 Hi, good afternoon all. It's probably my favourite time of the week, which is my book review time of the week. And this book I'm going to cover today is one of the best that I've covered in this so far, and hugely, hugely relevant to where we are at the moment. Now, I don't need to tell you what's going on. I don't need to tell you that the United States is in chaos, and it's in chaos because it's losing its democracy. And it is, we've got the social media bands, etc. on Donald Trump, which is outrageous enough, but we now have this farce of an impeachment, and the press absolutely loving it. The second time he's been impeached, he's the only president in the United History of the US to be impeached twice. They forget that he wasn't, he was found not guilty the first time. I suspect he's unlikely to be found not guilty this time because the sewer rats have closed in on him. The swamp is very much still alive and still stinks to high heaven. They are now trying to prevent him from ever standing again for something he hasn't done. This is what's crucial. They're accusing him of inciting violence. He did not incite violence. Democrats, on the other hand, have incited violence, and they did nothing at all, nothing at all, up months and months of rioting by Black Lives Matter, who are a communist organisation. Now communism and socialism, much of a muchness, and that's where America is going. That is where America is going. It's going down the route of socialism slash communism. It's going, it's at risk, real risk of losing its liberties, its constitution. So we are seeing a rise of socialism, socialism slash communism. So today I'm going to cover a book, The Case Against Socialism. And you're going to have to bear with me again. It is by Rand Paul. I'm going to take you through some of it, not all of it for obvious reasons. First of all I wouldn't have the time and secondly I'm not allowed by copyright law to take you through all of it, but I highly, highly recommend it. So let me start, and some of this is going to look very, very familiar, and you will recognise it from what is happening now. So let me start on chapter two, and this one is entitled Socialism Rewards Corruption. And of course it does, but let me read to you what Rand Paul has to say about this. So, like most socialists Hugo Chavez was elected on a promise to help the poor and equalise income, and yet like most socialists he did not apply the theory of equality to himself. Sympathetic international agencies reported that Chavez did partly succeed in reducing income inequality, but the result was less income inequality and less overall prosperity, which goes to the heart of the question, would you rather be richer yourself or make sure the rich got poorer? And as the overall economy in Venezuela finally created it became obvious that as Orwell warned, some animals are more equal than others. As poverty and hunger became widespread across Venezuela, Chavez himself got richer and richer and fatter and fatter. This is, you know, at George Orwell, we talk about, well I talk about a lot about 1984 and how we're living it. And I was asked the other day on Twitter what 1984 is, when I say 1984, what am I talking about? And why am I saying that we are living in it? Well for those who don't know, 1984 is a book by George Orwell. And it was, at the time it was written, 1984 was a few decades into the future. And have you noticed how any books about predicting the future are really positive? Or any movies that predict the future are really positive? And this one wasn't either. And part of the socialist society that George Orwell fictionalised in 1984, part of it was the people, not only did they live under absolute control and where they watched all the time, but they were forced to believe things they knew not to be true. And that is something that we are, is happening now. And you can see it all the time. And it's almost deliberate. It's almost as if the wealthy and the powerful are dangling this obvious, these obvious lies in front of us, a bit like saying Donald Trump incited violence he didn't while ignoring the fact that Democrats have done that. So they'll almost dangle this in front of you. And if you stand up and say, but hold on a minute, what about what the Democrats did? There's nothing, there's no evidence actually to suggest that Donald Trump incited violence for the simple reason that he didn't. But these lies are presented to us as truth. And we are effectively forced to believe them. In 1984 people were forced to believe things they knew not to be true or pain of death. Now it's on pain of social death. You are stigmatised. You are pushed aside, excluded, banned, censored. If you dare to speak up and say, but hold on, that's not true. What you're saying isn't true. So also written by George Orwell was Animal Farm. And it talks about a group of animals on a farm. And they rise up, the sort of animals on the lower level, they rise up against the ones at the higher level on the basis that they want equality and they want to raise those on the lower rungs of the ladder. And this is very, very attractive. Indeed, I want to raise those on the lower rungs of the ladder but I want to give them back their freedom and their democracy. But what happens in Animal Farm is that when the lower animals rise to the top they themselves become what they had replaced. It's a bit like the Labour Party. The Labour Party rose up to give a voice to the working classes and now they trample all over working classes who now need a new party. Ah, just for the record, it's got one. It's called For Britain. So it's...this is what happens. This is what happens. They rise up saying all the right things. Equality, equality, equality. When actually the result is inevitably and invariably that equality means equally poor and people struggling equally and it rarely does it make the poor any better off but what is absolutely a part of this and again invariably it is the case that those leaders who rise up promising equality enrich themselves. This is always the case. And this is the first argument offered against socialism that it is not, it never results in actual equality. It simply results in lower standards