Yannis Pappas Hour - Is Socialism the Future or Just Rebranded Communism? | YP Hour

Episode Date: July 5, 2025

Socialism is getting hot with young voters in NYC—but is it really socialism, or is it communism? Yannis Pappas takes you on a sharp, funny, and insightful journey through the key similarities and differences between socialism, communism, and capitalism. Can capitalism survive without socialism? Can socialism exist without capitalism? Yannis explores the history, the ideologies, and how each system has fared—and why. For weekly bonus episode: https://www.patreon.com/yannispappashour Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Dazon. For the first time ever, the 32 best soccer clubs from across the world are coming together to decide who the undisputed champions of the world are in the FIFA Club World Cup. The world's best players, Messi, Holland, Kane and more are all taking part. And you can watch every match for free on Dazon, starting on June 14th and running until July 13th. Sign up now at dazonone.com slash fifa. That's d-a-z-n dot com slash fifa. What up everybody? Welcome to another episode of the Yanis Papis Hour. Today we're going to be talking about something that is coming down the freeway. It's coming down the three lane road. It's a roadway to Christianity versus Islam and capitalism versus socialism or communism,

depending on how you want to call it. Now the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, atheism, agnosticism, it's all irrelevant to what we're going to talk about today. The only thing that makes it relevant is that people believe or they don't. It's all about what people believe in what do they believe will work? Religion works for a lot of people Communism works for North Korea, and I think North Korea Exclusively, I think we're down to one holdout. We got one holdout and we can't get in We don't know if you take pictures or if you make videos.

I think you're in Trub Trub. Now that just seems to be a part of what communism is about. Is let's keep it closed down, which I kind of like. You know, curiosity killed the cat. Why you and everybody's business, right? Why you in everyone's business? Stay out of my business. What I want to do, I keep to myself and nobody should ask any questions. Everyone's happy. How do you know? You don't because I told you everyone's happy. And also there's something to be said of when you don't know anything else, you're happy. There's something to be said about that. I remember I was banging out this old parent college who grew up in Eastern Germany. And she said, you know, Boxan,

we didn't know any different. Everybody had Volkswagen. Everybody didn't know anything else. So we were happy. And I was like, yeah, you were seven. You know, you were seven years old. You were five years old, whatever. I mean, you were a little too young to understand what was out there beyond can I get this generic

doll that I assume that they gave them, which was sort of a gypsy that they could put pins in because it was Germany, right? So I sort of was some sort of sadomasochistic doll that every communist girl got. So she's's like we didn't know anything else Everyone was happy we had meals They had meals so it's definitely a lower So it's a lower dream threshold you don't dream as High you don't see your name up in lights in North Korea. Nobody goes, I'm gonna be a star. I don't know what their culture, laws, and feelings about people

being different are. I don't know how much self-expression you can do, but let's just say we can assume it's limited. Let's just assume that there's a lot of people who who have gay thoughts and fantasies and don't act them out. Probably in North Korea I'm guessing. What we do know is we can call it authoritarian. It's definitely authoritarian. It's ruled by the son of a guy who ruled it the same way. And he got a big ol, he got a big ol' tumor on the back his head and he passed and then his fat fat son which is very ironic

because I'm not sure how many other people are fat because it seems to be in communism the theme is we don't like wealth so the people are all the same whatever you wanna call it their needs are met which poor, but they don't know they're poor. So are you poor if you don't know you're poor? Does a tree fall in the forest make a noise? It kind of doesn't. If you don't know you're poor and you got nothing to compare about, you can't look at the outside world to compare yourself, then you don't know you're poor. You just walk around with a empty feeling in your stomach

but it's the norm so you don't even identify it as an Empty feeling in your stomach until you have something to compare to it's Plato's allegory of the cave Maybe we should have never climbed out. That's what communism says stay in the cave Don't ask questions. Don't find out how much Jake Paul made on his last pay-per-view. Right? Stay in the cave. Don't excel. Don't be above the group.

The group is paramount. The group is what it's all about. Now, in reality, what usually seems to happen when you do that is I guess that the group being paramount, being the first priority, makes the individual second priority. Which means the individual is replaceable because he's just part of the group, right? If the hole is greater than the sum of the parts, then what happens if one part gets a little sick? You just take that part out, you replace it with a new part.

And Asia is a perfect place to manifest communism because everyone just kind of looks like the same. So if something's wrong right there, you just take one out, put one out. You take one ting-tong out and you put another tongue ting in. And from the outside you go. Is that a new guy? Is that even a new guy? In fact, I would have to say that rocket man is

the only one that you can kind of maybe Tell Who he is because he's got a Patrick Ewing's top from the 90s. If you don't know that, it's a basketball player. He's got a flat top and a fade. And look, there's three guys standing around them. I mean, good luck. You know, and that's not just a joke about ages. I think that's what happens when you don't get a lot of new jeans in when you're kind of closed off. Everyone starts to look similar. Have you ever looked at Somali people or Ethiopians they all look related it's

very hard because there's no new jeans coming in you look at Aborigines from Australia New Zealand Papua New Guinea you're like which one's which you know it's just you're not getting a lot of jeans in and that's what happens on God's beautiful little planet when you don't mix it up. And so he's the only one who kind of has any individualistic expression because he expresses himself, his art is eating. He gets to eat a lot, he's fat. He's a fatty and he's the only one I've seen

from North Korea with that flat top. And he loves Dennis Rodman and I'm sure he loves American movies I'm sure he's got a secret little room just full of American stuff and he gets his whoppers delivered to him somehow We can probably assume he has a penchant for unhealthy food Because he's in North Korea and he's fat so that's suspicious that is suspicious in and of itself okay it's like what a fat person tells you they have a thyroid problem and you go out with them to eat and all they order is a salad and you're going

something's not adding up something's not adding up you're overweight you're a big beauty okay your circle but when I go to dinner with you, you only get a Greek salad, so something's not adding up. And what I assume is that when you go home, you open up the floorboards and you just go ham on whatever chocolate rations you have in there, and that's what I could imagine.

