Pat Cross (IV): European Socialism Works — The Proof

On his website (Because I enjoy Drawing, America, and a few other things too…), Pat Cross has a cartoon on socialism…

• Pat Cross on Socialism III: We'll Just Try a Tiny Bit…
• Pat Cross on Socialism II: Where Everything Is Free… Except…
• Pat Cross on Socialism I: Everyone Else Who Tried This Got Hurt…
More:
• Pat Cross on the Left's Double Standards
• Pat Cross on the Outlook of the Democrat Party, i.e.,
America's Alleged Problem with Racist Bigots and Other Would-Be Hitlers…
• Pat Cross on the Separation of Church and StateAccording to Conservatives and According to Liberals…

Those Ghastly Men! The Bloody Bastards Oppressed Our Sisters and Our Mothers and Our Mothers' Mothers and Our… (with Apologies to Monty Python)

The Oppressive Male Sketch:
In a modern-day classroom, somewhere in North America or Europe, a TEACHER is duly doing her job (as well as her duty) and teaching the younger generation about all the evils, all the abuses, and all the lies of Western civilization in general and of America in particular. Today's subject matter is the horrific treatment and the intolerable oppression of women throughout the ages at the hands of the patriarchy. (Here, the TEACHER is a woman, but, with slight changes to her lines, the character could just as well be a male feminist played by a male.) With apologies to the Monty Python gang

(Related: Monty Python on Colonialism and U.S. Imperialism)

• TEACHER: They bled us white, the bastards! They’ve taken everything we have! They did nothing but oppress us! And not just us! They oppressed our mothers! And our mothers' mothers—
• LITTLE GIRL CHIMES IN: And our mothers' mothers' mothers!
• TEACHER: Yeah—
• LITTLE GIRL KEEPS GOING: And our mothers' mothers' mothers' mothers!
• TEACHER: Alright, Fran. Don't belabor the point. And what have they ever given us in return?!
Silence…

Another little girl timidly raises a finger.
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 2: This classroom…
• TEACHER: Whut?
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 2: This classroom;  Every object in this classroom, they made.
• TEACHER: Oh yeah yeah they did do that for us, uh-huh that’s true…
• LITTLE BOY Nº 1: And every object in my home, and [pointing to the classmate who just spoke] in her home…
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 3: And also in your home, Mrs. Fotzbinkle…
• TEACHER: Yeah, alright, I'll grant you that the objects in this school and in our homes are two things the members of the male species have done—
• LITTLE BOY Nº 2: And also the homes themselves, the very buildings, and the cities that they form…
• TEACHER: Oh well obviously the cities, I mean the cities go without saying, don’t they?! … But apart from the homes, the buildings, and the cities…
Other KIDS, none of whom seem to have understood the purpose of the TEACHER's speech and of her (thoroughly) rhetorical question, start chatting amongst themselves
• VOICES FROM AROUND THE CLASSROOM: The machines… The factories… The motors… The cars… The vehicles… The ships… The locomotives… The airplanes… The rockets…The medicine… The hospitals… In olden days, the sail ships and the horse carriages…

• TEACHER: Yeah, alright, fair enough—
But women were oppressed! They were denied the right to vote!!
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 2: Well, for most of history, most men around the globe didn't have the vote either.
• LITTLE BOY Nº 3: In fact, Mrs. Fotzbinkle, most men — and women — were so dirt-poor, they rarely had anything to do but try to survive and they never got around to leaving the farm beyond — what was it? — a 20-km radius…
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 1: Unless they went to war
• LITTLE BOY Nº 4: That's true
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 2: Yes, Mrs. Fotzbinkle, if we can vote we have the capitalists to thank for that…
• LITTLE BOY Nº 3: Didn't men used to cast their votes for their entire families?
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 3: And far from being the patriarchy and oppressive — aren't most of men, at least in the West, like, in fact loving and… obedient and acting like milquetoasts?
• LITTLE BOY Nº 5: Remember the Grace Bedell story that you read to us, Mrs. Fotzbinkle?
The little girl who informed Abe Lincoln that if he grew a beard women would get their husbands, their sons, and their brothers to vote for him, simply by "teasing" them to do so…

• TEACHER: Alright, fair enough, but don't you dare start diminishing the contributions of women! Don't forget women used to sew all the clothes and all the garments that we —
• LITTLE BOY Nº 3: — and they!
• TEACHER: — and they — used to wear!
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 1: But the tools to make the clothes — the needles and the thread and the scissors and all the other instruments in the sewing kit —
• LITTLE BOY Nº 3: The sewing machine!!
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 1: —those were made by men, who also gathered the wool and manufactured the fabric.
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 4: In fact, men invented the machines that made farming easy, that made poverty retreat, and that prevented a man from destroying his health and dying at an early age
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 5: plus all the gadgets in the modern kitchen and the modern home that prevented a woman from ever leaving the home
• LITTLE BOY Nº 4: In fact, when you think about it, all or most of these inventions were invented, or were improved, by the people who are the most hated today around the globe — males, capitalists, and Americans

