Did anyone actually read the article in The Nation?
What was supposedly wrong with it? They're not apologists for Beijing.
In fact, Americans had better start paying close attention to China, because within a few years, it's going to displace us as Number One.
We need to think about how to be a strong Number Two .... and also, about how to encourage the growth of democratic forces within China.
But that's for another thread.
As for socialists being garbage human beings -- I beg to differ.
Within the socialist movement you will find every sort of person, just as you will within the conservative movement. All human life is there, from self-sacrificing idealists, to scondrels. (Here, I'm using 'Socialist' to mean someone who wants the productive forces to be nationalized, and the economy to be directed by a central plan -- not just someone who wants free healthcare. There aren't many of those sorts of socialist around any more, since socialism has proven to be a massive failure.)
If you look at the history of the Socialist movement in the US, going back a hundred years, you'll encounter some remarkable people.
The candidate of the Socialist Party in national elections for several cycles was one Eugene Victor Debs -- as close to an American saint as we'll ever get.
He opposed our entry into WWI, and urged young men to resist the draft. For that, the liberal Democrat Woodrow Wilson had him arrested -- he was tried, found gulity, and sentenced to ten years in prison.
When the war was over, people in similar situations in many countries were pardoned. But Wilson was a mean-spirited man, and refused to pardon Debs.
It remained for the succeeding Republican President, the much-maligned Warren G Harding, to pardon Debs. And Harding even invited Debs to the White House for a chat!
Many people who joined the Socialist -- and Communist -- movement, did so for admirable reasons: they saw a world of poverty, war and injustice, and wanted to do something about. This is not something to be condemned. They were misguided, and those who joined the Communists, in particular, became corrupted. But their motives were not base.
Patriots should should patiently explain to socialists that it is capitalism -- within a framework of state regulation -- which is lifting the world out of poverty. If you read the Communist Manifesto, you will see that Marx and Engels actually have high praise for capitalism, for unlocking the productive forces. They thought it would stagnate, and produce mass poverty. They were wrong, but their original insight was spot on. (They also saw imperialism, for all its brutality, as dragging the backward countries into the modern age. And they were right.)
Those of us who support capitalism need to educate socialists. A good place to start is here: https://HumanProgress. org If you don't know about this website, have a look. You will probably be surprised.
