Embrace of Socialism Highlights The Difference Between Being Educated and Being Informed

There is a significant difference between being educated and being informed. To become educated, one merely has to fulfill the requirements of a specific degree-granting institution; upon doing so, one receives a doctoral degree--but it is a dangerous fallacy to confuse being educated with being informed, because education far too often involves being indoctrinated with false narratives. In contrast, being informed means thinking with an open mind, consuming information from objective sources while considering information from subjective sources with skepticism, and then synthesizing the acquired information to base opinions on facts and logic.

Our politics, our schools, and our media outlets have far too many educated people and far too few informed people. Educated people often spew ideas that Vladimir Nabokov would correctly dismiss as "poshlost." One such idea is that socialism is good. 

In an August 6, 2025 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed titled "The Scholar Who Saw Zohran Mamdani Coming in 2003," Daniel Shuchman noted that over 20 years ago Alan Charles Kors foretold the circumstances under which socialist ideas could take sway in the West:

Mr. Kors lamented that socialism has yet to be held accountable for the scale of its crimes: "No cause, ever, in the history of all mankind, has produced more cold-blooded tyrants, more slaughtered innocents and more orphans than socialism with power." The failure to acknowledge and come to terms with this reality in the West, he believed, eventually would allow socialism to resuscitate itself, even with millions of skeletons hiding in plain view.

Zohran Mamdani, the New York Democratic mayoral nominee, has proposed government-run grocery stores as a hallmark of his campaign. This is a perplexing platform because, as Mr. Kors reminded us in his paper, socialism's "collectivization of agriculture alone led to untold suffering" and the starvation of millions...

As Mr. Kors noted, wherever socialism was implemented, "its vision of the abolition of private property, economic inequality, and the allocation of capital and goods by free markets, culminated in the crushing of individual, economic, religious, associational, and political liberty."

It is demonstrably false that Mamdani is promoting some form of "democratic socialism" that can be distinguished from the socialism that failed in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, North Korea, and elsewhere. The socialism that failed in those countries advertised itself as "democratic socialism" before showing its fangs and true nature after its leaders had full control of the power levers. Socialism starts with a utopian dream and ends with a dystopian nightmare; informed people understand this, but educated people often have been indoctrinated to believe in the dream while ignoring the inevitable nightmare.

As I noted in a 2021 article, former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov--who had firsthand experience with socialist tyranny while living in the former Soviet Union--laments the Western embrace of socialism. The contrast between how an informed person like Kasparov speaks and how educated Leftists speak is profound:

Asked to expound upon the difference between America and the Soviet Union, Kasparov begins by stating, "The problem with Americans is you take things for granted. You keep forgetting the wise words of Ronald Reagan...that freedom is a fragile thing that is never more than one generation away from extinction." Kasparov adds that when he lived under Soviet tyranny, "We knew America had problems. Again, there is no perfection in this world! Compare this country to any other place on the planet and you will not find a place that offers more opportunities for people of all races, genders. That is why people like me are getting so concerned when self-criticism turns into self-flagellation." He rightly calls it "nonsense" to assert that America was built on evil, and he adds, "I know that a lot of people may feel uncomfortable with what I am saying, but I speak on behalf of millions and millions and millions of people from Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, other places who look at America and they are confused and scared and don't understand why this great power is in retreat." 

America is not evil, and it is not courageous or "speaking one's truth" (what a vacuous phrase that is!) to call America evil. America is not perfect, but America is--in the timeless words of Abraham Lincoln--"The last, best hope of Earth." It is courageous to speak that truth in a time and place where speaking truth can get you canceled. I applaud Garry Kasparov, and I hope that his message plays a role in helping to reverse the deplorable trend of American self-flagellation that has become a badge of pride to some but is in fact a badge of ignorance and shame.

Kasparov concludes by noting that the free world is at war with tyrannical forces and regimes, whether or not we understand and accept that challenge--and it is a fight to the death. He wisely notes that America did not end the war in Afghanistan and we certainly did not win the war; we retreated. We must be eternally vigilant to build a better world not only for ourselves but for our children.

The New York mayoral campaign is not just of local significance. New York City is the largest city in our country, and is a symbol of what our country represents (or should represent): a melting pot of different ethnic groups and religious groups living side by side while enjoying the unparalleled freedoms and opportunities that exist only in America. Free countries like America build fences to keep out illegal immigrants, while tyrannical countries build fences to prevent people from leaving. It would be an unspeakable tragedy if New York City became a bridgehead for implementing the socialist nightmare on our shores. 

It may seem overwhelming to confront the hordes of educated people who promote socialism and the "useful idiots" who blindly follow them, but two years ago in the wake of Hamas' mass casualty terrorist attack against Israel--and the outpouring of "progressive" support for Hamas--I outlined the methods for combating the self-proclaimed "progressives":

1) Don't vote for self-proclaimed "progressives." We need to vote the self-proclaimed "Squad" and all of their allies out of Congress (and out of any other elected offices) as soon as possible.

