My physics professor baited me into a Socialism v. Capitalism debate today, and it did not go well.
Professor walks into room and immediately turns to me and says "Have you seen what's going on in Venezuela?"
Me, flippantly: "Yeah, a bunch of CIA plants are inciting riots" Prof: "Funny, but no, Socialism is failing." Me: "Venezuela isn't failing because of socialism, their economy was dependent on oil and when oil tanked in -"
Prof: "Hugo Chavez destroyed Venezuela."
And then it morphed from there into a debate. I don't remember exactly how I got there, but I ended up on the position that even people who don't want to work should be provided for (which seems normal to me, but oh heeeeelll nooo). At that point, most of the class had arrived and was now 100% against me. I'm arguing that we have the resources to provide for everyone even if some don't do anything,
Prof keeps talking about money,
I'm saying forget money, focus on resources. I illustrate with how we have 3 times the number of homeless in empty houses, but then my classmates pipe up with "homeless people don't want to work". Go figure, they hate poor people.
Apparently the professor has never heard of anyone die because they couldn't afford insulin, when I read him an article about that exact thing, he said the guy who died just made bad choices.
The professor keeps talking about liberty and choices and all those platitudes, but nothing I say makes him stop or anyone in the class stop eating out of his hand.
Maybe I'm just a bad debater. Prof is talking about taxes and welfare, I mention how WalMart employees use $6.2 billion in public benefits each year and he's subsidizing WalMart, which he called "fake news" (first time I've encountered that in the wild). I try to point out how workers labor value is being stolen, nobody listens, they're too busy jerking off Bill Gates.
The professor is waxing on about how "capitalism uses humanities worst qualities to create wealth" I tell him that sounds like a dystopian novel.
I'm trying to get through that this system doesn't work for everybody, but everyone keeps talking about choices.
One kid told me after I said to the prof he wasn't everybody, the kid said "you're not everyone either, so why are you speaking for them?" Which didn't make any sense, but got a round of applause from the class.
In keeping with the theme of workers not being paid enough, a girl behind me pipes up with her story about "I'm a single mom with 2 kids, work full time, go to school full time, and just bought a house." That's awesome for her, but she isn't everybody, not everybody can do that. I'm just digging my hole deeper.
Literally everyone hates me at this point and thinks I'm some sort of extreme liberal who wants everyone to be poor. Today was the closest I've come to strangling someone, because the
professor wouldn't let me finish speaking in a debate he initiated,
talked over me, didn't listen, assumed everything I said was wrong, told me my definition of Socialism was incorrect, even though he admits to never reading Marx or Lenin. I'm getting fed up with these people Comrades. I don't know if I'm just bad at convincing people, or bad at debating, or if these other people are so wrapped up in their fantasy land they can't see outside of it, so whatever I say just bounces off their ideological force field. I can't make moral arguments, because these people have no morals.
The professor said people who don't work deserve to die, and was completely alright with that. The professor called all of my statistics about Cuba "fake news" and refused to debate in good faith.
I guess he was just trying to show me how smart he is, but he just came across as an arrogant ####head who happens to be good at physics. I'm just not very optimistic about being able to spread Socialist thought in the rural areas of this country.
Professor walks into room and immediately turns to me and says "Have you seen what's going on in Venezuela?"
Me, flippantly: "Yeah, a bunch of CIA plants are inciting riots" Prof: "Funny, but no, Socialism is failing." Me: "Venezuela isn't failing because of socialism, their economy was dependent on oil and when oil tanked in -"
Prof: "Hugo Chavez destroyed Venezuela."
And then it morphed from there into a debate. I don't remember exactly how I got there, but I ended up on the position that even people who don't want to work should be provided for (which seems normal to me, but oh heeeeelll nooo). At that point, most of the class had arrived and was now 100% against me. I'm arguing that we have the resources to provide for everyone even if some don't do anything,
Prof keeps talking about money,
I'm saying forget money, focus on resources. I illustrate with how we have 3 times the number of homeless in empty houses, but then my classmates pipe up with "homeless people don't want to work". Go figure, they hate poor people.
Apparently the professor has never heard of anyone die because they couldn't afford insulin, when I read him an article about that exact thing, he said the guy who died just made bad choices.
The professor keeps talking about liberty and choices and all those platitudes, but nothing I say makes him stop or anyone in the class stop eating out of his hand.
Maybe I'm just a bad debater. Prof is talking about taxes and welfare, I mention how WalMart employees use $6.2 billion in public benefits each year and he's subsidizing WalMart, which he called "fake news" (first time I've encountered that in the wild). I try to point out how workers labor value is being stolen, nobody listens, they're too busy jerking off Bill Gates.
The professor is waxing on about how "capitalism uses humanities worst qualities to create wealth" I tell him that sounds like a dystopian novel.
I'm trying to get through that this system doesn't work for everybody, but everyone keeps talking about choices.
One kid told me after I said to the prof he wasn't everybody, the kid said "you're not everyone either, so why are you speaking for them?" Which didn't make any sense, but got a round of applause from the class.
In keeping with the theme of workers not being paid enough, a girl behind me pipes up with her story about "I'm a single mom with 2 kids, work full time, go to school full time, and just bought a house." That's awesome for her, but she isn't everybody, not everybody can do that. I'm just digging my hole deeper.
Literally everyone hates me at this point and thinks I'm some sort of extreme liberal who wants everyone to be poor. Today was the closest I've come to strangling someone, because the
professor wouldn't let me finish speaking in a debate he initiated,
talked over me, didn't listen, assumed everything I said was wrong, told me my definition of Socialism was incorrect, even though he admits to never reading Marx or Lenin. I'm getting fed up with these people Comrades. I don't know if I'm just bad at convincing people, or bad at debating, or if these other people are so wrapped up in their fantasy land they can't see outside of it, so whatever I say just bounces off their ideological force field. I can't make moral arguments, because these people have no morals.
The professor said people who don't work deserve to die, and was completely alright with that. The professor called all of my statistics about Cuba "fake news" and refused to debate in good faith.
I guess he was just trying to show me how smart he is, but he just came across as an arrogant ####head who happens to be good at physics. I'm just not very optimistic about being able to spread Socialist thought in the rural areas of this country.