Discussion on Communism and Socialism

Everybody's Bishop Barron,

you know, just recently someone sent me a clip of a speech given by

Hassan Piker I had heard that name I'd never though actually read

him or seen him as a dress.

He was giving to a very small group of Democratic socials,

I think it was in New York we know the first thing that struck me as

this this young man was speaking was that he was wearing a

Mao jacket now maybe some of the younger viewers won't know what

I'm referring to but the jacket kind of a clunky jacket made popular by

Mao Tse Tung who was the you know,

mid 20th century Communist dictator of China then it was imitated

by hundreds of millions of Chinese at the time Well as I as I continue watching his

speech and I was hearing to my mind kind of warmed over barely undergraduate

level Marxism I Realized no, he's advocating for communism

And then subsequently someone sent me a clip which I still find

Breathtaking where the same man Hassan Piker Referring to Mao Tse

Tung as one of the greatest leaders in human history

Mao Tse Tung everybody by Conservative estimates is responsible for the deaths of

between 40 and 80 million people I

think it's fair to say he's the greatest mass murderer in human history Now many

millions of those deaths were by direct political execution many tens of

millions more through famine produced

on purpose because of the disastrous communist economic policies of China.

Believe these people, everybody,

these young socialist communists,

they're advocating for a system that Mao Zedong represented,

a system that is

hostile to religion.

Remember Karl Marx said the first critique is the critique of religion.

Look in communist states all over the world in the 20th century,

the attack on the church, a system that therefore

denies the rights of individuals.

Take God out of the equation, human rights go out the window too.

A system that believes power,

political, economic,

cultural, should be concentrated in the hands of a tiny unelected elite.

A system that does not believe in freedom of the press or freedom of

speech or freedom of assembly or the free market.

That's what these people are advocating for.

That's what someone like Mao Zedong stood for.

You know in the wake of watching that address I came across this interview

of this young man, another young man,

I think he's the second in command of the Democratic Socialists in New York,

in dialogue with Martha McCollum and

she pointed out that his parents had fled from Peru during the time when Peru was

under the threat of the Shining Path. That was a group of

Maoist Marxist guerrilla revolutionaries and she asked him

how come they fled to America?

His answer was to get away from American imperialism.

She said kind of under her breath,

that just doesn't make any sense. I should say so. Here's the bottom line.

How many people are fleeing from our country to get to communist countries?

Ask yourself that question. How many boats are leaving Florida to get to Cuba?

But for decades, everybody,

droves and droves of people in desperation fleeing communist countries

to get to our country.

And thereupon hangs a tale.

So as you listen to this young man, very popular,

speaking to democratic socialists who are making advances in our political system,

take them seriously. They mean what they say.

And then I'd say,

especially to my co religionists, my co believers, it's time to speak up

and to speak out.