The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived!
Maybe, just sometimes, we let fools dig themselves deeper into their folly.
Take New Yorkers. The city’s government has been dysfunctional for ages. But now it’s potentially taking the starkest left turn yet, towards . . . communism.
Mayoral candidate Rep. Zorhan Mamdani may call himself a “democratic socialist” and quote Martin Luther King piously, but he also admits that seizing the means of production is the ultimate goal . . . just not politically acceptable.
Yet.
That’s communism. Will New Yorkers vote for a commie?
Maybe running under the Democratic banner is cover enough for many voters. Seems safe. Seeking to help “the poor” by attacking “the rich” and “the whites” (as I wrote last Monday) is certainly not unfamiliar.
And neither is his reaction to rising food prices: blame something called “capitalism.”
Then set up government-run grocery stores!
While our first instinct is to oppose him with everything we’ve got, comedian Steven Crowder counsels otherwise. “Maybe he’s exactly what New York City deserves,” says Crowder. Let Mamdani make New York an object lesson in what not to do.
New Yorkers can vote in this “teachable moment” for the whole nation: pop the corn and watch the Big Apple rot under Mamdani — with food cheaper everywhere else, under Trump.
Or so Crowder argues.
Embrace the old motto, “mundus vult decipi” (the world wants to be deceived), and let one city run further down the length of rope . . . until they’ve done enough damage.
To learn. Finally.
If one city wants communism, let it have it.
Good and hard.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Previously on This Is Common Sense:
July 3 — The Big Decommodification — a communist housing plan for socialist NYC.
July 1 — If Mamdani Wins — the likely results of electing a socialist mayor.
June 30 — Socialist Intifada — the problematic philosophy of NYC’s political phenom.
Illustration created with Krea and Firefly
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16 replies on “Vote Communist!”
Few people properly learn from the failures of socialism, because they do not understand the Problem of Economic Calculation, and other explanations for failure seem perfectly plausible to them. Few people will learn if New York City should be subjected to Mr Mamdani’s schemes.
But the rest of America should tell New Yorkers now that, no matter what, they will not receive a bail-out.
“While it may not be difficult to destroy the spontaneous formations which are the indispensable bases of a free civilization, it may be beyond our power deliberately to reconstruct such a civilization once these foundations are destroyed.”_Hayek
The reason is that centeal planning can never replicate all of the nuances that a free market adds, that spell the difference between success and failure.
The voters may want communism, but NYC is not a self-contained entity. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum. People all over the tri-state area travel into the city daily to work. Will those jobs vanish? Doubtful. Then there’s Wall Street. Do we move all the financial and global entities out of NYC to protect the rest of us from communism? Hard to see how it can be done. Even if DC won’t give them another bailout, the citizens of NYC will still be entitled to all benefits and freebies available to the rest of Americans.
You may be concerned about the wrong thing!
“As president, Donald Trump pretty much checks all the warning boxes for an autocrat. Last September Scientific American warned of Trump’s “nonsensical conspiracy fantasies,” that he “ignores the climate crisis” and has fondness for “unqualified ideologues,” whom he would appoint should he become president again. It’s now May and sadly, that all checks out.
The U.S. is in a bad place and, scholars warn, looks to be headed for worse.
Worse even than Trump’s relentless attacks on science have been his administration’s assaults on the law. His officials have illegally fired federal workers, impounded congressional appropriations and seized people off the street for deportations to foreign prisons, threatening the same for all U.S. citizens. “The depth and breadth of this administration’s disregard for civil liberties, political pluralism, the separation of powers and legal constraints of all kinds mark it as an authoritarian regime,” law professor David Pozen of the Columbia University School of Law told the New York Times in April.”
Even the Scientific American has become a part of the state’s propaganda machine. It’s pathetic.
All of these issues have been addressed on this site in great detail. If you don’t know the obvious responses to your silly arguments yet, it can only mean that you don’t care about the counter-arguments. You’re a partisan shill. Not a truth seeker.
A reminder: you supported a man for president who spent the early part of his career putting hundreds of thousands of human beings into cages for the crime of owning a plant. (Biden claims to have been a key author of every major crime bill passed during his time in DC. I can show you the videos.) This is what authoritarianism looks like.
Appears you can’t take the truth about the “want to be” dictator! 90 deals in 90 days (actually ZERO), lies about tariffs, felon, draft dodger, adulterer, etc. The list is much longer!
Trump is a disciple of Norman Vincent Peale (The Power of Positive Thinking). Peale is a part of the “manifesting” movement.
Trump’s using a technique that all successful people use. It involves a kind of self deception in that you have to imagine a thing is accomplished before it’s really accomplished. Everybody uses this strategy to grow and move forward in life. Is that “lying?”
Well, it’s a kind of lying. If used unwisely it easily becomes self delusion. If used wisely it manifests dreams.
Sometimes Trump uses it wisely and sometimes he stumbles. But like a true student of Peale, he quickly reframes his failures and builds on them.
That’s a key to understanding Trump and his “lies.” You’re right. Con men use the same trick. We all use the same trick.
Leftists cling to their idealism even when shown the reasons why their beliefs will lead to failure and starvation. They do it instinctively because they know that success comes from clinging to a vision even when there are powerful objections from others. You “trick” yourself in the pursuit of an ideal. And sometimes it works. But it’s a disaster when you let it grow into delusion.
Intention without wisdom crashes and burns.
Is Trump “wise?” Probably not personally. He’s kind of a goofball. But he’s definitely an American type. Think Professor Harold Hill from “The Music Man.” And he has astonishing instincts. It’s made him billions. It made him president against all odds. Peale’s philosophy appears to work.
