Socialism FAQ

Hidden beneath a superficial rationalism, they provide a seemingly intellectual defense of imperialism, push islamophobia, and use it to create a smokescreen for the injustices of global capitalism. 2,3

Gandhi

https://web.archive.org/web/20230728092729/https://apnews.com/general-news-f40d8c2c7d8d4ffeadd576ded89acc0c https://web.archive.org/web/20221222165322/https://www.mkgandhi.org/mynonviolence/chap27.htm

Was Gandhi really a racist? What about Gandhi’s legacy? A great lecture by Arundati Roy.
Gandhi believed that the Jews should have submitted to suffering voluntarily at the hands of the Nazis since that would have brought them brought “them an inner strength and joy which no number of resolutions of sympathy passed in the world outside Germany can”. “The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. […] It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany … as it is, they succumbed anyway in their millions.”
Red Phoenix - Pacifism - How to do the enemy’s job for them. Youtube Audiobook
“Can the hungry go on a hunger strike? Non-violence is a piece of theatre. You need an audience. What can you do when you have no audience? People have the right to resist annihilation.” - Arundhati Roy.
Gandhi was a pedophile, sleeping even with his own grand-niece.

Noam Chomsky

Is Chomsky right about Marxist-Leninists being evil?
Roderic Day - On Chomsky
Awful chomsky takes.
Gowans - The US has produced very few anti-imperialists: Chomsky isn’t among them.
“My response to the end of Soviet tyranny was similar to my reaction to the defeat of Hitler and Mussolini. In all cases, it is a victory for the human spirit. It should have been particularly welcome to socialists, since a great enemy of socialism had at last collapsed”
thedashrendar - That’s enough of Noam Chomsky.
https://archive.li/YVNk3
https://libcom.org/history/john-deutch-chomskys-friend-pentagon-cia
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/why-chomsky-felt-guilty-most-of-time-war-research-and-linguistics-at-mit/
https://libcom.org/history/chomsky-pol-pots-genocidal-regime-cambodia
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/13cf816e-8e40-41c8-bb76-d453a3261d8b
Endorsed Biden in the 2020 election, even after Tara Reide’s rape allegations. 2

What’s wrong with Bernie Sanders?

Supports US imperialism. 2
- Voted for US intervention in the following nations: Afghanistan, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Yugoslavia,2, Bosnia, Haiti, Congo, Liberia, Sudan, and Ukraine.
- Warmongers on the Bill O’Reilley show for the US to intervene against Russia, Syria, and China.
- Votes with the rest of the US senate to send $40B in weaponry to Ukraine.
- Supports drone bombing: “They have, at times, been effective.”. Another interview: “Drones have done some good things. They’ve been selective; they’ve taken out people who should be taken out”
- Staunchly supports Israel in their displacement of Palestinians (while blaming hamas for the conflict). Says he will not move back the US embassy in Israel back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, after Trump moved it the previous year.
- In the 2023 Israeli attacks on Gaza, Bernie stands against a cease-fire, and blames Hamas for the violence.
- Supports GW Bush. Supported warmonger John McCain after his death.
- Claimed that the 2016 election of Maduro in Venezuela “wasn’t free”, and called for more “US Aid”. Called Maduro a “vicious tyrant” in 2019 Democratic primary debate.
- Goes back on his 1985 semi-pro-cuba statements: “The Cuban economy is a disaster. No, I do not praise Fidel Castro.”
- Praises the Hong Kong protestors, tells China to back off.
- After the Jan 2020 US assassination of Iranian general Soleimani, Sanders showed remorse for the “4500 brave US troops who died”, and trillions of dollars spent on the war in Iraq, instead of the 1M Iraqi civilians killed.
- Calls for Russia to pardon white-nationalist Alexei Navalny.
Bernie is against open borders, believes in strong border and anti-immigration policies. 2
- When asked about the 2018 Migrant caravan, where Border agents tear gassed migrants, Bernie replied, “not all migrants seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border have a credible claim. “You have to look at it case-by-case.”
- Believes that Russians are to blame for the failure of US democracy. “Protecting american democracy from foreign invasion.”. 2020 Campaign trail: “Americans are sick and tired of Russian intereferenc in our elections”
Why Sanders is not a socialist - Anticonquista
Shills for democrats, campaigned for Hillary Clinton. After conceding the 2020 democratic primary to Joe Biden (even after Tara Reide’s rape allegations against Biden surfaced), Sanders tells his supporters that it would be “irresponsible” for progressives to not support Joe Biden. His support for Biden comes 2 months earlier than the last election when he supported Hillary. When asked about why one of his former secretaries publicly refused to support Biden, Sanders stated, “She is my former press secretary — not on the payroll”. 2. “I will do everything I can to help elect Joe,” Sanders continued. Says Biden will be “more receptive to progressives than past democrats.” “I have a better relationship with Joe Biden than I did with Hillary.” Says “Biden could be the most progressive President since FDR.”
Equates socialism with US corporate bailouts.
Thanked Jeff Bezos for deigning to raise amazon wages, Bezos responds with “you’re welcome”.
In the wake of the George Floyd murder, and the call to defund police, Sanders says the country needs “well-trained, well-educated, and well-paid professionals in police departments.”
His election, as well as Medicare-for-all, would, like the new deal, be a bribe between capital and workers in the imperial core: Give us a bigger cut of the profits from exploitation of the global south, and we’ll become more invested in preserving the empire.
Paying one half of the poor to kill the other half: Why Marxists should not support Sanders.

