Posted on 02/11/2020 4:19:48 PM PST by Kaslin
Bernie Sanders keeps telling young people how he will give them so much free stuff, if only they will go with him, vote for him. Bernie basically stands in front of a windowless van, telling kids to get in, luring them with candy and puppies.
Back in my day, I was taught to be wary of people luring me with promises of Utopia. I was taught that if someone offers something for free, I should tell them, "no, thank you, I can't afford it." But those days are gone. At the start of the new millennium, adults have lost sight of teaching kids the basics.
Today's youngest voters grew up tightly packed in bubble wrap, never exploring on their own, never making mistakes from which they can learn, never getting to understand reality. These young people spent their lives dependent on authority, on guidance. Yet those who were supposed to guide them have failed them. Millennials grew up as a generation expecting handouts but not learning work ethic or personal responsibility, never finding the inner drive to succeed independently. The idea of autonomy and freedom are genuinely frightening concepts for these youths. Socialism simply fits their expectations more comfortably. If you grow up with white-glove care from a nanny, why wouldn't you ask for a nanny-state to continue coddling you through your illusory adulthood? (And illusory it sure is.)
Which brings me back to the old man who wants to show us the puppies in his van. I was taught to stay away from the man because my mother wouldn't be there on the street with me as I played. You see, I didn't grow up in bubble wrap. I was able to go out on my own as a kid, make choices, make mistakes, learn lessons, explore the world. It is easier for me to understand human nature than it is for today's youth. So when old man Bernie asks me to come into his unmarked van to pet a puppy, I turn my back in disgust. I know that there is no such thing as "free," that someone always pays for it. I know that if someone is offering something to me, he wants something in return. I also received a historically-accurate and thorough education about the evils of socialism and the forced division of wealth, and I can navigate through a politician's fairy tales. I adored people like Margaret Thatcher, who passionately hated socialists. My favorite quote from the Iron Lady to nescient socialists of her day is, "Grow up, get a real job for a change and learn something from history and economics!"
It's not as easy for generation bubble-wrap to see past the puppies. They don't admire capitalists like Margaret Thatcher; they admire communists like Che Guevara. Bernie knows this. He capitalizes on this. Free healthcare for all! Legal weed for all! Free college for all! Cancel student debt for all! Free childcare for all! And so on. Young voters did not grow up understanding the consequences of what Bernie proposes or what Che did to his people. They don't ask questions about what happens when the working class isn't motivated to keep working and just shrugs. Millennials don't understand that socialism is a division of wealth, while capitalism is a multiplication. Their inability to compute or to question, something these youths have been conditioned to ignore, has led to the inevitable empty-minded predisposition to craving socialism. Bernie has simply taken advantage of what public education has served him on a silver platter: Marxist youths.
Ineffectual parenting, combined with leftist indoctrination at schools, has created a generation of cockeyed optimists thirsty for deceptive socialism. Bernie stepped up to the plate at the right time.
And so there you have it: luring children is how socialism got its groove back.
And the internet has made it worse in many ways; Even many of the wisest of us have embraced all the “Free Stuff” the internet gives us, without asking what it REALLY costs us.
Danny, that is exactly it. My kid brother was all for Bernie because he was struggling to get steady work. As soon as Trump won the economy took off an he got a job that would have been off-shored (tech support) and he is making more money than he ever did. As soon as he saw how much was being taken out for taxes he became a Republican. I know it sounds like a made up story but it is true.
I think that’s right....the illusion of free.
Then, I think there’s the age-old cultural problem of prosperity brings sloth....which is also sort of a problem of illusion. These kids see their parents work hard, and while they enjoy the lifestyle they have, they fail to make the connection...and the parents fail to articulate what is so obvious to them to their children, who can’t connect the dots.
The illusion that these children are after seems to be that they want prosperity, and all the trappings of it, but are literally clueless as to where it comes from and they thus implicitly believe in the magic formulation that “if someone says its free, then it must be free....and why can’t everything be free?”
socialism as magic...no, it’s less than magic. it’s just sleight of hand/deception.
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