Tag: socialism

The Rise Of Neo-Feudalism: Germany’s Conservatives Bow To Socialist Wealth Taxes

In Germany, a heated debate has erupted over the taxation of inheritances and wealth—and the Union (CDU/CSU) isn’t even attempting to curb these anti-civilizational trends. In fact, it has become part of the problem.

Unassuming, loyal voters of the Union parties are rubbing their eyes in disbelief these weeks. Faced with the envy-driven push by the Social Democrats for higher inheritance taxes and the possible reintroduction of a wealth tax, many are shocked—or even repelled—by the statements of their own political representatives.

Union Politicians Fuel the Debate

When it comes to citizens’ lawful property and how they use it, Union circles have recently sounded like this: “Those who already had, always gain more. In recent years, particularly during the low-interest phase, wealth grew almost automatically, without much personal effort. Property values, stock values, and more—this is a problem of wealth distribution.” – Jens Spahn, CDU parliamentary group leader.

His colleague Dennis Radtke, social zealot and head of the Christian Democratic Workers’ Association (CDA), goes even further: “We should examine the exemptions in inheritance and gift taxes, under the concept of wealth assessment. These exemptions allow billions in wealth to be gifted and inherited without a single euro in taxes paid… This wouldn’t be a tax increase, just closing loopholes.“

In the view of this gentleman, the fundamental act of wealth creation—which, in a healthy bourgeois society, extends one’s economic actions to one’s descendants—is just a “loophole” if the state cannot freely access our assets.

This makes one thing clear: the party cartel is united when it comes to power. L’État, c’est moi! The citizen is nothing more than a supplier of political power, packaged in liquidable assets.

Generational Contract and Bourgeois Values

We can expect this understanding of the state from Germany’s socialist parties, whether the BSW, The Left, or the Greens. The openly socialist-populist SPD has long since fallen to the point of seeing citizens as nothing more than cows to be milked. Since the disastrous years under Angela Merkel, any voter should have realized that a party embracing open-border policies, eco-socialist climate politics, and bellicist tendencies—as seen in the Ukraine conflict—can no longer serve as a bourgeois counterweight.

Thanks to years of media propaganda, however, many Germans still perceive the chancellor as a representative of bourgeois values. Closer inspection reveals that the green-socialist spectrum of parties—including the Union—ultimately follows the same globalist ideology.

Undermining the family as society’s cornerstone, promoting state-driven culture and media influence, they all follow an unmistakably socialist script.

The centralization of political power in Brussels and dramatically increasing censorship pair with statist economic policies, whose latest victims are German industry. The inheritance and wealth tax debate fits perfectly into this ideological framework, trampling the true generational contract—between parents and heirs.

Neo-Feudal Tendencies

A power structure that manages to secure majority approval for substance taxes—whether inheritance or wealth taxes—through a debate framed around “justice” inevitably becomes a neo-feudal apparatus. Every form of wealth use—portfolio holdings, gifts, or inheritance—comes under arbitrary state administration. Every house, every stock account an individual acquires becomes a fief, requiring continuous tribute to avoid full expropriation.

The media-endorsed debate over “substance” or “resentment” taxes is thus anti-civilizational, anti-bourgeois, and devastating to capital formation. It accelerates pauperization trends now visible throughout the country.

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How Trump Is Making Corporatism Great Again

 President Trump has recently endorsed a policy that is arguably as socialist as anything proposed by New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani or Sen. Bernie Sanders — partial government ownership of private corporations.

Earlier this year, as a condition of approving Nippon Steel’s purchase of US Steel, President Trump demanded Nippon give the US government a “golden share” in US Steel. This golden share allows the US government to overrule Nippon’s management if the government determines Nippon is acting against US “national security,” which means the government can overrule many decisions made by Nippon‘s management.

Unfortunately, Nippon was not a “one-and-done” excursion into corporatism. President Trump recently struck a deal with computer chip manufacturer Intel to give the company 8.9 billion dollars in government subsidies in exchange for ten percent of Intel’s stock. This deal makes the US government Intel’s largest stockholder!

The Trump administration has promised that it will not use its position to undermine Intel’s board. However, the administration is reserving the right to counter Intel’s board if the administration determines the board is taking an action that would adversely impact the relationship of the company or its subsidiaries with the US government. So, the Trump administration is yet again giving itself power to manage a nominally private company.

