Why Do We Call Not-Socialism "Socialism"?
I'm asking you, Jon Stewart
If you’re looking to become much dumber very quickly, I highly recommend this The Problem with Jon Stewart segment on socialism. And if you’re thinking “I would like to be dumber, but I have plans to have a railroad tie fired through my brain like Phineas Gage”, let me tell you: This Jon Stewart segment will be faster and more effective.
The segment begins with the statement: “Hard-working Americans aren’t doing that great.” Obviously, on some level, that’s true; there are people struggling to make ends meet (and to skip to the end: I think we should do more to help them). Of course, Stewart happened to be speaking at virtually the same moment that another not-too-shabby jobs report came out; I would argue that a 4.6 percent unemployment rate 18 months after a once-in-a-century pandemic with trendlines headed in the right direction indicates that we’re doing something right. Still, the “these are hard times” narrative will always be alive somewhere in the media landscape. The three media narratives that never change no matter what are: “these are hard times”, “our teens are out of control”, and “those clowns in Congress should stop bickering”.
Having established the true (if obvious) fact that some people’s finances aren’t doing too well, Stewart asks: “Anybody know what might help them?” He then plays a montage of Fox News talking heads mentioning the following things (I’m using their words):
Single-payer health care
Government-paid child care
Universal child care
Free college
Early education
Child education
A guaranteed job
Family and medical leave, paid vacations
Retirement security
Government healthy food
After the montage, Stewart incredulously asks: “Why aren’t we doing those things?”