[rrrod]

Trump is popular in Colombia.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Trump is popular in Colombia.

Socialism is all too popular, even in the US. We need to educate!

What too few realize is that socialism is the very antithesis of progress. The only thing socialists know to do with an economy - besides debasing the currency - is imposing wage and price controls to try to cover their tracks as they are debasing the currency.

That is, government has no better idea than anyone else as to what prices should be - whether one bean is worth five grains of wheat, or twenty - and, given the authority, will implement arbitrary decisions.

Socialism is cynicism toward society and, concomitantly, socialism is naiveté toward government. Socialists want to obscure the difference between “society” and “government” (compare “public” schools with the honest label, government schools):

whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one . . . - Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)

This confirms the point: skepticism toward society is the rationale for the “evil” (expense and imposition on liberty) of government. So we see that cynicism toward government would be naiveté toward society - and cynicism toward society would constitute naiveté toward the only corrective with which to discipline society. That is, government.

There is need for some skepticism towards both society and government. But cynicism toward society exposes the people to unlimited evil from government. As Venezuelans have been learning to their cost.

And because journalism simultaneously admits it is negative (“If it bleeds, it leads”) and claims to be objective, the planted axiom in journalism is that negativity is objectivity. A claim which is not susceptible of improvement as a definition of cynicism.