• LITTLE GIRL Nº 2: And thanks to men, it's safe to walk in the streets
• TEACHER: What are you saying?! For centuries, women were kept in the kitchen!!
• LITTLE BOY Nº 2: Well, while women were in the kitchen, Mrs. Fotzbinkle, with a roof over their heads, men were not exactly out partying in town
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 5: Nor were they going to the brothel
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 1: The "brothel'? What's that?
• EVERYBODY ELSE (in unison): Never mind!
• LITTLE BOY Nº 1: True enough: They were out in the fields, whatever the weather — boiling sun or freezing rain —
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 6: Or they were off going to war!
• LITTLE BOY Nº 2: No wonder women live longer than men

• TEACHER: No brothels?! Men could go out and be sluts and frolic with loose women! Women were banned from doing the equivalent! How about that?! Huh?! Huh?! How about that?!
• LITTLE BOY Nº 3: Well, in the olden days, it was necessary because there were few methods to prevent a girl from getting pregnant…
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 2: Plus, it wasn't the men per se who kept women per se from going out, it was a given girl's father, her brothers, and her uncles…
• TEACHER: See?! See?!
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 2: …ANNND her mother, ANNND her aunts, ANNND her grand-mother…
• LITTLE BOY Nº 1: And don't forget, Mrs. Fotzbinkle: the pill, and other forms of contraception, were all invented by men
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 6: like all the medicine
• LITTLE BOY Nº 4: like all the medicine that has made everyone — males and females alike — healthier and unlikely to die at an early age…
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 3: The medicine that has rid mothers and babies alike from the common risk of dying in childbirth…

That's it! The TEACHER has had enough!
• TEACHER: Alright!! But apart from the homes! — the buildings! — the cities! — the factories! — the kitchens! — the cars! — the horse carriages! — the ships! — the planes! — the motors! — the machines! — the hospitals! — the medicine! — and the contraceptives! (pause) — what have men ever done for us?!?!
Timidly, a little girl raises her a finger…
• LITTLE GIRL Nº 1: They cherish us, and they shower us with love
• TEACHER: "Love"?!?! Oh, SHUT UP!!

Non, No, Just a Tad: Pat Cross on Socialism (III)

On his website (Because I enjoy Drawing, America, and a few other things too…), Pat Cross has a cartoon on socialism…


• Pat Cross on Socialism IV: European Socialism Works — The Proof…
• Pat Cross on Socialism II: Where Everything Is Free… Except…
• Pat Cross on Socialism I: Everyone Else Who Tried This Got Hurt…
More:
• Pat Cross on the Left's Double Standards
• Pat Cross on the Outlook of the Democrat Party, i.e.,
America's Alleged Problem with Racist Bigots and Other Would-Be Hitlers…
• Pat Cross on the Separation of Church and StateAccording to Conservatives and According to Liberals…

Where Everything Is Free… Except You: Pat Cross on Socialism (II)

On his website (Because I enjoy Drawing, America, and a few other things too…), Pat Cross has a few choice cartoons on socialism…

• Pat Cross on Socialism IV: European Socialism Works — The Proof…
• Pat Cross on Socialism III: We'll Just Try a Tiny Bit…
• Pat Cross on Socialism I: Everyone Else Who Tried This Got Hurt…
More:
• Pat Cross on the Left's Double Standards
• Pat Cross on the Outlook of the Democrat Party, i.e.,
America's Alleged Problem with Racist Bigots and Other Would-Be Hitlers…
• Pat Cross on the Separation of Church and StateAccording to Conservatives and According to Liberals…

Whether implemented by a mob or a single strongman, collectivism is a poverty generator, an attack on human dignity, and a destroyer of individual rights

On the same day that Venezuela’s “democratically” elected socialist president, Nicolas Maduro, whose once-wealthy nation now has citizens foraging for food, announced he was lopping five zeros off the country’s currency to create a “stable financial and monetary system,” Meghan McCain of “The View” was the target of internet-wide condemnation for having stated some obvious truths about collectivism.

Thus writes David Harsanyi in the Daily Signal in a piece entitled Sorry If You’re Offended, but Socialism Leads to Misery and Destitution.

During the same week we learned that the democratic socialist president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, is accused of massacring hundreds of protesters whose economic futures have been decimated by his economic policies, Soledad O’Brien and writers at outlets ranging from GQ, to BuzzFeed, to the Daily Beast were telling McCain to cool her jets.

In truth, McCain was being far too calm. After all, socialism is the leading man-made cause of death and misery in human existence. Whether implemented by a mob or a single strongman, collectivism is a poverty generator, an attack on human dignity, and a destroyer of individual rights.

It’s true that not all socialism ends in the tyranny of Leninism or Stalinism or Maoism or Castroism or Ba’athism or Chavezism or the Khmer Rouge—only most of it does. And no, New York primary winner Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t intend to set up gulags in Alaska. Most so-called democratic socialists—the qualifier affixed to denote that they live in a democratic system and have no choice but to ask for votes—aren’t consciously or explicitly endorsing violence or tyranny.