Supposedly he has mansions and yachts. If you guessed that, I wouldn't call that Farfetch'd. You wouldn't get a gold star or a sticker for guessing that he probably lives very well. Yes, satellite pics were taken of his luxury cars, his yachts, etc. which are necessary for the Queen Bee which is he is right so I guess that's what they are they're kind of they run their society sort of like bees run theirs there's a Queen Bee everyone goes and serves and the bees are kind of disposable and you know what I think it's a very peaceful existence I'm not judging it I'm not judging. What anxiety do you have when you don't expect anything and you don't want for anything because you feel completely helpless all the time. What is depression?

Depression is essentially a feeling of helplessness that something's gonna last forever. There's nothing's gonna change. You're stuck, right? In a situation that's You're stuck right in a situation. That's Irreconcilable if that is your situation and there's no hope for change or different There's no reason to feel depressed. You just are part of depression And so people don't know any better he walks around in a school shooter fucking leather jacket You know he looks like he looks like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix with his clothes and

he's a squeak and he's fat and That's how that system works and they are the only holdout. They're the only holdout that have not engaged in any that we know of market free market additions reforms whatever you want to call them all the other communist countries there's only a few there's only a few left I don't know how much you want to blame that on embargoes but let me tell you something if your system is so strong quote, I'll put that in quote, that it can be taken down by just a few embargoes, just a few sanctions takes the whole thing out, then how good was it to begin with?

Because that is always the argument that people who love the idealism of this idea always make is they blame the embargoes. that people who love the idealism of this idea always make is they blame the embargoes so we only have five left and of those those five that are left only North Korea stays rooted politically and economically in communism. In China, Vietnam Vietnam Cuba and Laos They've opened up a little bit in

various ways Right Cuba's opened up a little bit to tourism. They sit down. There's a few bucks there. And what do you mean? You go, what do you mean? You don't need a few bucks from outside from these capitalist banks. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? What are you talking about your communists because today we're going to discuss the difference between communism and socialism and All of the above and in between because It's about to be popular again

okay, as I've told you we got a nice game of pickleball between retards going on and So Donald Trump is making this popular again and Donald Trump got popular because of this So that's the game of ping-pong we got going on Mon Dami is Could become the mayor of New York a very important job in Americaica the financial capital of this country maybe run uh... by a democratic socialist and we're gonna tell you what that means what they say

what it means what they withhold if anything and all of the above we're just gonna discuss it we're gonna just discuss what it is where it comes from what makes makes it popular, what's the difference between North Korea and Sweden. We're going to get into it all. Okay, because a lot of people are confused about what it means.

So China is historically and politically communist right what does that mean so that means that they they're not quite ready to admit that it didn't work and that a lot of people had to starve and die and it didn't produce wealth to spread around for each to have according to his need whatever the expression is

that uh... uh... marks uh... who hated his mother, came up with. Okay? So that's what we got going on. We have a political communist party. Now what does that mean? It's a fancy way to say that they got a one... Here's another fancy way to say it it's a one

party government here's another way to say it it's concentrated power in one party the CCP right another way to say it is uh... don't say anything we don't like another way to say it is we get a piece of everything you do with complete oversight were watching all of you and we have cool complete control and unchallenged power

to rule over uh... what we allow and don't allow now what china did was they started to allow because they needed to in order to catch up with the rest of the world they started going all right we got to do something we got to do something because this whole thing ain't really working too good. All right people we're still poor we're still getting pushed around. And they go, how do people get rich?

And they go, okay, we gotta go capitalist. Which is probably, is there anything more ironic that the only thing that has worked for socialist regimes and you say, oh, what's the difference between socialist and communist? Okay, we're gonna talk to you. I'm just gonna say this one simple sentence. You can be a socialist without being communist. is coming okay we're going to talk to you I'm just going to say this one simple sentence you can be a socialist without being communist you cannot be a communist without being socialist so I'm going to start there and then we'll explain it further but what they did in China

specifically is they said we're going to we're going to economically we we we need capitalists economic levers they call them levers they said okay we're gonna we need capitalist levers to climb out of poverty which seems to be the only thing that has worked in pulling populations out of poverty the only thing that's worked truly in history

you look at it you know that's the only thing that's worked. Truly, in history, you look at it and you go, that's the only thing that's worked. So what does that mean? Mao Zedong, who through his policies killed millions of people through starvation, political, you know, suppression, all those things, you know, because you can't be challenged. That's one thing that the communists always have a tough time with. They don't like other opinions and they feel it's always a threat and they just otherize anyone who's got any other ideas and they discriminate against them. Which you have to give them credit. It's usually not based on ethnicity, which is very progressive and makes it okay. Much like the murders

that happened during the Muslim conquest that do not break Islamic law, it makes them okay. Because they're not discriminating against anyone because of their race, gender, creed, or whatever. Their religion they are, because communism is atheist because it's a don't be another people up a bomb. So they just want to take away hope from everyone. But usually it's just a different opinion. So you can look like anything, which I think is very nice. You could look just like me, but if you don't believe in the withering way of the state and power to the proletariat, then you get killed. You get killed. Which I think it doesn't mean it's bad.

