Tag: socialism

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Jim Carrey, Venezuela, and the Myth of Nordic Socialism

While Jim Carrey (net worth $150 million) proudly proclaims the virtues of socialism, I am reminded that only a few years ago Sean Penn, Michael Moore, and Bernie Sanders were proclaiming the virtues of Venezuela and her deceased leader, Hugo Chavez. Now, everyone–including Carrey–wants to distance themselves from Venezuela. The very policies praised and adored by Hollywood Chavistas are now decried as not a legitimate example of true socialism. “We will now praise the socialism of Nordic countries,” they say. But as it has been proven elsewhere the so-called Nordic socialism is a myth.

But the countries where socialism has been tried and tested and experimented with whether Argentina or Portugal, Ecuador or Bolivia (Evo Morales), Brazil or China the results are undeniable: the people continue to suffer and embolden the same tyrants who enrich themselves and fool the populace under the banner of “fairness,” “equality,” “distributionism” and the “common good.” Socialism as a system is a defeatist ideology. It ravishes populations and takes away their moral dignity.

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Gimme that good ‘ol fashioned socialism

I find myself somewhat disconcerted knowing that millennials in this country want a system of government that I grew up with in Brazil. It’s a bizarre phenomenon. Let me tell you that apart from the utopian sentiments of a government-controlled system and the supposed glories it will bring, the harsh reality is that it produces misery upon misery. My country’s economy forces the general population to have no more than two kids, where both sets of parents must work to make ends meet, depend on an ever-failing public education, suffer under a brutally overwhelmed and incompetent health care system where some patients die waiting for care, and where the vast amount of evangelicals find themselves at the feet of wealth and prosperity Gospel preachers seeking some “grace” to overcome their financial burdens. From Argentina to Venezuela, from Ecuador to Bolivia, the system is virtually the same, yet the people continue to suffer and embolden the same tyrants who enrich themselves and fool the populace under the banner of “fairness,” “equality,” and the “common good.” So, yes, I am befuddled by this phenomenon.