Facist is to Nazi as Progressive is to Socialist

Randall O’Toole is dropping truth bombs on so-called progressives:

It is time for the progressive philosophy to join this list of politically unacceptable beliefs. At the moment, many people view “progressive” in a positive way that is not in keeping with its history or the beliefs of many of its current practitioners.

As the Antiplanner noted yesterday, it is ironic that the cities that have promoted policies that make housing unaffordable and push low-income people out like to call themselves progressive. This is only ironic because progressives love to pretend they care about minorities and low-income people. History, however, shows otherwise…

More generally, what do progressives believe today? One progressive recently noted that progressives think that:

1. “Health care is a basic human right.” In other words, they believe it is okay to confiscate your income to pay for someone else’s healthcare. If healthcare, then why not someone else’s housing, food, and other needs? As a matter of fact, progressives believe it is okay to confiscate your income to pay for those things too.

2. “Human rights ought always to trump property rights.” What human rights are we talking about? Freedom of speech, religion, the press, and other rights in the Bill of Rights do not in any way conflict with property rights (which are also in the Bill of Rights). Only such “new” rights as health care.

3. “Think that as a society we have a collective obligation to provide everyone who is willing and able to work with a job that pays a living wage and offers dignity.” Does that mean that the government should make work — digging holes and filling them up — just to give people a job? What if digging holes is not “dignified” enough for them?

4. “Think that regulating big corporations isn’t enough, and that such corporations, if they are allowed to exist at all, must either serve the common good or be put into public receivership.” But whoever gets to define the “common good” effectively becomes dictator.

5. “Think it’s wrong to allow individuals to accumulate wealth without limits, and that the highest incomes should be capped well before they begin to threaten community and democracy.” Just how does Bill Gates or Warren Buffet threaten community and democracy?

The list goes on. Someone else might be able to distinguish between “progressivism” and “socialism,” but I can’t.

I can’t either. Nor can they.
-Max Borders