of living except for the leaders who rise up on the promise of equality but only in theory, not in practice and certainly not including themselves. Another chapter quite controversially entitled is capitalism is the more moral system. Here I want to take you to this paragraph which I found really interesting. So AdamSmith.orgs, Sam Bowman. I'll ask Smith.orgs off your website. Sam Bowman does a good job answering some of the standard accusations from the left on inequality. Bowman points out that studies that conclude that inequality's slow growth are flawed and end up comparing Sweden with Mexico leaving out a lot of other factors that might be the cause of both Sweden's lower inequality and its lower crime and poverty rates and assuming that what we're trying to prove but even though countries with lower inequality might have higher growth rates that doesn't mean that cutting inequality will boost growth rates. For example, while the Swedish population has longer average life spans, lower levels of violence and higher overall education than the US population Swedish Americans also have the same statistics while living in the United States. Bowman cites a paper by Kristen Forbes that found the opposite of what liberals argue. She found that an increase in a country's level of income inequality has a significant positive relationship with subsequent economic growth. Bowman concludes, it's not inequality that matters, it's poverty and overall living standards. In other words, would you rather make $10,000 whether rich and ten times that or make $30,000 whether rich and twenty times that? What really matters is your standard of living, not your neighbors. In reality, the poor are getting richer all the time, the rich are also. Now this was addressed, similar to this was addressed once by Margaret Thatcher in Parliament and she talked about how the socialists want not to raise living standards of everyone but to reduce the living standards of the rich. Now, wouldn't we prefer if you, for people who have very little money, is it really their concern that other people have more money or do they themselves want to have more money and they themselves raise their standard of living? Capitalism, this argues, creates that reality whereas socialism reduces the standard of living. For everyone, carry on. Humanprogress.org does a good job analyzing the amazing leaps of prosperity over the last 200 years. According to their website, in 1820 over 90% of the world lived in extreme poverty, measured as less than $2 a day. In 1990, the percentage of the world's population living in extreme poverty represented about 30%. Fast forward to today, where less than 10% of the world's lives in extreme poverty and you only need to open your eyes to see that this is the case. In Britain, for example, you can look back to Victorian times, there was extreme poverty in Britain at that time. I am not suggesting there isn't poverty in Britain today, but it is certainly a different level, it is a higher level. What is poor today is not the same as what was poor back then. The standards have risen. And that is, this book argues, the result of the capitalist system and that socialism intends to keep us all down. The United States, now, this is crucial, it is really, really important. There are key figures in the Democrats who are open avid socialists and Joe Biden, who is about to go into the White House having, well, stolen the election, is about to go into the White House. He is a supporter of Black Lives Matter and he has already, he's already pushing the racially divisive rhetoric of that, remember Black Lives Matter, our communist organization. He's already pushing their rhetoric by promising, for example, to help struggling Black or Asian people in the United States. Why not just help struggling people in the United States? Why not help them get back on their feet? And what about, I mean, does he include in this the Black people whose businesses were destroyed by the riots of Black Lives Matter? He won't mention that, believe me. But there is a real threat in the United States now and Trump said very clearly that America will never be a socialist country. It is in danger of becoming one and the consequences of that could be very, very serious indeed because there are many states in the United States who will not tolerate this kind of economy or this kind of society. So in this book Rand Paul talks about socialism in the United States and in particular Bernie Sanders, who is an open socialist. Let me take you to this chapter, chapter 9. Bernie's socialism also includes praise for dictators. Now this you won't hear from the virtue signalers who advocate for socialism. They don't talk about the dictatorships and the tyranny that accompany socialism. But Bernie Sanders is different. Bernie Sanders actually does praise dictators at least according to Rand Paul in this book. So from chapter 9 he starts, Bernie for all his sincerity also shows an abundance of misplaced admiration for states that ultimately no one supported, not even hardened socialist. Once upon a time Bernie had good things to say about Cuban, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan socialism until their failures became too glaring to overlook. In 1985 Bernie praised Castro. Everybody was totally convinced that Castro was the worst guy in the world. All the Cuban people were going to rise up in rebellion against Fidel Castro. They forgot that he educated their kids, gave them healthcare, totally transformed society. Bernie famously honeymooned in Moscow under Soviet communism and had many good things to say about a host of communist regimes from Nicaragua to El Salvador to Cuba. When Nicaraguan socialist Daniel Ortega came to the United States he made sure to have time for a 75 minute one-on-one visit with the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Bernie Sanders. David Onsworth reports that so close was the relationship with Nicaragua that Sanders enthusiastically accepted an invitation by Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government in July 1985. The visit was financed by the Nicaraguan government except the airfare which Sanders paid for. Even Bernie's rhetoric once