What’s wrong with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

Imperialism

Voted to expand NATO to Finland and Sweden. On the same day this vote became public, she pretends to get handcuffed during a defend abortion rally outside the supreme court rally,, then asks for donations in emails.
Voted for Trump’s 2020 War budget, allocating $738 Billion to military spending (a 3% increase over the previous year).
She votes to keep the US in NATO, who’s been responsible for countless atrocities in Europe and the Middle East.
After Evo Morales was overthrown in a US-backed coup, she retracts her pro-Morales statements, meets with a coup-supporting group in Washington, and tweets in support of the viciously anti-indigenous government of Jean Anez. 2, 3
In the July 2021 protests in Cuba, she called Cuban president Diaz-Canal’s “anti-democratic actions.”, 2 She condemned the socialist government’s “suppression of the media, speech and protest.”
She supports Israel, and its genocide of Palestineans.
When asked about her vote of “present”, rather than no, that allocates an extras $1B USD to Israel, she defends it by saying it was a “micro”-decision that creates “a window that brings all folks to the table”.
AOC and the squad consistently vote against what they preach.
After an anti-war activist posted a video of AOC waffling on a question about Palestine, he’s interrogated by California highway patrol who claimed he issued a death threat against AOC. In reality, his tweet said: “her response was underwhelming to say the least.” Its unknown whether AOC initiated the interrogation.
Is against pardoning Julian Assange.
Goes along with democrats and Republicans in backing US puppet Juan Guaido over Maduro in Venezuela.
After the December 2020 Elections in Venezuala, she defends Juan Guaido, and calls Maduro an “authoritarian” yet again.
In 2021, qualified that she only doesn’t support a US invasion of Haiti, “without a plan”, “right now”.
AOC pays homage to “Tibetan Uprising Day”, a CIA-sponsored campaign to restore the brutal Tibetan theocracy and re-institute slavery.
Stands with Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and the right-wing pro-Trump Hong Kong rioters in their condemnation of China and its supposed “concentration camps.”
Believes, like other democrats, that Russia rigs US elections
After Trump fires John Bolton (who tried and failed at starting wars with North Korea, Venezuela, and Iran), she goes full neocon, angry that Trump isn’t going to war with North Korea.
Refused to talk with an Okinawan representative about the US military occupation there.
In 2009 AOC travelled to Niger as part of a USAID program. USAID is a CIA affiliated program that backs regime change abroad (under the guise of ‘promoting democracy’.) In 2010 the Niger Government was replaced in a coup, with the US publicly backing the new regime. The previous Niger Government had ended a French monopoly on Uranium mining in their country and was looking instead to partner with China.. After the coup the French monopoly was re-instated – with dire consequences for Niger.
After being criticized during a town hall meeting for bringing the world closer to nuclear war for her vote to arm Ukraine, she accused her critic of “speaking over a deaf person”. She knew the deaf person wasn’t in attendence, she was only reading that person’s email.

Domestic issues

In December 2022, a group of US rail worker unions voted to strike for more pay and sick leave. After two days of expressing support for the unions, telling them to “stay strong”, and that, “we’ve got your back”, AOC and the rest of the squad voted for a Biden congress resolution to block the strike, 2. This resolution effectively takes all strike power away from the unions, and gives it to Congress. After receiving backlash for blocking the union’s right to strike, her twitter went silent.
Calls for budget cuts for DHS, due to their child detention camps and family separations, then goes back on it by voting to fully fund them along with other democrats.
After Biden opens new child immigrant detention facilities in February 2021, she stops calling them “concentration camps”, and names them “influx facilities”.
AOC wants abolish ICE, only to replace it with a resurrected INS, yet another agency whose goal was breaking up families.
After the 2021 capitol riots, AOC defends law and order, and calls the republicans cowards for not supporting the police.
AOC selling “law and order” and “family values” and not being “weak on crime” as socialist values.
Defends the NYPD during the George Floyd protests, since there are women, black, latino and asian american cops.
Positions herself to the right of “law and order” republicans, saying they have no right to say that “blue lives matter”, since the republicans don’t defend police enough.
In December 2020, after a proposal by comic Jimmy Dore, for house democrats to refuse support for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, unless she agrees to bring a Medicare for all bill to the house, to bring relief for US citizens who lost healthcare during the pandemic. AOC and the rest of the “squad” refused, and backed Pelosi, citing concerns that the bill would not win anyway. Dore retorted that 9 / 10 democratic voters, and even a majority of republican voters support medicare for all.
After bucking M4A during the COVID pandemic, AOC touts a FEMA funeral reimbursement program as an acheivement.

