Death to Communist, Socialist, and Collectivist Ideologies
To the U.S. Political Left: Your Grievances are Rooted in Political Corruption. It's Time for You to Stop Blaming Capitalism for Everything. You Look Like an Imbecile and an Ideologue.
A Eulogy to Communist, Socialist, & Collectivist Ideology.
During my naive and idealistic youth, I dabbled around with socialist and communist ideology for about a year. That is, until my economics education started to take an effect on me and the way I approach understanding and making sense of the world. Since then, I’ve pivoted to a highly pro-capitalism economic philosophy for the past several years.
I’ve read the Communist Manifesto. I’ve read Marx & Engels’ work. I’ve read modern communist work. I’m far from ignorant about socialist and communists ideas, ideologies, and philosophy on political economy. And at this point, I’ve additionally read an ungodly amount of economic theory, research, literature, and history.
I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but communism and socialism is fundamentally flawed in the naive assumptions that the philosophy is built on. It assumes that everyone is altruistic and puts the interests of the whole above the interests of the individual. This is simply not realistic. There are many, many individuals in the world who are not altruistic, and rather they are motivated only by self-interest. This fact alone is precisely why communism and socialism fundamentally require an authoritarian and fascist political system in order to work.
The Undeniable Superiority of Capitalism as an Economic Philosophy.
Not only are capitalist markets are far more efficient and effective than central planners are at allocating resources and adjusting to the demands of the revealed preferences over goods and services for all individuals, capitalist-based economies thrive by the brilliance of their market-based design that truly doesn’t get as much admiration as it deserves. The truly brilliant feature of capitalist economics, is that rather than being based on the necessity of altruism, capitalist markets make the assumption that people are rational agents.
The terms rational and rationality in economics are commonly misunderstood. This is because these terms are technical jargon with a definition specific to the field of economics that differs from the colloquial definition of rationality that is more frequently used by non-economists. In economics, rationality and being a rational agent simply means that individuals, i.e., economic agents, make decisions that are in their own best-interest.
As a behavioral economist and former alcoholic, I definitely have some of my own disagreements with this definition. Us behavioral economists have improved upon economic models by incorporating various behavioral and psychological components into our models to more accurately model and account for realistic human behavior and decision-making processes to accommodate for what this rationality assumption neglects in traditional economic models.
The brilliance of capitalist economic models is that assuming all economic agents make rational decisions and choices provides precisely the mechanism for why capitalist-based free market economic models do not depend on every individual being altruist at all times, no matter the cost. Instead, capitalist economic models that assume rationality are designed in a way such that these mechanisms for trade result in fair outcomes between even the most self-serving and antisocial individuals. These economic models for trade assume that everyone seeks the best deal for themselves that results in maximizing their utility (i.e., satisfaction, happiness, etc.). So, given that all the economic agents participate rationally in trade, the model for trading systems naturally result in trading outcomes that maximize the utility for all economic agents participating in trading and in markets. Through designing an economic system of trading based on the assumption that people seek to maximize their own self-interests, we have a system that works in producing fair outcomes for all participants regardless of the moral and ethical nature of the individuals participating in trade and markets.
The capitalist free market design for economic systems of trade is far superior than collectivist, communist, and socialist ideas about economics and trade because those mechanisms fail the moment a person deviates from the required subjective morality-based social norms rooted in the ideals of altruism and collectivism, including even in cases where individuals only do so, not because of moral rot, but out of necessity of self-preservation stemming from human’s survival instincts. Economic systems based on collectivism, communism, socialism, and altruism attempt to subjugate, control, and suppress societies because reliance on these ideals are fundamentally at odds with human nature. As follows, attempts to enforce adherence to altruistic and collectivist ideals above all else fundamentally require political systems to become fascist and authoritarian in order to uphold the functionality of their economic models.
Communism inherently requires authoritarianism within politics and governance over societies.
Capitalism grants individual liberty, autonomy, and agency to constituents, and enables libertarian politics and governance over societies.
The grievances you hold about the current state of living conditions within the U.S. are completely valid, but the blame for the issues inspiring these grievances are misplaced. The issues that have contributed to adversity and inequality within the U.S. are due to our pervasively corrupted political system, not capitalism.
