Kerby Anderson

A significant number of young people have a positive view of socialism. In my booklet on A Biblical Point of View on Socialism, I suggest this is because of what they hear on college campuses and what they hear from politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

John Stossel now provides another reason for socialism’s popularity: social media. He documents the “Dumb Things Socialists Promise.”

For example, one TikTok social influencer has a video proclaiming: “Socialism is working better than capitalism 93% of the time!” That misleading statistic is drawn from a study by self-described Marxists in the Journal of Health Services from nearly four decades ago.

Another social media influencer proclaims, “Socialism worked in China” because it “lifted over 800 million people from poverty.” Yes, the per capita income in China has increased, but much of that increase came after China gave up on socialism and created a hybrid capitalism-communism society. Hong Kong, which adopted true capitalism, increased personal income much more and much faster than mainland China.

And another social media influencer tells his YouTube subscribers: “The central idea that unites all socialists is maximizing freedom ... democratization of power.” The reality in most socialist countries is less freedom and only one political party.

Perhaps you have a friend or family member that is promoting socialism. Let me offer my booklet on socialism (either in digital form or printed form). We need to be prepared to answer these socialist claims and promises.