Because at least it wasn't racist is what I'm saying. At least it wasn't racist because he killed his own people. So thank God those murders weren't racist because that's what makes murder bad those murders weren't racist because that's what makes murder bad in this context. What makes murder bad in Islamic context different is if you're uh I don't know. So Mao Zedong dies late 70s right and then after Mao Zedong Mao Zedong dies there was a revolution and what they called a great leap forward. Now that's another way of just saying, hey man, we got to be a little bit more like America because they seem to be doing great.

So we're going to take this isolated and economically backwards, but they didn't call it that probably. They're probably going like, look, we're just gonna trick them and, you know, whatever they did culturally to not admit that it didn't work, we're gonna say we're gonna keep the power, but we're gonna allow people to have some some business and flourish and compete and have some property and all those things. So they opened it up a little bit and their reforms begin bob began in nineteen seventy eight and uh... alike magic they just become the second most powerful country in the in on the planet

immediately thirty years it happened so fast with the gauge king paul which is uh... reform and opening up in ch in mandarin uh... just don't call it, just call it Chinese. Why has it got to be called Mandarin? Because there's so many dialects. People are living in their little areas over a large amount of, just

call it your Chinese. It speaks Chinese but it's like no that's Mandarin. So farmers were allowed to finally keep all that hard work. They were finally allowed to keep some of the profits. They didn't have to give it all away, which tends to make you more motivated. I don't know why. I mean, are we fucking 12? When you work out, are you motivated

by the way someone else looks or by the way you look? You go, I'm gonna keep working out so that other person feels good and this of course caught on because the the fat pigs with the no end to up unfettered capitalists brought these these this equal but opposite extreme idea into being so So it is what it is. One gives birth to the other and we can't find that sweet spot. We just can't find the sweet spot of the bat as a species. So the farmers were able to keep a little bit of their hard work. Private enterprise was reintroduced, foreign investment was encouraged, and it

exploded. It exploded. They had capitalist style rules in these zones. They started out with zones. It's all the bullshit they got to do to save face and keep their political hold on the country which was communist. That party you can't elect, there's no democracy, it's nothing. It's authoritarianism, it's basically, it's a fancy way, there's all these fancy ways to call something other than a dictatorship. Oh this is our king, this is our ba, it's a dictatorship. One guy's got the power and his name is Zee. Who? Zee, whose father was a dissident, was murdered by the Communist Party

and then he was raised by the Communist Party. So he's essentially a Manchurian candidate. A lot of people don't know that either. Go look at, Google it yourself. So these capitalist zones obviously flourished over the other zones very quickly. And what did they have? They had low taxes, they had fewer regulations, they had open access to foreign companies

and they just took off and Western companies began setting up factories over there for okay a little exploitative cheap labor. Some capitalists like to do is they like to pay a little bit more than nothing to pad their to pad their um pockets. So um the United States goes oh you're acting a little more like us we'll open up relations and diplomatic relations are opened up in 1979 and the rest is history. They join the World Bank, the IMF um and they start making our shit for profit right and the government does takes whatever it wants

But people are pulled out of poverty quite quickly. They start to be literate everything changes And that's what happens now something similar has happened To another country so you don't go. Hey was this a one-off is this because they're culturally communist um but economically maybe maybe maybe that's the best way to do it i don't know they're successful i've never been to china maybe people are having a good time i don't know but um then in 1990 um uh... vietnam goes we gotta do something

we had to do something here seventy percent of our population lives in poverty so vietnam does the same thing is a baby cockroach uh... i don't know is a food near so vietnam doesn't whenever you see a baby that means there's more around so uh... whenever you see a baby that means there's more around. Yeah. So, 1990 over 70% of Vietnam lives in poverty. It's one of the poorest countries. And look how fast this happens. Today, 2025,

so that's 35 years. That means a guy was born and he's only 35 now. And in his lifetime, he's only 35, means he's real young in his lifetime the poverty rate went from 70% to 3% in Vietnam when they did the same thing that China did and I don't think Marx ever envisioned that I don't think Marx envisioned that the only the only thing that makes come Communism work economically is the thing that it was rebellion against capitalism I never knew if he were now the things I'm just saying are just facts. Nobody can dispute them. It's objective reality It can't be disputed that was these are the results

of capitalist reforms in those countries that I'm using as examples, you know. I don't know, it's weird. It's like saying, hey, you want, it's like saying, hey, smoking, smoking, you remember when they used to say smoking helps you, when the doctors would do those? Communism's that. It's going, hey, smoke the cigarettes, smoke the cigarettes, and then someone comes along and says, hey, if you stop the cigarettes and you do Zin, you get better, and then you do the Zin, and you just, and everyone gets healthier, but you still go, the zin is, the cigarettes are good.

That's exactly what it is. You get my analogy? It's like you use in and the zin changes everything, but you still go smoking is better. But you go, hey, wait, we just started all zining. But you go, yeah, we're still gonna promote smoking because we like it. So that's what happens. That's what happens to those countries. And it's quite obvious in conclusion that economically, at least, the levers that pull these countries out of poverty in a staggeringly fast

uh... manner were capitalists and so we only have five countries left uh... and of course

cuba's pretty sts holds on strong to economic communism their poorest bach and uh... north korea which we don't know anything about we just don't know anything about their still economically communist but the other ones are slipping into more of a mixed economy but politically there uh... there still there's still the dream

there's still the dream of communism uh... which is funny because they call themselves, but they're supposed to wither away You're supposed to the state's supposed to wither away and that part just never we don't get we didn't we don't get never get To the end of the movie which I would love to see I would love to see just okay, and then they go alright We did it so now we're closing they never close They never just go okay. We did it, so now we're closing. They never close. They never just go, okay, we did it. Everyone's got the same shit, so now there's no more state. The state just always stays,

and because I assume you get, the amenities for being the state is nice, because essentially they become the overseeing corporation that redistributes everything. They're the end all and be all and they just don't seem to want to wither away. Stalin didn't want to wither away, Mao didn't want to wither away, none of them want to wither away. I don't even remember Rocket Man's name but he doesn't want to wither away.