She’s a democrat, not a socialist.

She’s a social democrat, not a socialist, fronting for the Democratic party. 2
Danny Haiphong from BlackAgendaReport - On the Obama-ification of “the squad”.
Richard Medhurst - On the squad as a branding exercise, and AOC’s support for US bombings and prison camps.
AOC asks all supporters to vote for democrats, including Andrew Cuomo.
AOC says she will vote for Biden in the 2020 election, saying, “I think it’s incredibly important we support the Democratic nominee in November”.
Going back on her promise to only back “progressive democrats” after her election to congress in 2018, she backs Nancy Pelosi for speaker of the house.
Attacks critics of Biden as being “privileged” and “wanting to reinvent themselves”, when she herself used to work for startup incubators.
Says that “Left wing opponents of Biden are doing a disservice to the cause of justice.
States to a booing crowd, her support for Nancy Pelosi and Pelosi’s background of “activism” and “civic engagement”.
Says her policies are more reminiscent of Norway than Caracas, repeating the right wing myth of socialism destroying Venezuela, and wrongly conflating nordic social democracy with socialism.
Says its possible to be both a “democratic socialist” and a Capitalist.
Thinks the US military is socialist. Thinks social services like schools and libraries are socialist.
After his death AOC Tweeted to commemorate John McCain, saying his “legacy represents an unparalleled example of human decency.”
Believes that Trump “betrays” US values.
Despite her curated image as a New York bartender, she only bartended for 6 months, and worked primarily for a startup incubator called Brooklyn Avenue Press. 2, 3
Wore a “tax the rich” dress at the 2021 Met Gala in New York city (a fundraiser held by New York elites), while protesters were arrested and beaten outside by police. Afterwards, she sells “Tax the Rich” merchandise on her store.
Claims that socialist theory is only for privileged few with college educated parents, and that working class people aren’t capable of understanding theory. Is unaware of the Spanish-speaking socialist tradition.

What’s wrong with Elizabeth Warren?

Kamala Harris

Much credit to this post.