Enabling the government to control a private company (even if the government does not actually exercise its power) means the company’s management will base its decisions on what will please those currently in power, rather than on the desires of consumers.

Government investment in corporations will cause politicians to make decisions based on what will profit the companies the government has “invested” in while those companies’ competitors will seek to attract government investment in order to win special privileges for themselves.

A corporation partially owned by government will be considered “too big to fail” since its failure would cause the government to lose the money “invested” in the businesses. So, the argument will be that a bailout will save the taxpayers money.

According to a 2024 analysis by the World Bank — an organization not known as a supporter of free-market economics, companies of which government owns ten percent or more are six percent less profitable and have workforces that are 32 percent less productive.

Some members of the Trump administration have suggested that the federal government take a partial ownership interest in defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has pointed out that big defense contractor Lockheed Martin, for example, is “basically an arm of the US government” since almost all its revenue comes from the US government. Secretary Lutnick has a point, but the closeness between the Pentagon and big corporations is an argument for restoring a noninterventionist foreign policy. Giving the government an ownership interest in defense contractors would allow the war party to argue that militarism is good for the taxpayer because it boosts the value of the government’s “investments”!

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Silenced Voices and Sealed Coffins in Nicaragua

Mauricio Alonso Prieto once championed Sandinista socialism, but like many of his fellow countrymen, he became part of the opposition and came to “question the authoritarian direction of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) under the leadership of Daniel Ortega” and Rosario Murillo.  

This week, that cost him his life. 

On July 18, authorities in Nicaragua arrested — or kidnapped — Alonso, his wife, and his adult son, who is a worship leader at the evangelical Christian La Roca de Nicaragua Church. A group of “uniformed police officers and ‘volunteer’ officers wearing masks and dressed in black or blue” conducted a raid at the home of Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas, the founder of La Roca de Nicaragua Church Association. These “officers” detained others in the home as well, including the pastor and various family members. Alonso and his family just happened to be there for a visit and were not part of the warrant. 

Authorities released Alonso’s wife the same day, but held him and his son “incommunicado” at the 3rd Police District. On July 28, a Nicaraguan digital news outlet reported that the two men, along with the pastor and his relatives, were now housed at “La Granja,” an overcrowded Nicaraguan prison notorious for abuse and mistreatment of prisoners. The men apparently went through a “fast-tracked” virtual hearing during which they were charged with treason and conspiracy.   

After weeks of no communication, Alonso’s wife got a call on August 25 stating that her husband had died, though there were no other details. His family learned that the Ortega-Murillo regime would not allow them the options families traditionally want when they lose a loved one. There would be no wake, no final goodbyes, no autopsy. The family received Alonso’s body in a sealed casket, and they were forced to have a funeral immediately under police observation. Despite his wife’s pleas, they would not allow her imprisoned son to attend the funeral either. 

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Campaign aide to socialist contender to become mayor of New York sympathized with Luigi Mangione in warped tribute

A campaign aide to socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani showed sympathy for alleged United Healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione in posts online, the Daily Mail has learned.

Mamdani’s political director, Julian Gerson, posted on December 29th of 2024 on Facebook that he was ‘looking forward to driving down Mangione Avenue a few decades from now.’

In social media posts obtained by the Daily Mail, Gerson made the remark replying to a comment after he shared a personal essay on the impact Mangione was having on public discourse in the weeks after he allegedly murdered United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City.

In his essay, Gerson concluded that Manginone ‘is adored not only because he dared to target a leader of one of the most vile, self-enriching industries darkening our society today, but because he dared to defy the stasis of nihilistic rejection.’

‘The question is not whether he was right or wrong. It’s how many others he has shaken loose,’ Gerson concluded.

Per Gerson’s LinkedIn page, which bears the same profile photograph as his Facebook profile, he has worked for Mamdani’s mayoral campaign since March.

Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Mail about Gerson’s post.

Mangione became a global phenomena due to the fascination around his privileged background and Hollywood good looks. For many on the left, he morphed into a vessel for radical rebellion against a system of economic injustice. 

Mangione remains in custody and federal prosecutors have chosen to seek the death penalty if he’s convicted.

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Falling For Socialism

Across college campuses, on TikTok feeds, and in everyday conversations, a familiar narrative is gaining steam: capitalism is broken.

