Individualism Isn’t What You Think

Debunking “An Overview of Democratic Socialism”

Photo: Airwolfhound | CC-BY-SA

Last time, in “Capitalism Just Doesn’t Work,” we went over some of the misrepresentations used by author

Ra Gulamhusein

to make a case for capitalism. This time, we’ll be looking at similar misrepresentations of socialism in his article “An Overview of Democratic Socialism.” As with last time, I want to be clear that I’m not assuming malice on the part of Gulamhusein. Although his article contained some untrue characterizations of socialism, specifically the Democratic Socialists of America, I don’t assume that he’s attempting to portray a false picture on purpose, I assume he believes what he said, and I know he isn’t alone in these beliefs. “Socialism” has been turned into a dirty word in the US, and that’s no accident. I don’t expect to single-handedly set the record straight here, but since I have the opportunity, I’ll do what I can.

Let’s begin with the attempt to lump every leftist idea together into one monolithic ideology, reducing all of it to “Mao’s China, Stalin’s Russia, Castro’s Cuba, and every other communist or socialist state.” This is roughly the same as if one were to equate every capitalist state to Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, or Pinochet’s Chile. The truth is, the current situation in the US is closer to those latter three than the kinds of policies…