Under her jurisdiction, in “progressive” San Francisco, 56% of all inmates in SF jails were black, along with 40% of all arrests (Only 5.8% of the population is black). Ignores police brutality, protected 14 of her officers who were caught sending extremely racist text messages. Oversaw San Francisco’s felony conviction rate rising from 52% to 67% in only 3 years.
- As part of her tough on crime approach she assigned senior prosecutors to misdemeanors like graffiti and vandalism, tripling the number of cases brought to trial.
- After a federal judge orders California to expand prison releases to reduce crowding, her office argued in court that if forced to release these inmates early, prisons would lose an important labor pool.
- Spent years jailing disproportionately black nonviolent cannabis users while opposing taking cannabis off DEA’s list of most dangerous substances and literally laughing at the idea of legalizing it multiple times, even as her Republican opponent ran to the left of her on the issue. She then tried to pander by admitting to smoking herself despite prosecuting others, but got her story all wrong. Drug convictions under her office soared, convicting more people of marijuana possession than her predecessor (she also admitted to smoking marijuana) 2
- Laughs about threatening parents with jailtime for truancy. 2. The stories of several mothers she jailed.
- Pushed a law that forced schools to turn over undocumented students to ICE.
- Opposed reforming California’s three-strikes law, which is the only one in the country to impose life sentences for minor felonies and incarcerates black people at 12x the rate as white people, three different times, even while her Republican opponent supported reform.
- Tried to deny a transgender inmate healthcare and endangered trans women by forcing them into mens prisons, leading to the rape and torture of at least one trans inmate.
- Appealed a judge ruling that the death penalty was unconstitutional and won on a technicality, resulting in continued executions.
- Supports the controversial DNA search technique that can be used on people even if they’ve not been charged with a crime.
- Supported the discriminatory practice of cash bail in court, until 2016.
- Protected serial child rapists by refusing to prosecute in the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.
- Lied about her state’s solitary confinement to block a suit by inmates, claiming there was none in California when there were about 6,400 victims of the practice, which is considered torture.
- Opposed legislation that would require independent investigation of fatal police shootings despite criticism from many civil rights advocates including California’s Legislative Black Caucus.
- Opposed statewide implementation of police body cameras and ignored police brutality, multiple officers raping a teenager, and other officers sharing racist and homophobic messages, despite multiple requests from the public defender.
- Stood by silently as $730 million was spent on moving inmates to for-profit private prisons.
Fought to uphold wrongful convictions from her office, in one case, she witheld information about a police lab tech who was fabricating evidence (and a judge admonished her for it). She refused DNA testing to prove the innocence of a man on death row. Defended Johnny Baca’s conviction for murder even though judges found a prosecutor presented false testimony at the trial, to which she relented only after a video of the oral argument received national attention and embarrassed her office. She hid evidence of exculpaltory evidence of a man who was convicted solely by one witness (he is still serving a 70 year prison sentence). When evidence pointed towards a black defendant being framed by police, Harris avoided DNA testing to keep him on death row.
- Used a technicality to stop the release of a man serving 27 years-to-life after being wrongfully convicted of possession of a knife under the three-strikes law she supported. When civil rights groups and nearly 100,000 petition signatures got him released after 14 years she took him back to court again for a crime he didn’t commit.
- Protected several of her officers with records of misconduct, by refusing to provide their names to defense attorneys, so that their convictions would be upheld and people would stay in prison.
- “Systematically violated defendants’ civil and constitutional rights” in crime lab scandal.
- Kept her Orange County DA office from being charged for running an unconstitutional jailhouse informant program they tried to cover up.
- Oversaw a state prosecutor falsifying a confession to get a life sentence and then destroyed the evidence, upheld a conviction secured by a prosecutor lying under oath, and oversaw the framing of another man. The officers were not fired, but the state was forced to pay out ~13M USD.
- She fought against providing compensation to those her office wrongly convicted.
- Sponsored a bill allowing for prosecutors to seize profits before charges are even filed and opposed a bill that would reform civil asset forfeiture.
- Defended a prison’s religious discrimination in hiring policy
- Refused to review a case in which a pharmaceutical CEO killed his wife but made it look like a suicide after their son died under mysterious circumstances as well.
- Refused to prosecute PG&E for its massive gas pipeline explosion.
- Claimed to be unaware of sexual harassment and retaliation by her top aide over a 6 year span.
- Refused to investigate Herbalife’s exploitation and fraud, received donations from people connected to the corporation.
- Refused to prosecute Trump’s treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin, despite his bank’s illegal forelosure practices, which ruined thousands of lives. She also was the only democratic presidental candidate to get money from him.
A favorite candidate of wall street. Helped raise money with a former wells fargo banker who defended the fake accounts scandal.
- Backtracks on medicare for all, says she doesn’t want to do away with private insurance.
- Accepted thousands of dollars of campaign funds from Donald and Ivanka Trump multiple times.. Accepted money from Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO and a charter school magnate. 2
Voted to give Trump increased military spending two different times.
- Supports Trump escalating the war in Syria. Co-sponsored a “destabilize Iran” bill.2
- Supports Israel’s right-wing government and cozies up to AIPAC, co-sponsored resolution against Obama in support of illegal settlements, does not support Palestinian rights, and calls BDS “anti-semitic”. Another Anti-Palestine rant at AIPAC, 2. Condemned pro-palestine protestors of Netanyahu’s July 2024 visit to the US congress as “despicable, hateful, and anti-semitic”
- Is against open borders, opposed calls to tear down 700 miles of border fence.
- Fought to limit amount of land indigenous tribes could place in trust and tried to take reservation land away from a tribe just to keep them from evicting a non-indigenous man who had lived there without paying rent for 24 years.
Mocks the activist call to “build more schools, less jails”. Mocks criminal justice reformers as unrealistic..
- Says that Kaepernick’s take-a-knee protest in support of black lives matter, was a russian op. Claims that “russian bots” are targeting her.
- Laughs out loud when its suggested that she’s a progressive.
Voted two different times to block federal funding for abortions.
Wants to use solar panels and green energy… to make war.
Tells guatemalan immigrants: “don’t come here”
Appoints a communication director who was outraged that ICE didn’t pick up two undocumented commentators on MSNBC.

Pete Buttigieg

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/2/12/pete_buttigieg_south_bend_black_community

Joe Biden

Greta Thunberg

http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/01/17/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/

Slavoj Zizek

What’s wrong with Barack Obama?