He wants to take all that money that he steals from all the people who are working that go to the state because The korea means more than the individual and he uses it for a missile parade Um And he takes his 10 year old daughter. I'm sure that's not his only kid With the one woman that's always part of the deal What's part of the deal with power is I get to fuck who I want to fuck. It's always part of the deal. What's part of the deal with power is, I get to fuck who I wanna fuck. It's always part of the deal with power, with men.

So people go look at that parade and they go look how great communism's going, but it's a tight shot. It's a tight shot. It's always a tight shot. You ever notice that? It's always a tight shot. You know when like a movie studio does a shot,

like a period piece does a shot like a Period piece and they block off ten blocks and you go. Wow. This really looks like it did back there It's cuz it's a tight shot They frame it. It's always framed up. So the missile parade is always framed up for a couple of blocks You know, and then you know, you don't you don't go behind the curtain just framed up like in Cuba You got to frame it up like when you go to Cancun. It's framed up Okay, it's you see Truman show. It's friend you these guys with masks and guns on Jeeps To keep it right here. You frame it up. It's just framed. It's nicely framed up We don't know what's going on outside of the view of the camera framing.

So give credit to North Korea though, you know. They're keeping it real. They're the ones, the only ones that keep it real. You know, it's like when someone tells me they're Muslim but I watch them eat bacon, I go, are you? Or when someone tells me they're Christian but they're like, I'm okay with the gays. I go, are you? Or when someone tells me they're Christian, but they're like, I'm OK with the gays. I go, are you fully? You know?

Or when someone tells me they're Jewish, and they don't got a frisbee on. I go, how Jewish are you? Well, I'm culturally Jewish. I'm a little long. I'm a yank. And I go, OK. So why not just become a Buddhist?

What's the, are you really? So those are the countries we have, you have to have a communist, but like I said, they're really communist in name mostly, and they're just power dictatorships because economically they're very similar to Scandinavian. So what is Scandinavia? What do we got going on over there? You got a small population, you know know I don't know I think Sweden like 10 million I think Norway is like eight me I think whatever you know

Greece was doing the same thing didn't really work out that well over there because what tends to happen when you when you mix human nature with redistribution is that people tend to want all the benefits, but they don't want to pay for them. They want both. People, the human loves to try to have its cake and eat it too. So what people start doing is hiding their earnings so they don't have to pay the taxes. Just what people end up doing. So you can either accept that and go, hey people are no different from corporations. Everyone's trying to hide their money

so they can get all the benefits without paying the taxes. Or you can ignore that reality of the human condition. So in Scandinavia, politically, it's democratic, unlike these communist countries which are still called communist bego you guys have a lot of capitalism and that's the thing that worked for you so what are we doing they have uh... elections and term limits and whatever the fuck they have

and their uh... unabashedly capitalist uh... with uh... socialist programs redistributed wealth where unabashedly capitalist with socialist programs redistributed wealth for health care education and all the things which vietnam does with china does what we do it's all about the level to which you do it so it's

it's a lot of this stuff is just the fucking way the marketing names people use for their causes. You know? It's like we still want to think that communism was good and we don't want to admit that it didn't work. So we're still gonna call it communist but we're gonna use capitalism. But we can't say that because then we're admitting defeat and and then and scandinavia the western students here go look at the scandinavian model and you go yeah it's no different from here fuckface they just have a little more

they got a little more but also they only got fucking eight million of them and they're there and they got a culture of the dot the lovin which means the law of yonti because I've been to scandinavia many times is their culture they're a group there's swedes they're nationalistic the norwegians same shit the dutch they all go don't stand out too much you know be part of the group so culturally it all kind of works together america won't found it like that. America was founded by people who fucking swam here came here on a ship and said show me the loot. Where's the money? And we came here and it's no surprise that all the ingenious inventions for the most part have happened here.

Right? It's no support, no surprise we became an industrial juggernaut and then a tech juggernaut Because we're fucking trying to get nice great a poos You know, we don't say hey we don't go by that hey It's faded that 80% of the women 120% of the girls we don't say that's faded We go I could come up with something get rich and then you'll catch me on my yacht with some hot Latina newscaster on my 500. You know, Jeff Bezos ain't getting that nice slice, that primo de faras slice without the money. In America, we say, hey, you can make something to yourself even if nobody wants to fuck you. Even if nature said, eh.

If even nature gives you Jeff Bezos a fucked up face. They go, and a nerdy disposition. You can rise above it. Elon Musk, why do you think he comes here? Why didn't he go to Uka Waka or wherever? He came here because he got his hair plugs. He started working out and he threw on his bouncer outfit and he became cool. You're not, there's no ceiling here.

And that's just what America is. What's New York? New York is the financial capital of America. If you want to be a socialist, why don't you go live socialist first, right? Because you know, like I said, socialism seems, everyone seems to have socialism, right? But the question is, it's not the primary mo, it's not the primary mover. It's the check on the mover.

