Politics

JOHN STOSSEL: Does The Government Do Anything Well?

A remnant of the Berlin Wall as it stood in November 2019, thirty years after the wall came down. (Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)

The movie “The Matrix” gave us the “red pill” and the “blue pill.” The red wakes you up to reality; the blue keeps you indoctrinated.

Internet culture then invented a black pill. Those who take it think the world is doomed.

So, podcaster Michael Malice wrote the book, “The White Pill,” calling it a “symbol of hope.”

“Young people in recent years,” he tells me, “were discouraged about the future of this country. But people in a far worse position than us won a far greater victory in our lifetime, and no one talks about it.”

He refers to the fall of the Soviet Union. We talk about that in my new video.

Malice was born in Russia. He has researched how even ruthless tyrannies can be toppled.

I say to Malice, “What I find unbelievable about the Berlin Wall being torn down is that I thought, ‘Finally, people wised up to the evil of central planning and socialism.’ Yet (today) academically smart college students want socialism!”

“You go to school,” Malice quips, “and then leave four years later as a swamp walrus who can’t have a conversation with their parents.”

He calls universities “the real villains.”

Universities do “black-pill” students about capitalism. Professors emphasize its problems and downplay its many benefits. A Pew study found that the more education Americans have, the more they prefer socialism.

“One thing that drives me crazy,” says Malice, “is when people say, ‘communism works in theory.’ … Everything works in theory. Reality is how you determine how something works or not!”

I once thought we would learn about reality from media. But reporters like central planning. It’s easy to cover. We spend time with politicians and often interview them about their plans.

“Intellectuals” tend to grab media jobs, and for some reason, intellectuals want to believe that big government is good for people. Intellectuals convinced themselves that the Soviet Union must be a success, a happy commune. New York Times’ star reporter Walter Duranty covered up mass famine there.

“Why would he do that?” I ask Malice. “I assume he doesn’t want people to starve.”

“He doesn’t care,” replies Malice. “When you’re the biggest guy in the most interesting country on earth, that’s status. When that’s the most important thing to you, everything else can fall by the wayside.”

Soviet officials praised The New York Times. Duranty won a Pulitzer. Neither the Times nor the Pulitzer leftists ever apologized.

Malice says Americans are smarter today. “There is an enormous increase of contempt and skepticism towards corporate journalism.”

I point out that some people see the election of Donald Trump as the antidote to media and big-government tyranny.

“What I’m excited about,” he responds, “is someone like Elon (Musk). … I trust his judgment far more than I trust Trump’s.”

“You think he can shrink the state?”

“No,” he says, “But I’m hopeful that things will move in a better direction. … I don’t think there’s any sense in Washington or in the population that (shrinking the state) is desirable. People want government to be smaller, except for this program and that one.”

Still, the author of “The White Pill” is hopeful, in a weird way.

“Maybe Trump, who’s very petty, will be vindictive and will close down bases in the home states of politicians he doesn’t like!”

I thought Malice was a libertarian, but he says no, he’s an anarchist.

We small-l libertarians want limited government, one that handles defense, courts and problems like pollution.

Malice says we’re mistaken, because government doesn’t do anything well. Anarchists believe “voluntary exchanges between individuals” would do a better job.

Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom. He is the author of “Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.”

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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(Featured Image Media Credit:Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)