Well, well.

"It's a joke only to you."
Huh? I thought you said discussion should be had here. This is just a place for people who can't make their practice work to blame their failures on someone else and make themselves feel less pathetic by being nasty to others. So just use ignore.

"How can you not see it happening? "
I guess I keep thinking there will be a backlash before it gets out of hand. But there's no sign of that. yet.
$3500 is just staggering, considering there are some states that have no income tax and have part of the primary residence exempt from property taxes.

I am not so sure that they "realize" much of anything. Their guiding light is "go along to get along".

There is NO innocent path to socialism. The folks who "fall" for it are dishonest at heart, and are knowingly going for something that they know doesn't work.

The same conversation I've had with people who've suffered under Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot, Stalin, etc. Authoritarian regimes, like recurrent allergies, seem to keep reappearing, and the formula is simple: promise a Utopia where no one is ever hungry, sick, or uneducated; gain control of the education system to produce uninformed, gullible students; gain control of the media and convert it into a propaganda machine for the state; characterize the opposition as mentally ill and dangerous.

Oddly, it isn't the desperately poor who are susceptible to the message, as they're too busy surviving. The most gullible are those who are relatively comfortable, but jealous of those who have more "stuff." They fall victim to the delusion that only the greedy rich at the top will be stripped of their wealth, which will be redistributed to all that are less well off. Only after the state is in control and stripping everyone of their possessions to create a society of a small elite at the top with the rest becoming a desperately poor mass with no freedom do they begin to realize Utopia is never going to happen.

I call it government creep. Same principle as the frog in a pot of water. Socialism is very real in our country. Hang out in any Social Security Office for a day and watch the flow of people looking for handouts. Margaret Thatcher once said, "Socialism is a great idea until you run out of other peoples money." The rich are simply not rich enough to support socialism in the US.

I read of a very similar conversation at the start of the fundamental fascist's regime. An Eastern European was anxiously asking why Americans would want to destroy all their wonderful freedoms.
That was about eight whole years ago before the enthusiastically followed Bolshevik Bernie got burned due to a preference for stealth socialism and a rigged for an entitled coronation.
Will the sheeple ever learn?.

I have a couple of friends from Russia who share the same opinion. First-hand experience, one could say, beats hearsay and propaganda by a mile.

I guess they have to show a difference so you and I think they are doing something different. birds of a feather or crooks united.

Yakov Smirnov did a whole series on this, as have a few other Youtubers. America has had it so good for so long that no one here has any concept of a hard life. I think that's one of the benefits of doing a little international travelling where you have to live with the people: you get to know them, how they think, and their situation from real people - not just a few in-and-out journalists.

It's called readign, kids and adults don't to it any moreg. Yes, Rand understood first hand. However, we used to read "1984", "Brave New World",, "Dr. Zhivago" and so much more. We lived in those books for days, and we understood. When our daughter read "Anthem" at 9 years old, she recognized some of the brainwashing in the school she attended. Kids are daily sent messages from TV, school, society, to become socialists and ultimately communists. It is because we do not thing nor research for ourselves. If we don't do the work, we will not appreciate what we are letting slip away.

our govt education system has one goal...turn out mindless sheepole...it is working...and democracy is tyranny of the majority...that is also working...only a collapse and reset can lead to a better future, but in a collapse all bets are off on a liberty-oriented future...that will go to the prepared...prepare...

Our history I believe of the shift towards socialism started when our government started taxing us to fight wars and the result was "highwaymen" modern ones which exist saw an easy path to looting the kitty. Their example has propagated it self for 200 years and the number of looters as we know has grown due to the increase of confiscated money. This behavior is encouraged by the wealth of the country so the looters will protect them. In order to keep the system the looters have created they have figured out that it is their best interest to socialize all sources of revenue. At this juncture I believe the ultimate end which maybe 30 years off will be that nobody works so all revenue stops. And the obvious result will be that socialism has un-mistakenly failed again as it should. Then AJ we will know what your friends know.

Yes I think that is part of it and it is sad. It is also that there is no effective opposition -both conservatives and liberals are pushing socialism, just their brand of it.

How can you not see it happening? That's interesting. I'm taking it very seriously. Just the other day I looked at my taxes and paycheck to realize I'm paying about $3500/month just for the privilege to live here in California, USA. I get zero back for all that money. Zilch. It's taken from me. Then...I started thinking. How far would that $3500 go if I lived someplace else...?

It's a joke only to you.

Because when the shelves are full and you are used to there always being goods "magically" available, socialism sounds good. Everyone likes "free" stuff -- just look at a buffet or open bar.

After a while, of course, the shelves get empty and no one puts things back on them.

they're exactly right. Otherwise it sounds like I'm talking about their rights.

I think their exactly right. I hope they're wrong about being on a path toward socialism. I don't see it happening. It does seem like the very notion of socialism/communism has become a joke, not something to be taken seriously anymore.