But when you make it the mover, things tend to slow down for reasons that are pretty commonsensical if you're grown up and understand the human condition and what kind of pieces of shit we are. We don't like to share and in some ways it's not even a piece of shit. Sometimes you're just like this person can only help himself I can't help this person and I know that because they did social work and sometimes you just go this person

just wants to live on the street and there's nothing we can do and that's just reality. So you got your political communism, you got your economic, and people use all these words, but essentially communism was supposed to be all the above. Now socialism is just this word people use because the ideas behind communism people took and they used it as a check on capitalism because I think Marx actually works best as a critique of unfettered capitalism right because without capitalism is there even communism does it even exist right like

it was born out of seeing the disparity of capitalism, that's how it was born, right? It's like, do we even have iPhones if this guy doesn't talk to his daughter? No. Do we have iPhones if he wasn't adopted and had a huge hole in his soul from a mother rejection? No. Do we have socialism if we didn't have the inequities of capitalism? No. So things kind of work out and socialism becomes a very effective countermeasure to the inequities of capitalism which are inevitable if you've played the game of monopoly. You don't have to be a fucking economist to smart to understand this shit. But what seems to motivate people

the best is primarily being fucking selfish, thinking about themselves. And it seems to be that probably that's the most moral, right? Let somebody express themselves and be who they want to be in their heart. That seems to be what we value and if you want to value the group over that, that should be fine too. But I don't know if it should happen in New York City. Is that what built New York City? Is that what New York City is about? I don't know. I'm just saying typically New York City became the financial capital of the world because of greed. Wall Street's here. It's a port city. You know, all the beautiful artistic things that grew out of here grew in opposition to that.

And you need it to be in opposition to that. If it becomes the norm, it's not a rebellion anymore. Punk rock is not punk rock if you're not saying fuck you to Reagan. So you need Reagan to say fuck you too. Nobody thinks about that shit except for me, helicopter view pappas. A lot of good things are born out of bad things. Like Joe DiMaggio said nobody who grew up rich ever made the big leagues. You need some economic

disparity to motivate people to want to go up you need a meritocracy for people to be motivated to bring out the best of themselves and Create shit if you took away the financial motive for for doctors and researchers to come up with shit You think they're gonna be motivated to come up with shit to help their fellow man only No, it's not enough of a motivating factor. What you need is money to get the puss. And that's what it is. And doctors and all these medical researchers have come up with shit because they knew they could get rich doing it. If Steve Jobs didn't think he could become fucking filthy rich, do you

think he would have really been motivated to do that for people? Possibly. But it's rare. I can think of one person, been motivated to do that for people? Possibly, but it's rare. I can think of one person, Tesla, who was that enlightened, Nikola Tesla. And look how that turned out for him. He said, Mom, I did all this for mankind and all I got was a slap in the face. Someone should have told young Tesla, hey man, go get some puss. Stop sitting in your room like a fucking autistic kid being antisocial Get rich get puss make money fuck hoes

You know That would changed everything Would have changed everything he would have been walking instead of fucking just being this meat guy that let Edison steal all his ideas He would have been Edison So meat guy that let Edison steal all his ideas, he would have been Edison. So we're here now, right? And we got AOC, we got, we have Bernie, we have this wing of the left. And you're going, who are they? What are they? Are they, are they, are they just like Scandinavia? I don't know. Sometimes you hear them say things. You go back to a young Bernie and you go,

oh, I heard him say something that's a communal slogan. And like I said, there's a difference. Socialism is this, we've taken something from the communist manifesto, we've taken something, the redistribution as a check on capitalism and it often bails cap the greed of capitalism out and then we continue right we have the crash 2008 socialism comes in bails out capitalism you know some executives get off scott free and we go look this is the balance that we need so they do kind of work nice as a balance of course some people get away

with murder white-collar crimes that's not right but that's at the point of this episode the place that was that the fine what these things are so socialism is different from communism in that it operates uh... in a capitalist system that's the difference between socialism and capitalism and a communist

socialism acts in a primarily capitalist economic system. Communism doesn't. It's all everyone shares, everything's redistributed, and our leader's fat. He's just fat and he's got yachts and that's North Korea and I assume to some extent all the other countries that still like to call themselves communist for whatever reason and I told you what that reason is just kind of a save face I think they're just kind of saving face and they want to keep control the party wants to keep control so Democratic socialism is what we have and what do they say they support and I say that Because it's very important to know that all the content creators you watch Read a lot of the same articles you read they don't have access to information

They don't have access to information. They don't have back channel conversations. They don't have access to the people who have back channel conversations, which only the good journalists of the past used to have. They have no experience in the field that they're talking about. They don't know. Like, for example, I told you, I was sure there was going to be no World War III just because you know what leaders say publicly is often different from what they privately say. Turkey didn't want Iran to get a bomb. China didn't want Iran to get a bomb. All of its allies don't want them to get a bomb. So publicly they said this is bad America's bad but privately they were saying go ahead and do it and our deep state yes there's one like I said you can call them the deep state you can just call career Washingtonians unelected officials go through these back channels and privately check with these countries and

everyone goes do what you got to do we don't want that regime to have that either we want to remain being the ones with the bombs, not them. We still want that upper hand so if they try to sell us the oil a little expensive, we could still go in there and give them a talking to. That's how the real world works. Their allies, nobody wanted them to get nuclear weapons. Nobody. Except for probably North Korea not enough so even the countries that publicly condemned what the United States was doing through their proxy obviously of Israel and what Israel was doing for their interests nobody had a problem with and that's why you didn't see any backlash Putin didn't give a

