Summary: National Socialism and Democratic Socialism both advocate institutionalized violence by the state against peaceful people only differing in rhetoric.
The most popular self described Democratic Socialists in America today are Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Although Americans account for roughly 5% of the global population, these candidates focus primarily on American well-being at the expense of the other 95% of human beings.
Is it because Americans are the poorest people on Earth in need of the most help? Hardly, most Americans today have access to products and services the wealthiest people in history never had access to.
Surely if they opposed Nationalism and supported Democracy, they would spend more time drafting policy proposals for the 1.3 billion Chinese, 1.2 billion Indians, and 1.2 billion Africans. Their actions (along with every single American Democratic Socialist I have ever met) display the reality that they too care mostly about their own “nation” and are therefore Nationalists.
Nothing wrong with that, but the sanctimonious dismissal Democratic Socialists have of people who are proud of their country drives me up the wall. They tell us loving your country is wrong, except if you live in Ukraine as of 2022. They tell us you cannot take pride in your ancestors accomplishments, but must forever pay for their sins via reparations and harassment by academics. They tell us imperialism is bad and also all 330 million Americans must obey Washington D.C., everyone who supports secession is Benito Mussolini.
Both National and Democratic Socialists support the following:
- The existence of a state apparatus which has a legal monopoly on the right to initiate violence against peaceful people (aka government supremacy)
- The state monopolizing the money supply (central bank)
- State compulsory education
- State regulation of economic activity between consenting adults
- Anti-Trust laws
- Commercial and Occupational licensing
- Higher taxes on “the rich”
- Tariffs
- Immigration restrictions
- Both constantly vilify “the banks and big business” (See National Socialist 25 Point Program)
- Taxation, the right of the state to coercively collect its funding in a manner which no other group has the right to do
- State Police (which is why “Defund the Police” was clearly a scam, they know the state needs police to enforce regulations and taxes which they impose on us.)
- State Military apparatus (not something every country has, private security is cheaper and more reliable, the state itself is an expropriating property protector.)
- Both constantly obsess over race and explicitly judge people by skin color
There are two ways to achieve your ends in life. Either through mutually beneficial voluntary exchanges, or acts of violence and threats thereof. Both types of socialists seek to coercively control hundreds of millions of strangers under the guise of “helping”.
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