Quote of the Day
Nothing much has changed with the New York Times over the years. In the 1930s, thanks to Walter Duranty, the so-called “newspaper of record” was effectively cheerleading for Joseph Stalin’s communism. Today, in Jia Lynn Yang’s “How American Socialism Changed, and Stormed the Democratic Party,” it displays a similar sympathy for a modernized version of that same evil system, now advanced by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his allies.
Yang’s article is filled with admiration for socialism’s supposed adaptability and moral force. She notes that Mamdani’s New York protégés “won by harnessing a wide sense of grievance.” In other words, they are skilled politicians, identifying discontent and converting it into electoral success. But Stalin, too, harnessed grievance, appealing to resentment against the czarist regime. That did not make him a champion of liberty.
Walter E. Block
July 14, 2026
The New York Times stumped for Stalin. Now it’s mooning over Mamdani
What do you expect? If they were capable of learning from history and the world around them, they could see the difference between East and West Germany, North and South Korea, Hati and the Dominican Republic (opposite sides of the same island), and Venezuela before and after the socialists took power.
Even when lined up at the edge of the ditch like millions of others before them, they will still insist, “This is a mistake! I’m a good communist! This isn’t real communism!”*
Prepare and respond appropriately.
* Read Gulag Archipelago and Darkness at Noon for details of Stalin’s purges.
The facts are so obviously and repeatedly in evidence that an adult cannot claim “I didn’t know” unless they are stupid or willfully ignoring the truth. That leaves malevolence of one kind or another. Perhaps they’re spoiled intellectuals. Perhaps they see it as a tool to destroy the current system so they can seize power. Perhaps they have “daddy issues” and they’re “stickin’ it to da man!”
The common theme is they cannot be reasoned with and their actions are a threat to me, my family and billions of other humans
What’s to be done….
S S S
Socialism works wonderfully!
But what “work” is it that it succeeds at? What are the goals that it accomplishes so well?
That’s the part they always gloss over, because it’s not the normal “work” we think of government doing to be called “successful”.
It supports dictatorship better than anything but a nice title (“king”, “emperor”) backed by centuries of traditional. It empowers bureaucrats. It rewards snitches with power. It enables mass murder.
All of those things (and several other such horrors) are desired by certain people. For them, socialism works quite well.
I suspect the difference between Haiti and the Dominican Republic has more to do with demographics than economic and political philosophies.
You are almost certainly correct. Wasn’t the Dominican Republic the home of Papa Doc Duvalier and his son, the unfortunately nicknamed “Baby Doc”?
Besides Demographics, I think Geography may play a part as well.
I acknowledge the sharp difference in green on satellite images of the island, between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but I have a suspicion that this same difference was apparent the day before Columbus arrived.
Nope. Papa Doc was Haiti
Haiti is deforested because they use the wood to make charcoal for cooking. Too poor to afford anything else.
In George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm he described how the totalitarian state took and kept power. In Sir John Glubb’s https://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf The Fate of Empire and Search for Survival, he described the patterns of the fall of empires. Yuri Bezmenov talked about the mechanisms of subversion and taking control. It’s not just communists, they just have many centuries of history to look back on to see what groups or types of people can be used and discarded effectively, and cynically exploit them.
The conclusions and solutions are obvious, but very politically incorrect. VERY incorrect.
I can’t claim this as my own, but it bears repeating:
“Collectivists are the ‘Flat Earthers’ of economics.”
They’re either yanking your chain for perverse ends, or they’re so profoundly ignorant such as to not be worth engaging in debate.
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Former French colonies have not done well. English ones did better until Communists took over.
Most leftists can and do see the difference between the outcomes of socialism and capitalism. It’s just that MOST leftist believe THEY will be part of the tiny minority in power enjoying all the perks and privileges. What they DON’T get is MOST of them will be put up against the wall and shot by the few who DO manage to gain power for being a threat to that power. Most of the leftists who helped Stalin, Lenin etc gain power ended up with a bullet as thanks for their efforts.