Tag: socialism

Commentary: How One Deleted Scene Turns Star Wars into a Struggle Against Socialism

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Star Wars

by Grayson Quay   In the era of Disney, many long-time Star Wars fans have bemoaned the supposed infiltration of their favorite franchise by leftist ideology. At first, I rolled my eyes at these objections, many of which remain patently absurd. But after Solo: A Star Wars Story gave us a shrill SJW droid hooking up with a pansexual Lando Calrissian, I had to admit that some critics might have a point. This wasn’t always the case, though. In fact, one of the deleted scenes included in the 2011 Star Wars Blu-Ray collection explicitly connects the evil Galactic Empire with the socialist economic policies of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In Episode IV: A New Hope, George Lucas originally wrote and shot several scenes that would introduce the viewer to Luke Skywalker long before R2-D2 and C-3PO arrived at his family’s moisture farm. The first features Luke using a pair of macrobinoculars to watch Leia’s ship, the Tantive IV, exchange fire with Darth Vader’s Imperial-class Star Destroyer. Excited by the prospect of adventure, Luke rushes to tell his friends at the Tosche Station, where he finds that his friend Biggs Darklighter has returned to Tatooine after graduating from the Imperial Academy. Luke’s friends quickly lose interest in his wild tales of space combat, and he and Biggs head off to grab a few malt brews and catch up. After a bit of…

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Campaign Platform Explains Her Primary Victory

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Ocasio

by José Niño   After pulling off a major upset in the Democratic Primary for New York’s 14th congressional district, 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now being touted as the new face of the Democratic Party. Ocasio’s victory has rejuvenated the Democratic Party and liberals nationwide. For many on the Left, Ocasio’s recent victory is a breath of fresh air after putting up with Hilary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign in 2016. Beyond the typical R vs. D analysis that continues to grab headlines, what is most troubling about Ocasio’s meteoric rise to political fame is her complete disregard for basic economics. A brief look at her platform is enough to realize that the ideas of socialism are alive and well in American politics. Her platform is centered on the following policy planks:  – Medicare for all – Free public university – Universal jobs guarantee – Housing as a human right The common denominator of all her proposals is the amount of faith placed in the State to conduct private affairs. Channeling the spirit of failed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, Ocasio describes her program as democraticsocialism. White-Washing Socialism Leftists have tried their best to re-brand and obfuscate socialism to make it palatable to the misinformed masses. No matter how…

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Commentary: How Unchecked Progressives Turned California Dreamin’ into a Liberal American Nightmare

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California liberalism

by Jeffery Rendall   Our plane’s tires screeched noticeably when we touched down in California last week, the conclusion of a journey that took us across the length of the country in a little more than five hours. Along the way I gazed out the window and tried to guess where we were at the moment, noting that from over 35,000 feet everything in the fruited plain looks surprisingly similar. But not in California. My birthplace and home for the first twenty-seven years of life has changed markedly since I left for good in the mid 90’s. Back then I felt I needed to leave – the political home of Ronald Reagan was tilting decidedly left in political and cultural orientation and California’s government was only in its beginning stages of a transformation that would choke off conservative ideas and constitutional liberty in favor of pandering to the rapidly expanding illegal alien population and know-it-all establishment elites. California was no longer California, it seemed. Sure, it still had all of the places and attractions I’d grown to love in my formative years (Disneyland!), but times were a-changing. Today, thanks to the presence of the tech industry (which largely sprouted after I exited the Golden State)…

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Three Ways Milton Friedman Improved the Field of Economics

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Milton Friedman

by Luis Pablo De La Horra   Milton Friedman is probably the most important free-market thinker of the twentieth century. His ideas in defense of capitalism and economic freedom had an enormous influence on the shift towards free-market policies that took place from the 1970s onwards. Countries like the UK, China, Chile, or Estonia followed the economic recipes contained in best sellers like Free to Choose or Capitalism and Freedom, unleashing the power of free markets to create wealth and prosperity. Yet the contributions of Friedman as an economist are often overlooked by non-economists. Here are three that will help you understand a bit better his work. 1. On Methodology In 1953, Friedman wrote a very influential essay titled The Methodology of Positive Economics, where he puts forward what he thinks is the right methodological approach to economics. According to Friedman, the assumptions on which a theory rests don’t have to be realistic: as long as they are “sufficiently good approximations for the purpose in hand” (which is to make accurate predictions), the theory is valid and useful to analyze the world. Let’s draw upon an example to better understand what he meant. We are all familiar with the theory of perfect competition, which is based on…

