In the United States, socialists have gotten wealthy by exploiting the very system they abhor, selling victimhood goods and services that consumers demand, and 2022 looks to be another boom year. Be it politicians or authors or activists, socialism in the 21st century now boasts expensive sartorial pieces, extravagant living quarters, and exquisite culinary delights. If you were to open a dictionary and look up the definition of this odious ideology, you would discover multiple synonyms, including hypocrisy and evil. Despite howling at the moon that being prosperous is a moral transgression and free markets are a systemic disgrace, many well-known socialists in America have enjoyed the fruits of the free-enterprise system, turning them into terrific success models for capitalism.
Now that the country is waving goodbye to 2021 and welcoming 2022 with open arms, it might be appropriate to assess what militant leftists increased their net worth thanks to the system they loathe.
Democrats
Elizabeth Warren (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has amassed a $12 million fortune despite, as Elon Musk suggests, freeloading off taxpayers. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is flailing his arms and shrieking about the top 1% while living in one of his three residential properties. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has had quite the last year: She attended the opulent and elitist Met Gala, bought herself a Tesla, and spent thousands of dollars on private security while pushing the Defund the Police movement. It certainly pays to be a Democrat in the United States because to become affluent all he or she needs to do is complain, gripe, and moan.
Robin DiAngelo
You are a racist, you just do not know that you are a purveyor of white supremacy, according to author Robin DiAngelo’s best-selling books, White Fragility and Nice Racism. DiAngelo has taken advantage of the Every White Person Is Racist (TM) movement by peddling modern-day progressive nonsense that, critics argue, is condescending toward black people. From book sales ($21.95 for a hardcover edition of White Fragility) to speaking fees (up $14,000 per speech), the leftist author has continued generating handsome revenues from companies and consumers attempting to be woke and apologize for their skin color. What work of non-fiction (fiction?) will DiAngelo publish next?
Black Lives Matter
Patrisse Khan-Cullors (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Glamour)
It is estimated that Black Lives Matter and BLM-related causes have generated billions of dollars in funding, primarily through contributions. Although the organization and its leaders have been clandestine about where the money is going, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, a BLM co-founder who described herself as a “trained Marxist,” engaged in a real estate-buying spree. She purchased approximately $3.2 million in real estate, later claiming that it was for her child, mentally ill brother, mother, and other family members. But Khan-Cullors is a symptom of a greater problem in a movement dedicated to changing unjust policing tactics and the justice system. Unfortunately, like many worthwhile causes, it seems to have metastasized into an enterprise designed to capture as many Benjamins as possible for a few at the top instead of the masses.
Hasan ‘HasanAbi’ Piker
The nephew of Cenk Uygur (who promotes progressive politics and left-wing ideals on The Young Turks) and a popular Twitch streamer known as HasanAbi, Hasan Piker has slammed capitalism and embraced everything associated with Marxism, socialism, and communism. It was confirmed this past summer that he had acquired a $2.7 million five-bedroom house in West Hollywood. While social media was quick to accuse him of being a hypocrite, others have congratulated the former Young Turks personality for imbibing the fruits of capitalism and achieving the American Dream, which cynics and nihilists contend can be achieved only when you are asleep. Apparently, you, too, can accomplish this feat by being related to a popular leftist media figure and going on rants about how the unvaccinated are worthy of death and “America deserved 9/11.”
Hollywood
In Hollywood, it is now hip to be a socialist. Anyone right of Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), whether thespian or director, will be an iniquitous outcast unless that individual is a box office sensation like Chris Pratt. With public health restrictions easing and consumers itching to sit in a dark room with strangers and foul odors, Hollywood generated some big bucks at the box office recently, led by (yawn) Spider-Man: No Way Home, which became the first pandemic-era motion picture to top $1 billion at the global box office. Others garnered massive gross, including Shang-Chi ($225 million) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($213 million). Evidently, the consumer will continue feeding La-La-Land with hard-earned dollars on subpar plots, computer graphics, and lectures, enabling the industry’s eternal supply of self-righteous pandering and proselytizing from the gospel of wokeology.
Grifters Gotta Grift
Legendary economist Thomas Sowell wrote, “When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.” This is what charlatans do to manipulate the public to garner votes or dollars. The individuals and groups that benefited from the system they wish to abolish or overhaul convince consumers and voters that they are victims, selling them a vision that has never come close to becoming a reality. Like the get-rich-quick influencers, these socialists are peddling fantasies to pad their bank accounts so they can live out their dreams of a beautiful home, financial freedom, and a seat inside the corridors of power. Eventually, as all scammers do, they will be exposed as nothing more than frauds.
~ Read more from Andrew Moran.