Imperialism

After winning the Nobel peace prize, he dropped an average of 30k bombs / year (80 per day) during his presidency, mostly on Muslim countries, 2, 3. In 2016 alone, dropped 26,171 bombs in the Middle East and North Africa, up 3000 from the previous year. The countries bombed include Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and Somalia.
Began a campaign of drone assassinations in the Middle East and Africa, in which 90% of those killed were not the intended targets, but innocent civilian bystanders, including women, children, and US citizens. 1. Drone strikes are used by the military and the CIA to hunt down and kill people the Obama administration has deemed — through secretive processes, without indictment or trial — worthy of execution. He authorized 10 times more drone strikes than George W Bush, 2. The Obama assassination program is detailed in the drone papers.
On 3 October 2015, he ordered a United States Air Force AC-130U gunship to attack the Kunduz Trauma Centre operated by Doctors Without Borders, in northern Afghanistan. The attack killed 42 people and wounded 30 more. The airstrike constitutes a war crime (attacks on hospitals are considered war crimes), and is the first instance of one Nobel peace prize winner (Obama) bombing and killing another (Doctors without borders). CNN and the New York Times deliberately obscured the US’s responsibility for the bombing, with the headline, “US is blamed after bomb hits afghan hospital”. 1,2
In 2010, President Obama directed the CIA to assassinate an US citizen in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, despite the fact that he had never been charged with any crime, killing him with a September, 2011 drone strike. Two weeks later, a separate CIA drone strike in Yemen killed his 16-year-old American-born son, Abdulrahman, along with the boy’s 17-year-old cousin and several other innocent Yemenis. In a predictable display of bipartisanship, in January 2017, Trump ordered a SEAL strike, and reports from Yemen quickly surfaced that 30 people were killed, including 10 women and children. Among the dead: the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar Awlaki, sister of the 16 year old killed by Obama. 1
Escalated the war in Afghanistan, deploys an additional 30k troops in 2009.
Admitted to supporting and arming Neo-Nazis and other ultra-nationalist groups like the Azov battalion in Ukraine to overthrow it’s former pro-Russia govt, 2. Ukraine now has a pro-US, nazi-glorifying government with ultranationalism, anti-semitism, neo-nazi pogroms, and attacks on LGBT groups.
- Leaked transcripts show Victoria Nuland, a US diplomat in Ukraine, picking Yanukoviche’s replacement in the coup.
- A leaked phone call of the Estonian foreign minister states that the famous Maidan sniper attack was actually ordered by the US-funded opposition. This means that Yanukovich’s government was not behind the sniper attack, but somebody in the US coalition.
Obama and Hillary Clinton rigged Haiti’s 2010 election, threatening the then-president with removing US financial aid, unless their OAS candidate, Michel Martelly, won the election, after he forced other popular candidates to drop out. This is a continuation of “Operation uphold democracy”, in which US troops invaded Haiti to overthrow democratically elected president Jean-Baptiste Aristide in 1991, who is still in exile. Lobbied to lower Haiti’s minimum wage to $0.30 / hour.
Obama continued backing Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president who helped the US fight Saddam, giving him $2B every year. After Mubarak was exposed for corruption in the 2009 Arab Spring, the US entered talks with Suleiman, a CIA collaborator and Mubarak’s vice president intelligence chief known for torturing people on behalf of the US. The US then granted him asylum and medical treatment.
Obama continued support for Israel and their genocide of Palestineans, leaving a parting gift of his presidency to Israel of $38B in military aid over the next 10 years. “Prime Minister Netanyahu and I are confident that the new MOU will make a significant contribution to Israel’s security in what remains a dangerous neighborhood,” Obama wrote.
Finally acheived the US goal of overthrowing Gaddafi and destabilizing Libya. From 2011 onward, began conducting an extensive bombing campaign (>110 tomahawk cruise missiles) in the Libyan Civil Wars of 2011 and 2014. This includes 7,700 air strikes, resulting in 30,000 -100,000 deaths. Loyalist towns were bombed to rubble and ethnically cleansed, and the country is in chaos as Western-trained and armed Islamist militias seize territory and oil facilities and vie for power. The Misrata militia, trained and armed by Western special forces, is one of the most violent and powerful in the world.1 The country has since collapsed into a chaos of child soldiers, slavery, and violence between extremist groups, a haunting repetition of what US imperialism has left in its wake in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. An interview with Gaddafi’s former spokesman about the US overthrow of Libya. When pressured, Obama stated that “not managing the aftermath of overthrowing Gaddafi” was “the greatest mistake of his presidency.”
In 2009, Obama and Hillary Clinton assisted in the military coup of democratically elected leftist leader Zelaya of Honduras, who the US saw as a threat to US business interests, 2. Leaked emails found that Hillary was brokering a deal with the coup leaders, to ensure Zelaya would be prevented from returning to power, and Obama blocked a proposed resolution requiring Zelaya’s return. After the coup, at least 116 anti-US environmental activists have been murdered by the pro-US regime. 2 The US now faces massive immigration from the very same countries it destabilized, then deports them in a never-ending cycle of oppression. Obama says that deporting Honduran immigrants will send a message that “they will not be welcome to this country.”
Obama grants immunity to Bush Jr’s CIA torturers.
Expands drone bases in west Africa, including this one in Niger.