sounded like a good Marxist. Decades ago Bernie was quoted as saying the basic truth of politics is primarily class struggle and that democracy means public ownership of the major means of production. It doesn't get more orthodox Marx than that. When the Sandinistas used violence to come to power in Nicaragua Bernie was their most prominent American supporter. Michael Moynihan at the Daily Beast quotes a Sanders biographer as saying Sanders probably has done more than any other elected politician in the country to actively support the Sandinistas and their revolution. Sanders himself describes with pride his visit to Nicaragua shortly after Ortega seized power saying believe it or not I was the highest ranking American official at the event of feeding the Sandinista takeover. It goes on to talk more and more about his particular links with ardent and famed socialists and the following chapter goes into more detail about socialism and socialists in America. There's a significant amount of content in this about Scandinavia because Rand Paul argues and claims that what American politicians when they try to sanitize and advocate for socialism one thing they love to do is point to Scandinavia and look at Sweden, look at Norway look at the high standard of living they have well they do, they do have for how much longer I don't know given the immigration they do have a high standard of living in Sweden and Norway and Denmark but what's wrong with the argument well what's wrong with the argument is that Scandinavia is not socialist this is a lie and Scandinavian countries themselves completely deny being socialist they are high tax countries generous welfare benefits but they are not socialist countries they run on a capitalist economy they are capitalist countries they are free market countries they engage in the free market like other capitalist countries it's a lie they're lying about Scandinavia and they're lying about Scandinavia to try to persuade people that socialism doesn't lead to tyranny and poverty by using countries that aren't socialist by using countries that are capitalist great deal of content on that well worth reading but I want to move on to perhaps the most controversial part of this and this is something this is a debate that's been going on for a long time where the Nazis socialists and this I'm going to read quite a bit from this this I particularly enjoyed chapter entitled Hitler was a socialist chapter 20 for obvious reasons no significant party advocates Nazi socialism today ever since the general public became aware of the Nazi death camps no one has wanted the stigma of being anywhere close to Nazism on any political spectrum so despite the Nazis literally having socialist in their name the name of the party was the socialist German workers party the left has made a concerted effort to label Nazis as far right wingers does that sound familiar to you it's incredible it's absolutely incredible and it's just another example of the inversion of reality the absolute dishonesty the outright lies the revision of history the revision of truth this again Orwellian lie this Orwellian lie that the national socialist German workers party the Nazi party wasn't socialist it was now Hitler may have allowed private ownership but so heavily and he goes into this in some detail so heavily regulated was it that it effectively amounted to state control and regulation of prices of the number of products that a company could produce it was tightly, tightly regulated to the point where in effect it amounted to state ownership of property I go on a little bit with this one I want to read you the 25 point plan of the Nazis if you weren't informed that the following points were from the Nazis 25 point plan you could be excused for believing them to be part of any socialist manifesto highlights of Hitler's national socialism included the state was to be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and a way of life for citizens abolition of on and work and labour incomes in brackets this plan derives from Marx's belief that the value of a product equal the labour used to create the product if the owner or banker who lent the money took any portion of the product's sale price then this profit was un-earned next point breaking of debt interest slavery brackets Hitler not only accepted Marx's view that the collection of interest was robbing labour but argued against Jews explicitly for collecting interest income next point common national criminals usurers, profiteers and so forth are to be punished with death without consideration of confession or race next point personal enrichment through a war must be designated as a crime against the people therefore we demand the total confiscation of war profits next point we demand the nationalization of all previous associated industries or trusts this in brackets the essence of socialism state ownership of the means of production next point we demand a division of profits of all heavy industries we demand immediate communalization of the great warehouses we demand a land reform suitable to our needs provision of a law for the free expropriation of land for the purposes of public utility abolition of taxes on land and prevention of all speculation in land next point the state to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program next point for the execution of all of this we demand the formation of a strong central power in the Reich unlimited authority of the central parliament over the whole Reich and its organizations in general the famous 25 points drawn up by Gottfried Frieder one of Hitler's early allies repeatedly endorsed by Hitler and recognized by the bylaws of the national socialist party as the immutable basis of all its actions full of ideas resembling those of early socialists again history has been rewritten and we are told frequently that it is actually people on the right of politics today that are Nazis I know all about that and regularly despite my consistent and clear and constant rejection of all things Nazi including its anti-Semitism I am still told that because I am far right I am a Nazi rewriting of history Orwellian that's the very definition of Orwellian here I want