Socialists like Bernie Sanders and, to a degree, Elizabeth Warren are hoping they can make it all the way to the Oval Office by advancing arguments like the one Sanders makes in this video:
Sen. Bernie Sanders: "In a nation in which major league ball players can sign contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars, we can pay teachers $60,000 a year on salary." pic.twitter.com/k2vzkX24Ry
— The Hill (@thehill) January 12, 2020
Sanders has to be aware, at least on some level, of the logical fallacies of his argument. Presumably he figures if he can persuade enough gullible attendees at his town halls to cast their ballots for him, he can become president.
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A second way in which socialists try to persuade the American people of the benefits of their ideology is through out-and-out deception. Take this tweet by the Socialist Party of Great Britain. It uses pictures, rather than words, to reach a wider swath of the population, and it even contains a catchy tagline: “Capitalism — where you wait for health care. Socialism — where health care waits for you.”
Capitalism’s admirers really don’t like its failure to provide decent health care for all being exposed, nor how this would be a basic human right in the class-free state-free money-free future socialist society. Capitalism’s admirers really wouldn’t like you to share this meme. pic.twitter.com/X0Ec6IwrXM
— The Socialist Party (@OfficialSPGB) January 9, 2020
The image makes a compelling case — until you look a little more closely. Donny Ferguson, of Americans for a Better Economy, did and here’s what he discovered:
The photo labeled "capitalism" is the government-run Sunbury Health Centre in Surrey, England.
The photo labeled "socialism" is St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with modern equipment developed by the General Electric corporation. https://t.co/rF5fMCO9MH
— Donny Ferguson ? (@DonnyFerguson) January 10, 2020
Ferguson’s claims can be verified by a pair of simple Google image searches, one for Sunbury Health Centre in Surrey, England, the other for St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, Pa. Here is what those searches turn up. Note that the first image even contains a caption that puts the lie to the Socialist Party’s claim.