fuck nobody gave a fuck no nuclear power wants more nuclear powers, and that's all there is to it side point I Bring that up because this is what they say publicly But sometimes there's Freudian slips and you go is that what you believe because I did watch a video where Mondani Who is a candidate for mayor and a viable one now, said, he used the phrase, seize the modes of production, which is a communist slogan. Now, in this day and age, I don't know what that means because the modes of production are in China. So I don't even know what that means, which is a communist country, supposedly. So I don't even know what that means, which is a communist country, supposedly. So I don't even know what that means, but you know, he's a 33 year old former rapper

who grew up rich, who went to a liberal, got a liberal arts education and changes his accents depending on who he's talking to. So he's a charismatic guy who I don't even think is old enough to understand what he believes, but I think he does know that he's got a talent that talent is being decent-looking smiling and being able to galvanize people with his charisma which we've also seen in the past so they say they support multi-party systems free election civil liberties a mixed economy which we already have which combines social ownership, health care and education with regulated capitalism, which we have. Okay? I just want to say

this to Republicans. I don't know if a lot of you understand that, and I also want to say that to progressives. I don't know if a lot of you understand that, but we do, the poor do get health care. I worked as a social worker, they get healthcare and they pay less for it than me. I have to pay because that's how the system works. The more you make, the more you pay, right? They pay nothing. I worked with them.

They can go to the doctor whenever they wanted because the middle class, which is what's fucked, pays and the rich people do, but the middle class which is what's fucked pays and the rich people do but the middle class really gets fucked because they pay more than they should pay for all the poor people to do whatever they want they go to the hospital fucking homeless people get in it's fucking paid for so we have we have public education now whether it's good or not that's a whole nother thing again that's not what this podcast is about. So we do have a mixed economy.

We do have socialism, whether you like it or not, and we cannot function without it. Because without it, you see what happens. It's a fucking pig slop fest. Because there's no end to up and humans can't keep their fucking pig noses out of the mud. end to up and humans can't keep their fucking pig noses out of the mud. They want to reduce inequality. It's great. Through redistribution and social welfare.

We have that. We have that in different levels, in different states, in different places. Gradual reform. I don't know what that means. That's a nice one. That's one of the ones you want to look through Because they say through democratic process and if you compare that to communism communism will go We want to do that through bloody revolution So you're going is it the same thing? Are you guys just it's sort of like, you know when white supremacists stop saying we're gonna burn Crosses, but what we're gonna do is put on suits and get into office. You're going like is that's what's happening here it could be it did with white supremacists right it could be I mean Nick Fuentes is a white supremacist he wears a suit and he says blah blah blah blah he's not burning crosses but he's

saying the things that make those people want to burn crosses. So you're going like is this just your bloodless revolution? Probably! So of course you have the Scandinavian countries as your example and Bernie Sanders who's the head of that party the old patriarch of the progressive wing saying we want to be just more like Norway and Sweden which basically means just a little more of what we have. Healthcare for all. You know, but then if you got that, do they stop? Do humans ever do? Do they ever?

Did the gays stop? Nobody stops. Nobody knows when to put down their sword and pick up their plow because the victory is done. And the reason they don't is because they're human and they need a cause to keep wanting to live So then they find another one even one that we don't need and they go from there and they say we're now we got Okay, we got the gay marriage now. We want to get into schools and have drag shows They just keep going it doesn't stop

so That's your difference, at least in what is officially being released, their official statements, is we want to just be a little more like that. Now, either that's all they want and they stop because Sweden would never get rid of its primary capitalist economic lever Norway would it Finland would neither it's where Nokia was born. It's where you know, they did some stuff So is that what they want to stop or do they want to seize it all do they want to seize it all and Give it to the people and Mondani keep a lot for his rap videos We don't know, right? But it's a valid question.

I think it's a valid question. I think my white supremacist example is a good example why it's a valid question, especially when you hear Freudian slips like I want to seize the modes of production. You're going, what the fuck? What does that mean? So President Trump is obviously called, mom, down me a communist and a lunatic. But that's just what he does. I mean, he's gone after Elon Musk.

So what do the experts say? Anna Grimamala Bus, who's at Stanford, says, communism involves a centrally planned economy. Mondami is not calling for any of this, which is true, I guess. But he also wants to buy up land and have the government own it and he wants, he said, criminals to put some a criminal in Rikers cost $500,000 a year to put him in a home, I guess free? I guess, I mean when I say free I mean they have their rights, they're back on the street, because that seems to come with it too, is sort of like how has society failed you when you

did your crime they don't want to punish you want to let you right back out that that's what this wing of the party is really for that's what they like he wants to put them in a 50th that and he's framing it as it'll save a lot of money but you're going in like I know it costs a lot of money but we're gonna put them back on the street is that your solution to give them free housing I mean do they deserve free help I mean what are we doing here I know it costs a lot but that's kind of what the price society pays to keep criminals off the street maybe we could take the jelly off the peanut butter sandwiches and save money too i don't know i don't know

uh... again norway doesn't a lot more civilized they have like nicer jails and ship but again there's fucking eight million of them in the country there's nine million people on one island alone now they're not going to be directly affected by mandami's there. In fact, their prices the real estate the market never lies

So as soon as he won the primary fucking real estate agents was ringing off the hook for people to flee Right. So that's what's gonna happen obviously And they're not directly affected they're actually positively affected economically as far as their property value goes i'd tell you that i could predict that but they're tangentially affected very closely because they work in new york they travel back and forth they spend in new york all that shit uh... and then there's nine million people in with that he will rule so he'll

basically be rule a ruling uh... there's nine million people in with that he will rule so he'll basically be rule a ruling uh... a country nine million people will that work in a city alike in new york i think you can work on a jewish kibbutz i think it could work with maybe working in amish community i don't know if that's what new york is about i don't know that if that's what made New York have the best restaurants and 5th Avenue and you know I don't know but they're for the people and again, we have an academic kid. It's the same fucking story