But when they adopt the term “socialism” and the ideas associated with it, they deserve to be treated with the kind of contempt and derision that all those adopting authoritarian philosophies deserve.

But look: Norway!

Socialism is perhaps the only ideology that Americans are asked to judge solely based on its piddling “successes.” Don’t you dare mention Albania or Algeria or Angola or Burma or Congo or Cuba or Ethiopia or Laos or Somalia or Vietnam or Yemen or, well, any other of the dozens of other inconvenient places socialism has been tried. Not when there are a handful of Scandinavian countries operating generous welfare state programs propped up by underlying vibrant capitalism and natural resources.

Of course, socialism exists on a spectrum, and even if we accept that the Nordic social program experiments are the most benign iteration of collectivism, they are certainly not the only version. Pretending otherwise would be like saying, “The police state of Singapore is more successful than Denmark. Let’s give it a spin.”

It turns out, though, that the “Denmark is awesome!” talking point is only the second-most preposterous one used by socialists. It goes something like this: If you’re a fan of “roads, schools, libraries, and such,” although you may not even be aware of it, you are also a supporter of socialism.

This might come as a surprise to some, but every penny of the $21,206 spent in Ocasio-Cortez’s district each year on each student, rich or poor, is provided with the profits derived from capitalism.

There is no welfare system, no library that subsists on your good intentions. Having the state take over the entire health care system could rightly be called a socialistic endeavor, but pooling local tax dollars to put books in a building is called local government.

It should also be noted that today’s socialists get their yucks by pretending collectivist policies only lead to innocuous outcomes like local libraries. But for many years they were also praising the dictators of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the nation’s most successful socialist, isn’t merely impressed with the goings-on in Denmark. Not very long ago, he lauded Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela as an embodiment of the “American dream,” even more so than the United States.

Socialists like to blame every inequity, the actions of every greedy criminal, every downturn, and every social ill on the injustice of capitalism. But none of them admit that capitalism has been the most effective way to eliminate poverty in history.

Today, in former socialist states like India, there have been big reductions in poverty thanks to increased capitalism. In China, where communism sadly still deprives more than a billion people of their basic rights, hundreds of millions benefit from a system that is slowly shedding socialism. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the extreme poverty rate in the world has been cut in half. And it didn’t happen because Southeast Asians were raising the minimum wage.

In the United States, only 5 percent of people are even aware that poverty has fallen in the world, according to the Gapminder Foundation, which is almost certainly in part due to the left’s obsession with “inequality” and normalization of “socialism.”

Nearly half of American millennials would rather live in a socialist society than in a capitalist one, according to a YouGov poll. That said, only 71 percent of those asked were able to properly identify either. We can now see the manifestation of this ignorance in our elections and “The View” co-host Joy Behar.

But if all you really champion are some higher taxes and more generous social welfare, stop associating yourself with a philosophy that usually brings destitution and death. Call it something else. If not, McCain has every right to associate you with the ideology you embrace.

Pat Cross on the Outlook of the Democrat Party, i.e., America's Alleged Problem with Racist Bigots and Other Would-Be Hitlers

Pat Cross has a handful of cartoons dealing with the outlook of the Democrat Party…

• Pat Cross on Socialism IV: European Socialism Works — The Proof…
• Pat Cross on Socialism III: We'll Just Try a Tiny Bit…
• Pat Cross on Socialism II: Where Everything Is Free… Except…
• Pat Cross on Socialism I: Everyone Else Who Tried This Got Hurt…
More:
• Pat Cross on the Left's Double Standards
• Pat Cross on the Separation of Church and State
According to Conservatives and According to Liberals…

Pat Cross on the Left's Double Standards

In a couple of cartoons almost two years apart, Pat Cross provides light on the double standards of the left (progressive politicians and mainstream media alike).

• Pat Cross on Socialism IV: European Socialism Works — The Proof…
• Pat Cross on Socialism III: We'll Just Try a Tiny Bit…
• Pat Cross on Socialism II: Where Everything Is Free… Except…
• Pat Cross on Socialism I: Everyone Else Who Tried This Got Hurt…
More:
• Pat Cross on the Outlook of the Democrat Party, i.e.,
America's Alleged Problem with Racist Bigots and Other Would-Be Hitlers…
• Pat Cross on the Separation of Church and StateAccording to Conservatives and According to Liberals…

Pat Cross on Socialism (I)

On his website (Because I enjoy Drawing, America, and a few other things too…), Pat Cross has a handful of choice cartoons on socialism…

• Pat Cross on Socialism IV: European Socialism Works — The Proof…
• Pat Cross on Socialism III: We'll Just Try a Tiny Bit…
• Pat Cross on Socialism II: Where Everything Is Free… Except…
More:
• Pat Cross on the Left's Double Standards
• Pat Cross on the Outlook of the Democrat Party, i.e.,
America's Alleged Problem with Racist Bigots and Other Would-Be Hitlers…
• Pat Cross on the Separation of Church and StateAccording to Conservatives and According to Liberals…