to finish with perhaps my favourite chapter of the book is socialism becomes authoritarianism this one you will recognise you will recognise a lot of this in what we are seeing today one of the greatest ironies of modern political history is that as socialist around the world rose up to overthrow authoritarian regimes they ultimately replaced them despite their promises to establish free democracies with authoritarian regimes of their own the overthrow of Batista in Cuba gave us Castro the overthrow of Zamosa in Nicaragua gave us the Sandinistas the overthrow of the Zars gave us Stalin and so on and so on each time a revolt of the people promised the manner of socialism and justice and each time the result was ruled by an elite that denigrated into rule by the few or even rule by one Socialists want to argue that each case from Zimbabwe to Nigeria to North Korea is an anomaly or that none of these historical examples are real socialism and yet the liberators time and time again call themselves Socialists so it would behoove us to re-examine the legacy of historical socialism despite popular belief to the country violence and authoritarianism are an inevitable part of socialism the only way to avoid confronting this reality is to address socialism up in promises of prosperity and safety counting on the public's ignorance to pave the way it goes on to talk about how socialists managed to bring everyone with them and you will recognise some of this as well I'm going to move on a little bit quite a significant bit through here I do want to end on this particular chapter I have to bear with me for a minute I'm sure there are ways of doing this but you know me and technology at this point oh come on so this one you really will recognise this is today's woke progressive socialism in a nutshell when I say this let me just repeat something this has been grabbed enthusiastically by the republicans many republicans in the united states and by the conservatives here in the UK this woke progressiveness is not just the domain of open socialist or open left wingers those apparently on the right so called conservatives are also indulging in this they are also bowing down to this and you can see it here in the UK with the conservatives they may as well be on the left they really may as well be on the left in terms of their willingness to go along with the demonisation of anyone who won't go along with the woke progressive agenda we've even got hate speech laws and hate speech is socialist for opposition to our policies always remember this is what they mean by hate speech and it is in law it is in law in this country a person can be criminalised for so called hate speech and all that means is opposition to our policy and that's by the way the conservatives this is my favourite paragraph of the whole book and I'm going to leave you with this socialists love to talk about being inclusive and about bringing everyone into the process here keep an eye on these key words hate is one hate means opposition to them they've called it hate the Soviet Union communist China any opposition was labelled hate and they're the problem they're storing up trouble if you disagree if you won't go along with it you're the problem you're the one storing up trouble and hate is that great word that encapsulates all of this if you don't agree you're full of hate I've got to tell you this while we're on it I saw something the other day and it was about heterosexual men who refused to date trans women and this was genuinely labelled hate hate because heterosexual men won't have a sexual relationship with another man it's hate this is how dark this gets they will dress this up another word is inclusive now this word is everywhere everywhere all the time inclusive inclusive inclusive and they say that that's what their motivation is it's a lie it's a sham so to go back to this brilliant paragraph socialists love to talk about being inclusive and about bringing everyone into the process except of course everyone they want to ban off twitter they say they value the free and fair exchange of ideas they also acknowledge that socialism requires a super majority to function how do you get everyone to agree on a path forward the easiest way is to de-platform those who won't agree that is what we are experiencing now this purge of people from social media and indeed from the press excluded you are shoved out to the sidelines if you won't go along with it your label hate racist whatever fascist Nazi whatever it may be this is the world turned upside down the Nazis are calling others Nazis in order to silence them the fascists are calling other people fascists in order to silence them the racists because they are race obsessed are calling other people racist in order to silence them we are living in an upside down world where reality has been completely inverted and that in itself is a sign of rising socialism my final comment on this is that we must we must as the people we must rise up against the community the socialist tyranny that we are currently experiencing but what we must not do is what socialists do when they rise up we must not replace the tyranny we face now when we defeat it and we will we must not replace it with more tyranny we must be people of principle and we are we want to overthrow the current tyranny and replace it not with another tyranny we want to replace it with liberty prosperity and democracy we must always stand by those principles remain steadfast to those principles and never give in to the corruption the lies the inversion of the reality that is socialism the people must rule but they must rule by democracy not by pushing some lying oppressor to the top and letting him take all the wealth while the people starve such is socialism we don't want socialism we want democracy, we want liberty we want our freedom and we want our countries and our nation is fighting for and what we must fight against is this is the rise of socialism it is rising all over Europe and it's rising even more worryingly in the united states democrats as democrats we must do all we can to oppose it using our democracy but we must make sure we replace it with democracy thank you for watching take care