Hong Kong, American Students, and Socialism

In a recent Campus Reform video, college students were asked, “Are you proud to be an American?”  One student replied, “I think we need to stop thinking we are the best nation on the earth because that’s just egotistical and not accurate.”  When this student was asked, “Where is a better place to be?”  She answered, “Probably some nice little  socialist country in Europe.”  Many of the college students interviewed, like this girl, seemed to have found themselves choosing socialism over free market capitalism. 

Meanwhile, halfway around the world, students and others in Hong Kong are peacefully demonstrating in the streets hoping to avoid losing their freedom to the socialist government of China.  They are waving the American flag and singing our national anthem.  This is occurring while people in this country are taking a knee and burning the American flag. 

Congressman Dan Crenshaw, who lost an eye serving his country, describes this dichotomy this way:

In Hong Kong, antifascists wave American flags demand freedom and actually fight fascists.  In Portland, “antifascists” burn American flags, demand violence in the name of Socialism.  Portland is a sad showing of where we are today.

The young people in Hong Kong know their personal freedoms will be lost if China takes control of their way of life. They also know the freedoms and rights enshrined in our constitution would not be forthcoming under China’s rule.  China routinely stifles its people’s human rights. When it comes to economic freedom, Hong Kong ranks number one in the world and China ranks 100.  Knowing these facts, is it any wonder Hong Kong is trying desperately to avoid Chinese dominance?   

Dick Morris recently produce a video discussing the lengths China has gone to control its people:

China’s bold new program uses technology to achieve their goals. It would make Mao Zetung seem like a piker.  It is a system that uses technology to control every single aspect of a person’s life.  They [the government] monitors every single thing you do through the internet and computers.  It includes monitoring every single activity a person performs and is given a social score as a negative or a positive Social Credit score.

Where have our young people been brainwashed to the point of having lost pride in being an American and developed the mindset of a socialist?  Perhaps we need look no further than in the halls of higher education.  Michael Isaacson, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, who has been on the Tucker Carlson show and with Kennedy on Fox Business describes himself as an anarcho-communist who defends Antifa’s violence as a means to create change.  He also said he would call Antifa members instead of the police if he ever found himself in danger.  So, he is an anti-capitalist, anti-police, and is in favor of taking the law into his own hands.  What professor Isaacson says about relying on members of Antifa coming to his aide reminds me of vigilantes in the19th century, some of whom also wore masks, and doled out what they called “justice” by using intimidation and fear. 

Tucker asked Isaacson, if he ever had a Trump supporter in his class.  He said, “I actually had an “alt-right” student in my class last semester.  I worked with him and he wrote a paper that was an A–paper.” Gabriel Nadales, a former Antifa member, says, “There is a resurgence of violence from the left and they are getting their philosophies from their professors.” Is that what occurred here to enable his student to finally receive an A on his paper?

Isaacson told Carlson, “I teach my students to think critically and I am very open about my anti-fascism and anti-anarchism.”  On August 23, professor Isaacson wrote on his Twitter account, “Some of ya all might think I suck being an anti-fascist [Antifa] teaching at John Jay College but I think it’s a privilege to teach future dead cops.” 

Charles Payne, on Fox Business, conducted a panel discussion about capitalism versus socialism.  Payne asked economics professor and author Richard Wolf if he knew of any country where socialism has ever worked?  The professor enthusiastically responded, “absolutely.” Shockingly, the professor proceeded to name China.  If socialism works so well in China, as this professor claims, why can’t China create its intellectual property rather than stealing it from the U.S.  costing the U.S. between $225 billion and $600 billion annually? 

According to the American Conservative:

A federal judge recently issued a $1.5 million fine to a Chinese wind turbine company, Sinovel, for stealing key intellectual property from a Massachusetts technology company, American Superconductor (AMSC). China’s growth into the world’s leader in manufacturing has been largely dependent upon stealing the trade secrets of foreign companies. The details of the Sinovel case demonstrate the severe damage associated with this crime. Sinovel had a $700 million contract with AMSC for the use of its software. However, Sinovel stopped paying for the software in 2011 when it owed AMSC over $100 million.

Nobel Prize-winning  economist, Milton Friedman, warned us:

Liberals love to decry greed and selfishness as reasons why the government must get involved in what should otherwise be private affairs.  The greatest achievements have not come from the government.  Einstein did not construct his theory of relativity under order of a government.  Henry Ford did not revolutionize the automobile industry that way. The only case in recorded history where the masses have escaped from grinding poverty is where they have had capitalism and largely free trade.  The only place where the masses are worst off, it’s where societies have departed from that. 

The current bevy of Democratic candidates running for President of the United States would do well to take notice of what Freidman said.

History is replete with failed states who have experimented with socialism.  When we have avowed socialists elected to congress, professors who teach our young people socialism as a preferred form of government, and have socialists in the Democratic Party running for president, we may have just found the perfect combination of ingredients for a failed republic. 

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