Rising rents and stagnant wages fuel the claim among some young people that free markets have failed an entire generation. According to a 2024 poll by the Institute of Economic Affairs, more than 60 percent of young Britons now view socialism favorably. In the United States, the trend is similar, with Generation Z increasingly skeptical of capitalism’s promises.

But much of this idealism is rooted in distance—many of the young people romanticizing socialism have never lived through the economic dysfunction or political repression it often brings. For those who experienced Soviet shortages, Venezuelan collapse, or East Germany’s surveillance, the word socialism doesn’t suggest fairness or opportunity—it suggests fear, failure, and control. There’s a reason so many fled those systems to come to freer countries. What sounds utopian in theory has too often turned dystopian in practice.

But blaming capitalism misses the mark. The real culprit is cronyism, the unholy alliance between big government and big business that twists markets, blocks competition, and rewards political connections over genuine innovation.

The Myth of Market Failure

Capitalism, in its true form, is based on voluntary exchange. It rewards businesses that meet people’s needs and wants, with consumers deciding what succeeds and what fails. Competition drives improvement, innovation, and lower prices. No one is forced to buy or sell anything; choice reigns.

Cronyism is a different beast altogether. In a crony system, businesses succeed not by serving customers but by lobbying politicians. Profits come through subsidies, bailouts, and regulations designed to crush competition.

The 2008 financial crisis, often cited as proof of capitalism’s failures, actually showcased what happens when markets are rigged. Reckless banks, instead of collapsing as they deserved, were bailed out with taxpayer money. Ordinary people lost jobs and homes, while the politically connected survived and thrived.

This wasn’t free enterprise. It was cronyism.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided a grim sequel. Small businesses were forced to shut their doors under government mandates. Meanwhile, corporate giants like Amazon, able to operate under looser restrictions or pivot online, soared to record profits. Policies, written in the name of public health, often privileged the biggest players while leaving Main Street devastated.

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WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Socialist NYC Mayoral Candidate Wants City-Owned Grocery Stores

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is a far left socialist and he wants the Big Apple to have government owned grocery stores.

This idea has been tried before and it failed miserably. Anyone who knows history remembers the images of bare shelves in government owned grocery stores in the former Soviet Union.

Mamdani recently shared a survey on Twitter/X showing that New Yorkers support his idea.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also pushed this terrible idea.

From City Journal:

One of his more curious proposals, about which he is buoyant, is to open city-owned and city-managed grocery stores. His campaign literature explains that these municipal stores will be “focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit. Without having to pay rent or property taxes, they will reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers. They will buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and partner with local neighborhoods on products and sourcing.”

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German Socialists Want to Use Citizen’s Own Money to Propagandize Them

The German socialists (SPD) are desperately seeking new ways to improve their standing after the electorate roundly rejected their political agenda—especially relating to mass migration—in the February elections.

An outright ban on the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) opposition is, of course, one option. Another is funnelling taxpayer cash into the coffers of media organisations that can be trusted to put a positive spin on the SPD’s flaws.

Such considerations appear now to have made their way into ongoing coalition talks, in which Friedrich Merz’s CDU has already proved happy to ‘cede ground’ further to the left.

Die Stimme Berlins reports that the SPD is calling for a new “media innovation fund” which would provide state support to what the paper described as “reliable” and “trustworthy” publications. That is, reliable and trustworthy according to the state.

AfD Bundestag member Götz Frömming said this, in effect, would mean papers that are “loyal to the [governing] party line,” while journalist Henning Rosenbusch added that ‘reliable’ translated in this case to “preemptively obedient government propaganda.”

Reports also note that the fund would be intended to support these selected media companies while they improve their digital arms—which, of course, is where influencing can today take place most effectively—as well as to combat ‘disinformation.’

This closely follows a slew of criticism surrounding accusations that the main U.S. aid agency’s (USAID) funds were used to deliver particular political outcomes in Europe, as well as calls by leftist Brussels officials for taxpayers to fund, effectively, pro-European Union propaganda.

Apollo News claims that the SPD demand is currently being met with “displeasure” from CDU negotiators. But with Merz, the chancellor-in-waiting, hoping to forge a coalition by April 20th, it is not at all difficult to imagine the ‘conservatives’ backing down.