He’s stated his intentions: less government control. No more endless wars. Less taxation. Less government waste and corruption. (and no, his intention is not to become “dictator.” He was teasing the obnoxious left, who have completely lost their sense of humor. Trump has already stepped away from the office once before. He did it peacefully. A group of protesters got caught up in a riot and the media duped you into perceiving it as an “attempted otherthrow” of the state.. There was no way on earth that a small group of unarmed protesters was going to overthrow the government and reinstall Trump as president. Trump knows this. The people in the riot knew this. I know this. You know this. Earlier in the day, Trump cautioned them to remain peaceful. But the crowd got out of hand. Just like crowds often do. As the left demonstrates regularly.)
Now let’s hold him to his actual intentions. Even if his way there is strange and unpredictable. If he stumbles (ignores due process), then yell loudly. I will too. And so will Paul Jacob. If enough of us howl, Trump will note the stumble and reframe his approach. That’s the key to understanding Trump.
That’s how life works.
To summarize: we already live in authoritarian society. We have for a long time. MAGA is a chance to break free (or at least push back a little). It’s why the authoritarians currently in power (and their propaganda machine, corporate media) have been in such a panic.
You can’t see it because you’ve been pounded by nonstop propaganda from these creatures. For years. They are terrified and are doing everything they can to stay in power. The endless propaganda has triggered mass psychosis in half the population. You’ve been swept up in it.
“The victim of mind manipulation is unaware that he is a victim. To him the walls of his prison are invisible and he believes himself to be free.”
–Aldous Huxley
Look in the mirror, you are the model for a “partisan shill”!
The only thing saving the stock market from the tariffs is TACO! Trump Always Chickens Out! TACO. He lies about tariffs saying that China and others pay the tariffs. It is people and companies in the U.S. that pay the tariffs. Trump always lies about that. And you believe him. Trump has changed his mind on tariffs 27+ times since April. Trump refuses to follow due process just as a dictator would do! Get your head out of…
Criticizing Trump for poor money management skills is laughable.
The “reasonable politicians” you’re yearning for have put the country $37 trillion in debt. Congress-morons can’t balance the budget but they all become millionaires. When they’re not robbing us, they’re obsessed with controlling the rest of us. They force boys to die in pointless wars and put people in cages for owning a plant. We’ve been ruled by a pack of fools for a long time. We’ve been living in an authoritarian state for a long time. At worst, Trump is nothing new. The hope is that he’s a chance to reign in some of the corruption and waste. Imperfect. But a chance.
So far, your response to DOGE has been hysterical screaming. You’re not mad about corruption and waste and authoritarianism. You’re mad because your gang of corrupt wasteful authoritarians is out of power.
It’s pathetic.
Crops rotting on the vine is what you get with Trump the dictator! Heavily armed ICE agents in LA. Chasing immigrants who are nothing more than working at jobs no one else will do. SAD, but you love it. A dictator worshiper!
Three freedom-centered arguments for enforcing immigration law:
First, we’re surrounded by nations that see the U.S. as enemy #1, often for understandable reasons. Uncontrolled borders give those adversaries a free pass to infiltrate and destabilize us. That’s not paranoia; it’s geopolitics.
Second, mass influxes of new arrivals, especially dependents, can overwhelm systems and fuel centralized state socialism—think Cloward-Piven on steroids (ask Grok). More strain on the welfare state means more power for the government, not less.
Third, if we’re flooded with people who don’t get liberty or are hostile to it, we risk tipping further into authoritarianism. We’re already fighting a creeping police state; diluting the freedom-minded population could be the final nail. (people who expect to taken care of by the state after entering illegally ARE NOT FRIENDS OF FREEDOM.)
Will this site continue to censor my comments? Seems like someone doesn’t like opinions that are different than MAGA BS.
This has been explained to you before. The comments are not monitored 24 hours a day.
You really can’t remember anything from one day to the next, can you. 🙂
Beware of people with bags picking vegetables! The sky is falling.
Are you really too slow to understand the danger of incentivizing unrestricted immigration? I gave you three perfectly good reasons. You ignored them.
If you’re concerned about the innocent immigrants, start a fund to help them. That is, if you’re genuinely committed to helping them and not just complaining and making noise so you can feel virtuous.
Government is an institution who’s defining characteristic is the legal authority to use violence to achieve its goals. The exact wrong tool to use for charity and public service.
AI and social media have surfaced all kinds of new options for coordinating and funding these things.
There have always been more efficient and ethical ways to fund a social safety net, for instance. You ignored them or were conditioned NOT to notice them by people who make a living by forcing the rest of us to send them lots and lots of money.
Modern technology makes it impossible to ignore the better alternatives. And it’s happening just in time. After the coming default on the national debt (currently $37 trillion), ALL of your favorite gravy train government programs are going to disappear.
Taxing the billionaires can’t pay down the national debt. Stealing all the billionaire wealth in existence would fund our current government for less than a year. (ask Grok) Then no more billionaires and no more funding. Turning the rest of us into tax slaves to pay down the national debt won’t work. People won’t stand for that level of taxation. And “printing new money” to pay down the debt will cause inflation, which is just another form of taxation. (ask Grok to explain inflation to you)
The only way to avoid a total collapse of a system that lots of people are depending on right now: cut spending and generate new wealth.
Free people generate new wealth. Governments suck-up/waste/destroy wealth. The evidence is all around us.
Do you get paid by the word?