Right you look at Che You look at Castro. Well, not Castro as much right but Che Guevara and you're going like these kids grew up very privileged and then they have sympathy for the people and then they'd start a revolution for the people and Then you asked the people who lived under These things for 50 years or a hundred years and they go we want out So when you talk to any Scandinavian about their yontivin they go yeah this is bullshit you can't you can't achieve the things I want to go to America you can achieve the thing you know because

the grass is greener the grass is greener in Beverly Hills because they water it they water it okay they're not supposed to water it but they water it they water it nice so the lawns just look really nice in America and the lawns are just a little greener in America. And deep down everyone wants a green lawn. Everyone wants a green lawn because when you get the money you get the girls. And I just think that's what it comes down to. Everyone just wants a slice of puss. These school shooters, why do they do it? No puss. For the most part. us for the most part. So those are the differences and that expert says he's not a communist. He would say probably he's not a communist. We got out, he should be pressed on that because

a fun thing happened when he said on a and this is a problem that the left always have is they eat their own so does the right but he recently you know he's trying to get elected mayor now he's not just trying to win a primary over a guy who'd fucking I don't grab the butt cheeks of 13 girls I mean is this the best you can put forward can we get somebody who grabbed 11 instead of 13 so now he knows he has to say something decently positive about Israel. So, and all he said was he, he, he thinks Israel has the right to exist. And then he went on to say, but they need to internationalize.

Same shit my mother would say right who was a communist in some weird it's always like in their yeah they just like believe in good it just love being on the sidelines of life going i believe in good uh... so he said that and then what happened is he got a protester at his own rally who's screaming at him about that and and screaming at him forcefully saying why the hell did you say that blah blah

blah a Palestinian protester so they're angry at him because of what he said and and so he'll run into that so what does he want what do they want what does AOC want they're all getting in trouble the the right likes to dig into their past So what does he want? What do they want? What does AOC want? They're all getting in trouble. The right likes to dig into their past and say that they are not from the block, right? That they're not from the ilk that they're advocating for. But that is that a gotcha really as much because like what do you expect? Somebody really from the block they don't know how to do they were if they're on the block

They're on the block because they don't know how to get off the block So they're never gonna get it together enough to run for office Right cuz that would mean that they're kind of capitalist They have they want upward mobility, which is the irony of it. This kid is motivated. He wants shit. Why was he a rapper? Did he want to redistribute the ticket costs to his shows or were there not a lot of them? Is that why he changed careers? But you know what does it mean exactly? You know now had things gotten a little out of hand? Yeah they have. We have a lot of hand? Yeah, they have. We have a lot of billionaires now, and we have a lot of billionaires because a tech

revolution happened, and there was a few people who were able to leverage that into other sectors of the economy quite easily and take over retail and television and things like that and just get ultra rich and robots are coming we do have a problem do billionaires have too much you're asking my personal opinion it seems like they do do they deserve it probably

but also should they give a lot of it away so they keep their foyer clear i'd like i would i would hide all the money in the caymans Probably, but also should they give a lot of it away so they keep their foyer clear? I would. I would. I wouldn't hide all the money in the Caymans. I would slice a few billion off and give it to the fucking paupers. I would. I would do it. You know?

It's a kickback. You bought all my shit. You made me rich. Here's a kickback. I got 90 bill. I'll take 86. This goes straight to the people. And a lot of multimillionaires and billionaires from the past, that's what they do.

They build libraries, they do whatever. Nobody's trying to storm what's his name's foyer, right? The old guy who, yeah, nobody's trying to, cause all he talks about is giving it away. That's what he says publicly very smart the same thing russian turkey says publicly very smart privately he's living nice and who knows what kind of fucking dungeons he's got out there in idaho

who knows what the fuck is going on but nobody even ask questions cuz publicly he says uh... but america does have like close to a thousand billionaires or something right 902 billionaires we got the most and it keeps increasing increased by 89 individuals fuck in one year they own they hold around six point eight trillion and nearly forty two percent of the global billionaire wealth so we gotta do something especially with

all these over-educated people who i think are primarily his base or at least the uh... top lieutenants of his base are liberal arts kids who uh... can't didn't make it i think they're probably in comedy they'd be kids who all call matt rife trump

they just go he's trump or something like that you know but it comes out of bitterness it comes out of helplessness uh... you know like all my god what my dream to come to it's not coming true my rents too high instead of going i'm gonna give up my dream and move from new York City and go back to Syracuse, New York or wherever the fuck you from, they go I'm just gonna support this revolutionary who's gonna steal the rich people's shit. I do think there's a lot of that. I do think a lot

of them are speaking on behalf of fucking poorer people who probably are here because they want the opposite, they want fucking to make it and don't think about too much else besides that but New York City is ground zero of course it hosts 129 billionaires the highest of any city so of course it would be ground zero for a massive reaction, right? Because a lot of these people have to walk by Le Cirque. They got to walk down Madison Avenue and they got to feel what it feels like not to be able to walk in a Saks. They have to feel the humiliation of buying a polo shirt for Macy's as opposed to a lacoste shirt for Bloomingdale's and they all want a lacoste show from Bloomingdale's and

It doesn't surprise me that New York has become sort of the ground zero for this battleground There's no other place where a progressive mayor is in office, right? Okay, so I take that back san francisco probably chicago well where the progressive though well where they like this type of program uh... like for it with chicago yeah but what she is to socialist democrats certified nut jobs that she was but can you see how many social is democrats are

running cities and maybe i'm wrong just takes a second when you do two fingers in the u s calisthen what we got. I'm probably wrong Not by much Not by much So San Francisco's got one