Empowering Finance Capital

A leaked email revealed that the US bank Citigroup hand-picked Obama’s cabinet, 2, in 2008, at the beginning of the financial crisis.
- Refused to prosecute any bankers or executives responsible for the 2008 crisis. His attorney general stated, “Some banks are just too big to prosecute.”
- Gave an $85B bailout to automotive giants GM and Chrysler when they requested it in 2009.
- Injected money into the private sector to bailed out wall street, 2 with his top-down 2009 ARRA stimulus package.
- Extended Bush-Era corporate tax rates, 1% increased their share of US wealth immensely during his term.
- At an elite gala for wealthy oil execs, he tells them to “just say thank you”, for turning the US into the world’s largest oil producer and making them all richer. He approves a 117M ton expansion of coal production, outraging climate activists.
Obama went back on his campaign promise for a single-payer health care system, and removed the public option from his ACA ( a proposal mostly taken from Mitt Romney, and written by health-care industry moguls), which granted massive subsidies to empower the parasitic health insurance industry ( ~1.2 Trillion USD ), forcing those unable to afford insurance to pay a $700 yearly fee for not having it ( called the “shared responsibility provision” ). His ACA is essentially a huge govt subsidy directly into the pockets of private health companies along with a mandate that forced people to pay these companies as well. At least 1/4th of US workers are trapped in the gig economy, and many more are employed at less than full-time hours without insurance.
Did nothing about ballooning student loan debt ( now > $1T, an 86% increase during his tenure ), refusing to institute forgiveness programs, or allowing student loans to be discharged through bankruptcy. Obama federalized the system to where the government now profits immensely from both interest on loans it makes directly to students, and defaults. Outsourced federal student loan debt collections to private loan firms for a huge profit. 2
Presided over the largest foreclosure crisis in US history, did nothing about it.
The Obama era was one of the greatest decreases in working class and black wealth, 2 in history: home equity decreased by ~$17k between 2007 and 2016. His housing policies led to millions losing their homes. While Wall street banks recieved $29 Trillion in bailouts, $75 Billion in relief was set aside for housing foreclosures and mortgage assistance. Instead of being paid to families, this was paid to mortgage servicers, and the services found ways to pocket the money and continue foreclosures: by the end of the program, less than 20% of the funds were used, and most had dropped out of the program due to foreclosures. The Obama administration refused to prosecute the fraud, or any of those responsible for the 2008 financial crisis.
Visited Flint Michigan during their lead-water poisoning crisis, to support the governor’s non-response, and do damage control for the democratic party, outraging citizens. Refused to give federal aid to the city, or call a state of emergency. In a highly offensive gesture during a town hall meeting, he made light of the situation by pretending to drink the poisoned tap water. Eventually authorized FEMA to give a pithy $5M to the city, while estimates suggested that at least $100M is needed. 100k citizens, including 8-10k children have lead poisoning as a result of the state’s negligence.
Spends his post-presidency jet-skiing with billionaires, making ~400k for every wall street speaking engagement, buying a massive multi-million dollar estate, and doing anti-China netflix documentaries. His net-worth increased 3000% post-presidency.

Mass Imprisonment

Deported over 3M immigrants during his presidency, 2 Deported over 400k people in 2012 alone. Helped grow ICE, and the US mass immigrant detention system.
- In the present day, ICE (U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement), the police tasked with immigration enforcement, operates over 500 prison camps, holding over 34,000 undocumented people deemed “aliens”, 20,000 of which have no criminal convictions, in the US system of immigration detention. The camps include forced labor (often with contracts from private companies), poor conditions, lack of rights (since the undocumented aren’t considered citizens), and forced deportations, often splitting up families. Detainees are often held for a year without trial, with antiquated court procedures pushing back court dates for months, encouraging many to accept immediate deportation in the hopes of being able to return faster than the court can reach a decision, but forfeiting legal status, in a cruel system of coercion. After the creation of DHS and ICE, the budget for immigration enforcement doubled from $6.2 billion in 2002 to $12.5 billion in 2006 under Obama. 1, 2,3
- Banned all immigration from Syria and Iran.
Scaled up the war on drugs, imprisoning minorities at far greater rates than ever historically. Gave no support to Black lives matter, the Ferguson protests, or the dakota access pipeline protests, allowing local authorities to brutally repress these movements.
- The War On Drugs, a policy of arrest and imprisonment targeting minorities, first initiated by Nixon, has over the years created a monstrous system of mass incarceration, resulting in the imprisonment of 1.5 million people each year, with the US having the most prisoners per capita of any nation. One in five black Americans will spend time behind bars due to drug laws. The war has created a permanent underclass of impoverished people who have few educational or job opportunities as a result of being punished for drug offenses, in a vicious cycle of oppression. 1, 2
- Obama authorizes the use of Military equipment for police.
- Massively grew the US prison–industrial complex, and the rapid expansion of the US inmate population to the political influence of private prison companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies. Such groups include corporations that contract prison labor, construction companies, surveillance technology vendors, companies that operate prison food services and medical facilities, private probation companies, lawyers, and lobby groups that represent them. Activist groups such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) have argued that the prison-industrial complex is perpetuating a flawed belief that imprisonment is an effective solution to social problems such as homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy. 1
- On April 12, 2015, Freddie Carlos Gray, Jr., a 25-year-old Black man, was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department for possessing what the police alleged was an illegal switchblade under Baltimore law. While being transported in a police van, several cops held him down, putting pressure on his spinal cord, after which he fell into a coma and died, sparking a series of protests in Baltimore; riot police responded violently, and called in the national guard to aid against the “thugs”, as they were labeled by Obama in a press conference. After the protests were put down, the police officers were given separate trials, and all of them were found innocent. 1
After the ATF was caught in a scandal of selling guns to drug cartels, Obama defends and refuses to prosecute.