Regarding San Francisco and the Berkeley-Brained Communist, Socialist, & Collectivist Ideological Brainworms.
Trust me when I tell you that I understand this ideological brainworm perspective completely. I used to believe the same ideology and lies that you’ve been fed and convinced of due to over-exposure to the socialist ideology that is pervasive within the culture in Berkeley; and, that is further exacerbated to increasing extremes as a result of the astroturf political campaigns and the psychological operations that are conducted extremely frequently in Berkeley by our communist foreign geopolitical adversaries (e.g., primarily Russia and China). Our foreign adversaries orchestrate these efforts to attempt to weaken us through pushing propaganda and policies that are destructive to our communities, infrastructure, and economy as a form of soft power warfare.
For example, consider the fentanyl crisis that has resulted in so much tragedy and despair within our communities. The fentanyl that now floods our streets is manufactured in China and imported into the United States through our shipping ports using Chinese freight ships that have constantly been coming and going between the shipping ports in China and Oakland ever since the decision was made to move our manufacturing industry to China.
Once the CCP successfully imports their fentanyl into the United States, they then exploit the vulnerable economic conditions of undocumented Honduran migrants, whom lack the right and opportunity to obtain lawful employment here. In consequence, these Honduran migrants are coerced by their circumstances to accept illegal work as distributors of this fentanyl in order for them to survive here given the severe neglect of our extremely flawed and outdated immigration system.
Have you ever done a deep dive looking into when the decision was made and who was involved in making the decision to move our manufacturing industry to China? Have you ever heard of the woman whom is married to Mitch McConnell? His wife, Elaine Chao, who was originally born in China but is now a citizen of the United States, just so happens to be the daughter of the largest shipping magnate in China. But that fact alone isn’t entirely concerning until you consider the fact that Elaine Chao, daughter of the largest Chinese shipping magnate, served as the U.S. Secretary of Transportation during the time when the decision was made to move the U.S. manufacturing industry overseas to China. I’ve never heard of a more extreme conflict of interest than this in all of my studies nor throughout my entire life.
Moving U.S. manufacturing to China was promoted as a good thing for Americans, as it enabled mass consumption of imported goods at lower prices. Those lower prices were made possible due to the lower costs of importing products that are manufactured in China. These lower prices for goods and lower production costs for manufacturing goods were only made possible through capitalizing on cheap labor through the exploitation of Chinese peasants, which the Chinese Community Party was happy to accommodate by oppressing the Chinese people into such extremes of impoverishment and desperate living conditions that the Chinese people had to accept the only employment available to them: this manufacturing work that only compensated them with near wage-slave labor conditions.
All the while, China’s elite class, those in government as members of the Chinese Communist Party, lined their pockets and amassed themselves with wealth from the financial proceeds that they were able to extract out of the labor costs that ought to have been distributed to the factory workers whom contributed their labor to the production of goods within China’s new manufacturing industry. That money that should’ve been distributed to provide dignified pay to these laborers was instead embezzled by China’s leadership, made possible by the Chinese Communist Party’s successful efforts in manufacturing a despotic society of desolate economic conditions and despondent labor conditions, in which the Chinese people were left with no choice but to submit to these coercive and exploitative labor market conditions.
Our foreign geopolitical and economic adversaries focus their efforts towards undermining the United States with special attention and increased effort specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area because it is both the technological and intellectual capitol of the world; and this provides the United States with a comparative advantage that grants us superior power and influence in setting and shaping the international stage of geopolitics, international relations, and the global economy. Our adversaries know that destabilizing the culture, politics, infrastructure, and economy that exists in the San Francisco Bay Area reduces our power and influence to effectively implement containment policies via soft power against their adversarial, oppressive, hostile, and authoritarian regimes, and in turn, provides them better odds of success in pursuing their geopolitical and economic goals.
It is absolutely necessary that the United States remains the global hegemon. The narrative that China’s desire for a multipolar world and shared global hegemony is rooted in a call for fairness in representation and equality in power and influence on the international stage. This is a complete bullshit lie. U.S. hegemony is absolutely essential for containing our adversaries, and only the United States has the military capacity and values to lead the way in these containment efforts.