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The Many Disguises of Socialism

In his book, Socialism, Ludwig von Mises warns about the threat posed by socialism to peaceful co-existence and to Western civilization. He highlights the “disastrous wars and revolutions, heinous mass murders and frightful catastrophes” that have been caused by socialist policies, a warning that was also sounded by Friedrich von Hayek in The Road to Serfdom.

Mises goes beyond warning about the destructive nature of socialism, going further to draw attention to what he considers “the main issue,” which he describes as “the desperate struggle of lovers of freedom, prosperity and civilization against the rising tide of totalitarian barbarism.” Socialism is destructive in itself, but more than that it fuels the “rising tide of totalitarian barbarism” through its many disguises. There is a persistent belief that socialism is an ideal worth pursuing if we could only work out just the right form that it should take. Part of Mises’s goal in Socialism is to explain the dangers of socialism and help readers to recognize socialism when they see it.

Among its many disguises, socialism cloaks itself in the mantle of ideals that many people value such as the ideals of justice and equality before the law. Speaking of the anthropomorphism that ascribes “justice” to the distribution of wealth that results from market interactions, Hayek in his essay “‘Social’ or Distributive Justice,” warns:

I believe that “social justice” will ultimately be recognized as a will-o’-the-wisp which has lured men to abandon many of the values which in the past have inspired the development of civilization.

Thus, the problem is not simply that many people are beguiled by socialism, but that this causes them to abandon the ideals which civilized societies once held. As Hayek writes in “The Origins and Effects of Our Morals”:

[I]t is no exaggeration to say that the central aim of socialism is to discredit those traditional morals which keep us alive.

The traditional principles of morality to which he refers, such as the concept of honesty, are associated with the cultural values of classical liberalism which are now under threat: freedom of contract, freedom of association, free speech, and the right to private property. By undermining these ideals, socialism undermines the very foundations of civilization.

In the contemporary context, the primary disguise of socialism is the ideal of equality. Thomas Sowell describes the tenets of socialism as “make believe equality”—the idea that we should create laws and policies that ensure we are, in fact, all equal—even though, as Murray Rothbard explains in Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Nature, seeking to make all people, in fact, equal would be a sinister Procrustean goal. As Sowell famously said, “No one is equal to anything. Even the same man is not equal to himself on different days.” Yet the concept of “equality” now provides cover for many socialist policies. Most notorious is the concept of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” DEI is based on theories of racial polylogism, which are explicated by reference to explicitly Marxist concepts. Indeed, this is one of the main methods by which Marxist ideals now proliferate—by being subsumed within the intellectual foundations of the latest iteration of socialism.

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Hillary-Trained Socialists Countrywide

On the day of Donald Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, Hillary Clinton used some of her former staffers and started a nationwide organization to train young socialists to run for positions in state politics, to take those “down ballot races”. To spread communism at the “ground level”. THAT is why we must care.

Her organization is called “Run For Something”, (RFS). RFS solicits, trains, and pays for bringing young progressives (aka, Marxists) into public office. As Wikipedia says,

“Run for Something is a progressive American political organization dedicated to recruiting and supporting young candidates running for down-ballot office. Its mission is to get young progressive candidates from non-traditional backgrounds to run for and win state and local offices, and create a next generation slate of political candidates that will seek higher office” in the years ahead.

I did a deep dig into this years ago, and their training unabashedly includes teaching their young people to lie. A young woman running for Chattanooga TN school board in 2018 had signs all over town claiming that she was a Republican. Fortunately she lost, but she spoke openly about the trained scam, but all units of local governance were not that lucky.

The first year that the young commies were out there running for office, they won over 600 races around the country. They fought against even other Democrats who were considered too “old school Democrat”, i.e., not Leftist enough. Judgeships, School Board seats, city council chairs, and even state legislatures were filled with Hillary’s young Communists.

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Kamala Harris’s top economic adviser is a socialist with a longtime passion for seizing & redistributing Americans’ hard-earned wealth

Meet Bharat Ramamurti. He has never run a business, nor has he ever worked for one.

Yet he’s the top economic adviser for the Kamala Harris campaign, and a not-so-covert socialist ideologue who intends to cripple the American economy through ruthlessly “progressive” taxation.

He may have first appeared on your radar Wednesday afternoon after his appearance on CNBC, during which he advocated for the campaign’s 25 percent unrealized gains tax proposal. 

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