You'd expect that so I was wrong. So you got one and then we got a bunch of shit. Nobody cares about right? South Fulton, Georgia, wherever the fuck that is is probably a couple thousand P. I don't know then you got Richmond, California Burlington Vermont, of course, we knew that and Irvine, California, which is interesting because Irvine, California is rich as fuck So that's interesting and then you got a few former ones, which is also no surprise So that's interesting. And then you got a few former ones, which is also no surprise. So Portland, Maine got rid of theirs,

but they had one. Ithaca, New York, that didn't work out. Berkeley, of course, that makes sense. It's only a few places. And then St. Paul, Minnesota, that didn't work out. That was a long time ago, 90 to 94. And these were socialist mayors in a few of those were in the 70s and 90s and only one of them is this new progressive socialist

Democrat, Bernie's party, which was in Portland, Maine. That was the only one and they're gone and that was 2015 to 2009. The rest of them are in the 90s, 80s and 70s. So not many. I wasn't that wrong. But of course, one of significant, the only other one of significance you can say is New York City. San Francisco had one.

We've seen what's happened to San Francisco. It ain't good. It's gotten worse. But then they'd say it's become more affordable. Is more affordable a good thing? Is it a binary? I don't know. I mean, fuck, San Francisco looks pretty similar in certain areas, but dude, I mean, the fucking

stores are gone. Like a couple of years, it's happened quick. And of course, a lot of companies from Silicon Valley have bounced. So this is what you're talking about. Now, my personal opinion, what will happen if he wins? I'm not going to say whether I personally think it's a good theory, but I think I'm just going to make predictions. Companies will leave. They're probably already in talks to find out what they can save by moving and where they can set

up. They're probably being seduced and enticed by very happy mayors and governors of other states who are wooing them, like free agents in the NBA going going you a lot of those are probably using uh... secret slush funds to do campaigns for mondami because they want him to win uh... real estate in the suburbs will will jack up you'll probably have a little bit of a white flight uh... westchester long island property will disorder new jersey it'll sore

and um... you'll probably have a lot of what happened in san francisco but on steroids because here things move we don't fucking sit around and don't wear makeup and throw our patagonia's on and talk about whales and shit that's how we do we don't move slow like they move in San Francisco. Shit moves fast and happens fast here. So it'll probably be a lot of that and so a lot of the tax base will probably leave. So a lot of the things he'll want to do with that money, if it would have stayed, will be gone. So he'll

end up having to tax the people in which he's trying to help. So they're gonna be upset and they're gonna feel despondent and drugs are always a solution to numb things out and of course you'll have free buses and subways which of course will mean that people and the cops will quit because they don't want to work for this because they live in the reality every day that a lot of social workers live in. But they don't have the hearts of social workers, so they'll probably not want to work. And buses and trains will become places where people who have mental illnesses or who are homeless

will make their homes more than now. That's my prediction. It'd be great for Uber. it'll be great for commuters, and it probably won't be the utopian vision that he has to balance things out. I just, that's what I predict if I had to put my money on it. And the people who are all enthusiastic about him, just and the people who are all enthusiastic about him Just like the people who are all enthusiastic about Trump will probably find out He has his own motives for wanting to be mayor and it's always everyone is always motivated by their own

Ego needs you could see that in him switching accents, but why would you switch accents and he did it radically? It's not like he did it radically. It's not like he did an Andrew Schultz like, what's up man? He didn't code switch a little. He pretended to have a completely different accent when you watch those videos. So he obviously wants to be liked,

he wants to be successful. Trump, you see, no president has gotten richer while they were in office than Trump. Nobody has campaigned on America first and how we need to cut spending more than Trump. And then you get in office and what do you see? Right? You do see a nice crackdown at the border, you do see that. But what do you also see? You also see him doing some things that a lot of people consider not America first in foreign affairs by really doing what Israel wants in a lot of ways. And then you also see a big beautiful spending bill that's gonna like quadruple the spending So you're going what the fuck right? So it's a little different than what he campaigned on a

little bit and Then you also see him start a meme coin where he gets incredibly rich Can you pull those numbers up and then we'll get out of here? So he lost a little bit during his first term, but he more than made up for it in his second term by tripling his wealth so far. And his term's only been a couple of months. He's made close to 600 and what is it? 620 million.

He's added to his net worth with his mean coin, with his crypto deal. And his second term has been highly profitable. He's also brokered a deal in Vietnam for his golf course while he was threatening to tariff the country. And his second term has made him the single biggest net worth gainer while serving as president in U. in US history. So he entered his second term with a net worth of roughly 2.3 billion and as of 2025 he's now worth 5.1 to 5.4 billion so he's gained about 3 billion so that's

double but some estimate triple primarily from the crypto which you can believe whatever you want to believe about it and real estate projects in UAE Saudi Arabia Qatar and Dubai so that's good before that it was Billy Clinton who profited the most while he was in office two people who were very friends so what i'm saying is often it's not the reality that you think it's going to be on all the issues and that's probably will happen

uh... my prediction mondami i'm not saying whether i think it's right wrong other i'm speaking predictions so there i hope you learned the difference between socialism and communism and how there they could be good bad and Indifferent I'm Yanis Pappas, and I'll see you next time when we talk about why murder may be good bad or indifferent Join our patreon at patreon.com Yanis Pappas our to support the show get a bonus episode when when we do it Providence July 11th come see me Me and 12th, Rosemont, Illinois which is basically Chicago August 8th

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