If you’re wondering why these containment efforts against our foreign adversaries are so fundamentally essential, it becomes perfectly clear once you’re aware of the geopolitical and economic goals of our foreign adversaries, and the lengths to which they will go in order to achieve these aspirations if they aren’t kept in check with containment policies.
The Russian Federation
Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin want to re-establish the Soviet Union, with or without the consent of the people occupying the territory within the other nations that would need to be captured in order to achieve this goal. As stated by Vladimir Putin himself, his decision to invade Ukraine was motivated by “not wanting NATO forces along the Russian border.” Presuming this statement from Putin is true, this means that the Russian Federation intends to continue its territorial military expansion through additionally invading all nations belonging to NATO that share a border with Russia. These nations include Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Turkey (source).
Furthermore, if Putin succeeds with his war in Ukraine, it is generally suspected that Putin will continue this military expansion further with military invasions to take the territories that currently belong to Moldova, Poland, Czechia (formerly the Czech Republic), Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Belarus.
It is unclear how far Putin intends to go with his territorial military expansion, and whether he intends to expand it to only Eastern European nations belonging to NATO or if he intends to carry out a complete territorial military expansion campaign on to re-take the entire Eastern Bloc as to re-establish the entirety of the territory belonging to the former Soviet Union. Putin’s lengthy commitment to describing the long history of Russia’s territorial disputes during his recent interview with Tucker Carlson seems to suggest that Putin may indeed be planning to go as far in his territorial military expansions to re-establish the Soviet Union in its entirety.
It is my personal perspective, based on analysis of the Russian and European geographical landscape, that Putin intends to indeed continue his military expansion into Europe, but as far as and only to the extent of invading the nations that can be deemed necessary to take in order for the Russian Federation to expand its territory to include mountain ranges that can serve as defensive geographic blockades encompassing the vulnerable geographic landscape of Russia’s current territory, which is nearly entirely an open plateau that leaves Russia incredibly vulnerable to attacks and foreign invasions by its neighboring nations.
The People’s Republic of China
The Chinese Communist Party claims that Taiwan is part of China. This is not true. Taiwan is recognized as a sovereign nation by the United States.
To better understand the U.S. stance on the “One China” Policy, review the brief overview from the Center for Strategic & International Studies nonpartisan publication What Is the U.S. “One China” Policy, and Why Does it Matter? (CSIS, 2017).
For more information about U.S. relations with Taiwan, I recommend reading the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs 2022 Fact Sheet on U.S. Relations with Taiwan.
For a better understanding of the People’s Republic of China’s One China Policy, refer to the following nonpartisan document The Origins of the U.S. One-China Policy that was prepared by Specialist in Asian Affairs Susan V. Lawrence in collaboration with the Congressional Research Service (CRS) for congressional committees and Members of Congress in September of 2023.
The One China Policy has nothing to do with uniting the Chinese people.
First of all, the Chinese Communist Part really only cares about Han Chinese people. The rest of the Chinese people receive the detained, tortured, organ harvested, and/or genocide treatment instead:
In January, 2021, U.S. Secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo, released a press statement covering his determination of the genocide of Uyghurs and the atrocities in Xinjiang. The following are excerpts covering the main determinations from the press statement, but you can read the full press statement here.
After careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that since at least March 2017, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has committed crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang. These crimes are ongoing and include: the arbitrary imprisonmentor other severe deprivation of physical liberty of more than one million civilians, forced sterilization, torture of a large number of those arbitrarily detained, forced labor, and the imposition of draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement. The Nuremberg Tribunals at the end of World War II prosecuted perpetrators for crimes against humanity, the same crimes being perpetrated in Xinjiang.
In addition, after careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that the PRC, under the direction and control of the CCP, has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang. I believe this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state. The governing authorities of the second most economically, militarily, and politically powerful country on earth have made clear that they are engaged in the forced assimilation and eventual erasure of a vulnerable ethnic and religious minority group, even as they simultaneously assert their country as a global leader and attempt to remold the international system in their image.
Additionally, you can also learn more about China’s human rights violations by reading the U.S. State Department’s 2022 report on it here (U.S. State Department, 2022).
China states that their ambition is to “reclaim” the territory of Taiwan (which they will attempt to accomplish through military force in Taiwan and in the South China Sea in roughly 5 years). This stated ambition is likely a half-truth.
