. Bolton's advocacy for foreign wars was never on the same page as Trump's pro-peace approach. But instead of working to advance Trump's superior philosophy, Bolton secretly worked on a self-serving book to harm Trump, which Bolton published after being inevitably fired.

Bolton's book received, even from the fawning [[liberal media]], “withering reviews describing it as 'bloated with self-importance.'”<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/18/john-bolton-bad-reviews-book-charts-the-room-where-it-happened-trump-presidency (quoting the review of the book by the ''New York Times'')</ref>
== References ==
{{reflist}}
[[category:Donald Trump]]