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School Prayer Not OK, But Blocking Traffic Is, Socialist Protesters Say

Jason M. Reynolds

Dozens of protesters sat in the crosswalk Monday in front of the Tennessee Capitol as part of the national Poor People’s Campaign, The Tennessean reported. The protest blocked afternoon rush hour traffic on the Victory Memorial Bridge (James Robertson Parkway), News Channel 5 reported. According to the group’s press release, Monday’s rally kicked off a six-week season of nonviolent direct action in Nashville, demanding a massive overhaul of the nation’s voting rights laws, the TV station said. There were more than 30 such protests nationwide. More than a dozen protesters were arrested Monday afternoon after they blocked a busy downtown Indianapolis street during rush hour, Denver 7 reported. The socialist Poor People’s Campaign styles itself as a way to “challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation’s distorted morality.” The group’s website further adds, “We aim to shift the distorted moral narrative often promoted by religious extremists in the nation from issues like prayer in school, abortion, and gun rights to one that is concerned with how our society treats the poor, those on the margins, the least of these, women, LGBTQIA folks, workers, immigrants, the disabled and the sick; equality and representation under the law; and the…

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Trained By Tennessee Socialist Organization, TIRRC is Begging Gov. Haslam to Veto Anti-Sanctuary City Bill

Chris Alto
Tennessee Star

The innocuous sounding Highlander Research and Education Center located in Jefferson County, Tennessee, is dedicated to creating radical activists that will change the social, economic and political order of the South. Beginning in 2007, the Center provided critical training to leaders and members from the TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), which is now using that training to try and convince Governor Haslam to veto the anti-sanctuary city bill passed by the Tennessee General Assembly. Under the guise of championing “social justice,” Highlander provided Justice School for TIRRC‘s  leaders and members beginning in 2007, with “sessions combin[ing] nuts-and-bolts training on organizing and leadership skills with broader discussions of social, political, and economic issues related to immigration and the immigrant rights movement.” The following year, TIRRC was named “Advocacy Affiliate of the Year” by the National Council of La Raza. TIRRC lists the Highlander Center among its coalition members. The formerly named Highlander Folk School was co-founded in 1932, by Tennessee socialists and anti-capitalists Myles Horton and Don West who modeled the school after socialist training centers they had visited in Denmark. The school was established in Monteagle, Tennessee but was shut down by the state for alleged violations of it’s charter. The school…

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Commentary: My Life Behind the Iron Curtain Was Not a Socialist Utopia

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by Carmen Alexe   Individual freedom can only exist in the context of free-market capitalism. Personal freedom thrives in capitalism, declines in government-regulated economies, and vanishes in communism. Aside from better economic and legislative policies, what America needs is a more intense appreciation for individual freedom and capitalism. I was born and raised in communist Romania during the Cold War, a country in which the government owned all the resources and means of production. The state controlled almost every aspect of our lives: our education, our job placement, the time of day we could have hot water, and what we were allowed to say. Like the rest of the Eastern European countries, Romania was often referred to as a communist country. In school, we were taught it was a socialist country. Its name prior to the 1989 Revolution to overthrow the Ceausescu regime was the Socialist Republic of Romania. From an economic standpoint, a petty fraction of property was still privately owned. In a communist system, all property is owned by the state. So if it wasn’t a true communist economy, its heavy central planning and the application of a totalitarian control over the Romanian citizenry made this nation rightfully gain…

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Commentary: Millennials Blind to Socialism’s True History of Misery, Murder, and Refugees

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Despite several horrifying current examples of nations in the grip of socialism, many of America’s millennials are happily skipping down the socialist Yellow Brick Road toward an Oz that could never be. It isn’t just Bernie Sanders’ young legions of admirers. A recent survey showed that a whopping 44 percent of young people favor socialism over…

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