2) Don't contribute money, time, or any other support to organizations that are founded on Marxist, anti-democratic principles. If you do a little research, it is not difficult to identify these organizations, and it is also helpful to understand that most of them use the same catchphrases/terminology that provide great warning signs of their true nature/goals.

3) Fight against the infiltration of pseudo-intellectual nonsense into the education system. No reasonable person is saying that slavery should not be taught about in the schools, or that racism should not be discussed--but the notion that entire groups of people can be classified as oppressed or oppressors (or racists or antiracists) should be consigned to the dustbin of discredited concepts. 

4) If you went to college, urge your alma mater to sign up with Universities United Against Terrorism. My undergrad alma mater Excelsior University signed up after I contacted the university president; shamefully, my law school alma mater University of Dayton has not signed up. Make it clear to colleges, corporations, and charities that you will redirect your contributions away from institutions that lack the moral clarity/courage to condemn Hamas and toward institutions that display moral clarity and courage. 

The self-proclaimed "progressives" are defiant, loud, and strident, but they have not taken over society--yet. It is our duty to make sure that they never do while also being aware that our society is not perfect and while working toward improving our society in the areas where it falls short of its foundational ideals.

When Will Self-Proclaimed "Progressives" Speak Out Against the Discrimination and Violence Women Endure in Islamic Countries?

Self-proclaimed "progressives" are very outspoken regarding how much they abhor Israel, but they are very quiet regarding the horrific policies of other Middle East nations--policies that one would assume would outrage a progressive (or any decent person).

For example, the marriage of underage girls is a standard feature of Islamic culture. As Burak Bekdil aptly put it, "There are civilized and medieval worlds in the 21st century--and there are medieval leaders dressed in suits and ties who pretend to belong to the civilized world." Bekdil worked as a journalist in Turkey for 29 years, until he was fired for daring to write the truth about what is happening inside Turkey.

Decades ago, Turkey was a secular country. Women won the right to vote in national Turkish elections in 1934, 10 years before French women won that right. Bekdil explains that under Islamic rule Turkey has regressed:

Today, in Turkey, the driving force is political Islam. On November 25, protestors gathered in several provinces to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. They were met with a heavy police presence and violent crackdown. Several women were detained in the protests, including 20 journalists. "We are not allowed to leave the [police] blockade," journalist Sultan Eylem Keleş wrote in a tweet.

Self-proclaimed "progressives" claim to be very concerned about women's rights, about police brutality, and about fascist tendencies in politics. Why do we not hear the "Squad" speaking out about Turkey? Why do we not hear the "Squad" speaking out about Iranian repression, or repression in Syria, Afghanistan, the Palestinian Authority, and other Islamic regimes? Why do we not hear the "Squad"--who claim to be so concerned about Muslim rights--speaking out about China's genocide of the Uyghurs?

Why is the "Squad" obsessively focused on repeatedly issuing public denunciations of Israel, the only democratic country in the Middle East?

Any honest and aware person knows the answer: self-proclaimed "progressives" are not interested in human rights; they are interested in pushing forward an agenda that includes a toxic mixture of antisemitism, socialism/Marxism, and opposition to the core values that are essential for America's survival, including the rule of law, separation of powers, the existence of objective truth (as opposed to each person's "truth"), and the distinction between equal rights (to which we are all entitled) versus equal outcomes (which is not only unjust but also impossible to attain). 

If you are not Jewish, you may think that the blatant antisemitism and anti-Zionism of the "Squad" is not relevant to you--but antisemitism and anti-Zionism not only harms Jews and Israelis: by taking the focus off of actual oppression, the "Squad" and other self-proclaimed "progressives" enable the truly repressive regimes to continue to restrict freedom and cause harm on a massive scale.

The 2022 China Olympics Should Go Down in Infamy Alongside the 1936 Nazi Olympics

All that is missing from the 2022 China Genocide Olympics are the Chinese versions of Leni Riefenstahl's "Olympia" and "Triumph of the Will," but there is little doubt that the Chinese Communist Party is working on their own homegrown propaganda to match what Riefenstahl created to whitewash the atrocities of Nazi Germany as Adolf Hitler and his minions hosted the 1936 Olympics. The international community cast a blind eye to China's horrific policies by giving China the opportunity to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, and it is sadly evident that the international community has not grown a backbone or found a conscience in the intervening 14 years.

At least we can count on self-proclaimed "progressives" and groups like Amnesty International to speak out on behalf of the estimated 1 million Uyghurs who are being "reeducated"--corruption of language is the first step toward destruction of people--by the Chinese government.