The primary reason China wants to take Taiwan is because the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is based in Taiwan. If China is able to successfully take Taiwan, the CCP will gain control over TSMC. How lovely of a system these damned commies have created for themselves! If the CCP gains control over TSMC, then the CCP will have successfully obtain a monopoly over the entire semiconductor manufacturing industry, enabling the CCP to entirely dominate the market and the future for artificial intelligence, the most promising and powerful computer technology of our lifetime.
If this is allowed to happen, the entire world will get to operate under CCP censorship and Skynet (yes, they literally named it after Skynet from the Terminator movies), China’s artificial intelligence-based surveillance technology system that uses video footage from the massive amount of cameras they’ve installed throughout Beijing to monitor and track everything civilians do and then goes even further with this technology by using it to assign, determine, and adjust the social credit scores of each person in order to significantly control their population and individual’s liberties as well as opportunities in life! This is like that one Black Mirror episode, but somehow even more dystopian and authoritarian. We absolutely cannot allow China to obtain this monopoly over the semiconductor manufacturing industry nor dictate the future of artificial intelligence for humanity. Nope. Not a chance. No fucking thank you.
Other Foreign Adversaries
Iran: Iran is a bit more simple, but also incredibly dangerous. Iran primarily just wants nuclear weapons, but Iran also wants to use nuclear weapons to wipe Israel entirely off the planet and start an entire regional nuclear war in the Middle East. No bueno.
North Korea: To be quite fair, pretty much all I have to share about North Korea are my own speculations. With that being said, here they are:
Kim Jong Un is a bit of a mystery to me, but what I can say about him is that he’s an authoritarian militant with an inferiority complex that he aspires to compensate for by building nuclear weapons so that he can pretend he’s a big man worthy of a seat at the table and serious consideration, despite the fact that he’s low-key insane. He also wants to nuke the United States, and honestly who knows who else he wants to nuke. The man is truly an enigma to me. He mainly just seems to want to prove that North Korea is a worthy adversary to be treated with serious consideration, which honestly just comes across as Kim Jong Un’s personal issues actualizing through bombastic, validation and attention-seeking behavior. Poor dude was probably raised by some pretty emotionally-neglectful parents.
With all that being said, I’ll regurgitate my overall point quite simply:
Marxist economists, socialists, social anarchists, commies, tankies, Maoists, and all other variants of collectivist ideologues are naive, brainwashed, ignorant, poorly-educated, and/or psychotic retards.
Capitalism is far superior to any of these alternatives to such an extreme extent that it’s frankly ridiculous to even spend any time comparing the two or discussing these collectivist ideologies with any serious consideration. Capitalism kicks ass and Marxist economists should have their degrees revoked.
SMA
Founder & Principal Writer
The Void
As a fellow Berkeley grad, I hear ya with the frustration over the prevalence of socialist/communist ideology being touted on campus. And my parents grew up under Mao in China and came to the US precisely to get away from it all! It precisely fails to work because not only is it counter to human nature like you've alluded to but it also requires a powerful and centralized authoritarian government to implement. (Wait, but that isn't communism and you say real communism is Anarcho-Communism or Libertarian Socialism? Yep, those really sounds great on paper until you realize that one can easily cheat the system and game the system to gain more or contribute less and there's no state to enforce it. At least under Mao, the state could enforce things but ultimately, the extreme centralized control required for communism didn't leave room for checks and balances to mitigate corruption which led to its downfall, at least from my understanding but I digress.)
I'm more pretty open to exploring different forms of capitalism whether it's laissez-faire or something like the Nordic model but I just cannot see how any economy without (relatively) free markets as a foundation could ever work since there's always greed.. and capitalism, by design, exploits people's greed to get them to deliver what others want which has seemed to work best out of all systems of allocating scarce resources tried throughout history.
If China takes over Taiwan they won't be able to produce high quality chips. Semiconductors aren't like oil, it requires human capital. The Taiwanese will blow up the fabrication plants if they realise China is taking over. All the machinery for high end chip fabrication is primarily made in the Netherlands so China won't be able to rebuild the factories. The reason America should defend Taiwan is not to protect the chip fabrication, it's to uphold the idea of national sovereignty and territorial integrity.