Mass surveillance

Obama authorized the massive, behind-closed-doors growth of the worldwide US surveillance system.
- Since 2012, the US military has a state-run and funded astroturfing campaign to manipulate public opinion online, and spread pro-US propaganda through government funded sockpuppets, called Operation Earnest Voice.
- The 2010 US diplomatic cables leak by Chelsea Manning revealed a pervasive policy of using US ambassadors as spies, supporting dictatorships, spying on the UN, strong-arming for US companies abroad, and disrupting nuclear disarmament talks. The scope of these leaks touches every country the US has a relationship with, and they are better detailed here. 1, 2
Obama ruthlessly went after and jailed whistleblowers, 2, indicting more than all previous presidents combined. 2, 3
- In 2010, Chelsea Manning was imprisoned under the espionage act for a series of leaks which embarrassed the US government, including the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike, Afghan War documents, Iraq War documents leak, US diplomatic cables leak, and the Guantanamo Bay files leak. The leak was, in Manning’s Words: “possibly one of the most significant documents of our time, removing the fog of war and revealing the true nature of 21st century asymmetric warfare”. 1
Encouraged the FBI to use informants to infiltrate US Muslim communities, blocked their exposure by expanding the definition of state secrets.

Search for Obama on this List of US Atrocities. More here, 2, 3

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Much credit to David Kinder’s current affairs article, the rise of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg cult.

Native peoples, immigrants, and treatment of minorities.