Oh, wait--Amnesty International is too busy libeling and demonizing the only democracy in the Middle East to have much time to shine light on China's ongoing atrocities, and self-proclaimed "progressives" are too busy with promoting their own narrow-minded agendas to have much time to focus on real world issues and problems. Far too many people do not understand one of the major problems with false historical narratives: you might think that it does not matter to you if Amnesty International attacks Israel, because you are not Jewish and feel indifferent toward Israel and the Jewish people--but this is precisely what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. meant when he declared, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." An attack against Israel and the Jewish people not only menaces Israel and the Jewish people, but it also diverts attention and energy from people whose suffering demands action before it is too late.

Sadly, self-proclaimed "progressives" have a singular obsession with ostracizing Israel/berating Jews, and this obsession renders them unwilling and/or incapable of helping people who really need help.

It should have been eye-opening when Chamath Palihapitiya, a minority owner of the Golden State Warriors, declared, "Nobody cares about what's happening to the Uyghurs, OK. You bring it up because you care, and I think it's nice that you care. The rest of us don't care. I'm just telling you a very hard, ugly truth. Of all the things that I care about, yes, it is below my line." Palihapitiya has been justifiably criticized for what he said and how he said it, but few people are willing to admit that his blunt words spoke a deep truth about the NBA, a league that pats itself on the back for being "progressive" but in reality mainly cares about profits and, as I previously noted, adjusts its public stances on a variety of issues based on profits, not principle:

If the NBA thought that it could make more money by having someone read excerpts from The Communist Manifesto before each game then the NBA would do it in a heartbeat; if the NBA thought that paying customers did not care about the National Anthem then the NBA would drop the National Anthem in a heartbeat.

For now, playing the National Anthem is a better financial decision than not playing the National Anthem. 

There is no principle at work here other than maximizing profits. There is nothing inherently wrong with maximizing profits--provided that no laws are broken and no people are harmed--but it is obnoxious when a multi-billion dollar business repeatedly makes money-centered decisions while at the same time touting how progressive it is.

The NBA does not care about genocide in China, because doing business with China is a significant revenue source that the NBA is determined to maintain and grow.

Have you ever asked yourself why is there an international movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) directed against a tiny country that is the only democracy in the Middle East, but yet the self-proclaimed "progressives" who are so active in BDS make no effort to help the Uyghurs? Why do members of the obnoxious "Squad" constantly issue statements attacking Israel but say nothing about China? 

If you analyze behavior carefully and objectively, and place actions in historical context, then you figure out that the "Squad" could not care less about human rights, much less the rights of Muslims in general or Palestinian Arabs in particular; the "Squad" has an obsessive, unhealthy focus on attacking Israel. China's persecution of Muslims does not even register to the "Squad" and to other self-proclaimed "progressives" because going after China (1) could hurt their own self-interest in various ways and (2) does not advance their antisemitic and anti-Zionist goals. It is not possible to fully understand the self-proclaimed "progressives" without acknowledging how deeply intertwined their thoughts and actions are with antisemitic thoughts and actions.

Anti-Zionism is irrational not only because it is based on lies, but because if the anti-Zionists achieved their goal of destroying Israel this would not help the people they supposedly are trying to help: if Israel disappeared tomorrow, there is not one Muslim or Arab on Earth whose day to day living conditions would improve; in fact, the day to day living conditions of Muslim and Arab citizens of Israel would immediately worsen, because they would fall under the control of Hamas, the PLO, and/or the Iranian/Syrian axis. In contrast, if the Chinese government were replaced by a democratic government then the lives of over 1.4 billion Chinese people would improve (with, perhaps, the narrow exception of Chinese Communist Party functionaries who have become wealthy by exploiting their country's people and resources--those CCP functionaries are the true role models for many American self-proclaimed "progressives" who dream of reshaping our country's economic and political systems while, of course, helping themselves to what they consider their fair share of the pie by taking from those who they consider to be unworthy). 

The next time you hear a politician or a social justice "warrior" attack Israel, even if you don't care at all about Israel think about China and the Uyghurs, and ask yourself why the person who is speaking refuses to focus on real life and death issues. This is not just about the self-proclaimed "progressives," either, and it is important to heed the wise words spoken by Garry Kasparov in a recent interview: 

During the interview, Kasparov made a very insightful comment about the sad state of American political discourse. America used to be about striving for excellence, he explained, but the last two Presidential elections have been about choosing the lesser of two evils. Kasparov rejects both the American Left's embrace of socialism and the American Right's embrace of Donald Trump, and he implores our country to get back on the path of providing leadership to the Free World, which he notes was a bipartisan goal from 1945-1991. Kasparov asserts that during that period Democrats and Republicans disagreed about methods but not goals, but that since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War the two parties no longer agree about goals, which has set America adrift and threatens our leadership role in the world by damaging our moral authority.

The American public should not face a binary choice between self-proclaimed "progressives" and Donald Trump. We deserve better from our leaders, but we must demand better from our leaders.