We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Samizdata quote of the day

Long before Chavez gained power in Caracas, Sanders expressed support for the suppression of dissent and censorship of the press implemented in his long-favored models of socialist Shangri-La: Cuba and Nicaragua. The Sandinista regime’s restrictions on the independent newspaper La Prensa “makes sense to me” he commented at the time, even as he sparred with Vermont’s Burlington Free Press over his Castro fanboy-ism.

J.C.Tuccille

11 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Everyone expressing dissent should have those opinions blocked from publication, except for me.

    – Bernie Sanders

  • Paul Marks

    Sanders does not hide the ideology that Hillary Clinton does hide.

    Yet Senator Bernard Sanders is very popular with the university educated elite – and those who follow the entertainment media.

    Accept it should be “of course” not “yet” that Senator Sanders is popular with those influenced by the education system and the entertainment media.

    Eventually “mainstream” politicians will decide it is not worth hiding their ideology – and come out openly as “Social Justice” types dedicated to destroying “capitalism”.

    Perhaps this war was lost as long ago as the 1950s when it was decided that anyone who tried to oppose anti “big business” and anti “the rich” stuff in the education system and the entertainment media was a “McCarthyite” (even though Senator McCarthy had little interest in such matters) and that being such a person was worse than being a Marxist.

    So the education system and the media (especially the entertainment media) became a playground for what is essentially Marxism that does not speak its name – that just spreads the Marxist message (“Big Business” and “the rich” are to blame for everything and the poor have fundamentally opposed interests to the rich) without using the words “socialist” or “Marxist”.

    Why not just use the words?

    It is the logical end point.

  • Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism. Except when expressed by a traitor.

    Are you dissenting? You are a traitor.

  • PersonFromPorlock

    I really do object to the loose use of “Marxist” in describing our politicians: they are looters who find that a centrally-controlled economy makes for easy pickings. Ideology has little to do with it, and the use of a bugaboo word only weakens criticism of them.

    Now, it may be that Sanders is a Marxist; but the term is not generally applicable to his colleagues.

  • I really do object to the loose use of “Marxist” in describing our politicians: they are looters who find that a centrally-controlled economy makes for easy pickings. Ideology has little to do with it, and the use of a bugaboo word only weakens criticism of them.

    I agree.

    Now, it may be that Sanders is a Marxist…

    I think he is actually an exception to the above which I agreed with. He really is a Marxist, a paleo-socialist throwback from the bad old days.

  • Alisa

    they are looters who find that a centrally-controlled economy makes for easy pickings.

    Isn’t that what Marxism is all about?

  • PersonFromPorlock

    Alisa
    April 27, 2016 at 12:17 am
    Isn’t that what Marxism is all about?

    Marxism (as practiced) is one kind of looting, but ‘looting’ is the general case. A centrally-controlled economy, with the producers reduced to powerlessness, is as useful to looters of the nominal Right as it is to those of the nominal Left.

  • Nicholas (Excentrality!) Gray

    Communism is about the center owning all property, but Fascism/Socialism is about the center dictating what you do with ‘your’ property! Completely different! You are allowed to name ‘your’ property after yourself, and not have a dreary ‘People’s’ title on it.

  • Thailover

    If you can’t do whatever you want with your property, and have to ask permission from either government or the rest of the tribe (“society”) for allowances, and have to pay taxes on it every year you “own” it and they can take it from you whenever the whim hits them….you really don’t have private property. Private property rights and rights of contract have been dying in America for over 100yrs.

  • Thailover

    BTW, I can’t remember who it was in this forum that suggested that Sanders is a test balloon for the far left, but I agree with them. Plus he’s a mock pseudo-opposition for The Corranated One. I guess someone wants to give the impression that she’s actually accomplished something by “beating” someone left of Saul Alinsky.

  • Widdershins

    Bring climate deniers to justice so we can aggressively tackle climate change.

    From Bernie’s website. No room for debate about the science, just bang em up if they don’t agree with him. Man’s a fascist.