Ruled against the Oneida tribe over a dispute regarding its territorial claim, her majority opinion stating: “We hold that the tribe cannot unilaterally revive its ancient sovereignty, in whole or in part, over the parcels at issue.” 2
In Navajo Nation v. United States Forest Service, she ruled against the Navajo nation, who have consistently protested US encroachment of a US forest-service run ski resort on Navajo territory known as the sacred San Francisco Peaks.
In Inyo County v. Paiute-Shoshone Indians, the Paiute tribe asserted that it was against their privacy policy to allow Inyo county district attorneys to investigate their employees. They stated that their tribe’s status as a sovereign nation made them immune to state processes under federal law and asserted that the state authorized the seizure of tribal records. RBG concurred with the supreme court in dismissing their complaint suit.
In Salazar_v. Ramah_Navajo Chapter, the issue in question was whether the US government, when it enters into a contract with a Native American (Indian) tribe for services, must pay contracts in full, even if Congress has not appropriated enough money to pay all tribal contractors. In a 5-4 decision, Ginsburg sided with the minority that stated the government shouldn’t have to pay.
In Atkinson Trading Co. v. Shirley, the supreme court unanimously ruled against the Navajo nation that charged a hotel occupancy tax for providing services (police, fire, and ambulances) for fee land (non-indian territory within indian territory). The court ruled that the tribe’s imposition of a tax upon nonmembers on non-Indian fee land within the reservation was presumptively invalid without establishing that the tax was related to a consensual relationship with Atkinson.
In Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma v. Manufacturing Technologies, Ginsburg dissented with the majority, who ruled that an Indian Nation were entitled to sovereign immunity from contract lawsuits, whether made on or off reservation, or involving governmental or commercial activities.
In Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, the supreme court unanimously ruled against a tribal council who wanted to collect a tax from non-tribal members doing business on tribal lands. The Court decided unanimously that the land was not the tribe’s land subject to the tribal tax, even though it was owned by the tribe, because it was not part of a Native American reservation. Because all but one reservation in Alaska (the Annette Island reservation of the Tsimshian) had been eliminated by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, the decision had the practical effect of prohibiting almost all Indian tribes in Alaska from collecting taxes for activities conducted on tribal land.
In C & L Enterprises, Inc. v. Citizen Band, Potawatomi Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, Ginsburg in her unanimous court opinion stated that: “An Indian tribe has sovereignty and is immune from suit in a state court unless that immunity has been specifically abrogated by the United States Congress or clearly waived by the tribe. In this case, the Potawatomie Tribe entered into a contract, using a contract form that the tribe provided, that agreed to arbitration and to having the dispute heard in state court. This is a clear waiver of the tribe’s sovereign immunity.”
A podcast by Red Nation, w/ Rebecca Nagle, on the Supreme court’s Oklahoma Decision.
Helped push through the Atlantic coast pipeline, to allow it to cross through federal and native lands., 2
- Refused to block keystone XL pipeline.
In her final supreme court decision, helped push through Trump’s fast-track deportation bill., 2
On Black Lives Matter / Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest: “I think its dumb and disrespectful, but I wouldn’t lock a person up for doing it.” Later retracted her statement after receiving public backlash.
RBG hired 1 POC staffer in 25 years. Kavanaugh, a conservative justice, has 25% POC out of his 48 law clerks. One writer noted that Kavanaughs views on affirmative action don’t reflect his diverse hiring practices, while Ginsburg’s progressive views don’t extend to her chambers. This is an improvement from her 13-year tenure on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, when Ginsburg never had any black clerks. When this issue was raised during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1993, Ginsburg said: “If you confirm me for this job, my attractiveness to black candidates is going to improve.” That promise was ignored. 2
Her best friend on the court was the most racist, conservative justice in modern times, Scalia. In the fawning book Notorious RBG, one of the few mentions of race is in the book’s discussion of Bush v. Gore, the contentious decision that decided the 2000 presidential election. The authors mention that Ginsburg’s draft of her dissent had a footnote alluding to the possible suppression of Black voters in Florida. Justice Scalia responded to this draft by flying into a rage, telling Ginsburg that she was using “Al Sharpton tactics.” Ginsburg removed the footnote before it saw the light of day. This anecdote’s inclusion in the book is baffling, as Ginsburg contemplates calling anti-Black racism in the most facile of ways. But when her friend Justice Scalia plucks an argument straight from right-wing talk radio to shame her out of doing so, Ginsburg instantly capitulates. Scalia called the Voting rights act “racial entitlement”, opposed women’s rights, and consistently defended anti-gay measures, yet these views did not stop her calling Scalia her “best buddy” on the court, their families even spending every new year together.

Law and Order

Others

A primary reason for her continued support for Roe V. Wade and abortion rights, is to prevent “growth in populations we don’t want too many of.”
Ruled that temp workers didn’t deserve paid compensation for being required to watch amazon’s anti-theft videos.
Refused to retire in 2014 at 81 years old: “Tell me who the president could have nominated this spring that you would rather see on the court than me?”

Socialism FAQ

Contents

Socialism FAQ

Didn’t communism fail? It works in theory but not in practice.

What about human nature?

Schools of thought

On Ultra-leftism / Left-Communism

Did economic planning work?

Who would sweep the floors under communism?

What about cooperatives?

What about democracy? Can’t voting fix our problems?

Pacifism and Violence

What would X be like under communism?

On Economics and Sociology

On Nationalism and Internationalism

On Women’s Liberation

The Sex Trade, Prostitution, and Porn

On Race and Class

On Decolonization

On Unequal Exchange

On Guns / Firearms / Violence

On Capitalism

On Liberalism

On Leninism

Further reading

On Trotskyism

On India

On the USSR

Russian Federation (1991-present)

Further reading

On Mao, Maoism, and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and the PRC

Is China State Capitalist?

Is China a Democracy?

Workers rights

Is China destroying the environment?

Is China Imperialist?

Is China anti-LGBT / Homophobic / anti-feminist?

What about the Hong Kong protests?

What about China spying on its own people?

What’s going on with the Uyghurs?

What about the Falun Gong?

What about the Tiananmen square massacre?

What is Radio Free Asia?

On the German Democratic Republic (GDR)

On Cuba

On North Korea / the DPRK

Further reading

On Venezuela

People

Whats so bad about Elon Musk?

Whats so bad about Bill Gates?

What’s so bad about George Orwell?

John McCain

What about the new atheists? (Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens)

Gandhi

Noam Chomsky

What’s wrong with Bernie Sanders?

What’s wrong with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

Imperialism

Domestic issues

She’s a democrat, not a socialist.

What’s wrong with Elizabeth Warren?

Kamala Harris

Pete Buttigieg

Joe Biden

Greta Thunberg

Slavoj Zizek

What’s wrong with Barack Obama?

Imperialism

Empowering Finance Capital

Mass Imprisonment

Mass surveillance

More

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Native peoples, immigrants, and treatment of minorities.

Law and Order

Others

Others

Other Topics

Why are socialists against bitcoin mining?