Are you swamped by the bog of big words? And are some of those long-lettered combinations indicative of your liberty as an American?

According to a congresswoman, you may be making a mistake.

Yahoo! Finance recently posted an interview with Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the lawmaker laid down the law on systems of government.

As it turns out, you should stop being so sensational:

“I believe that in a broad sense, because when we toss out these big words — capitalism, socialism — they get sensationalized.”

Remarkably, she went on to point out something painfully and obviously true:

“[P]eople translate them into meaning things that perhaps they don’t mean.”

Bullseye.

In fact, so far as I can tell, many who support the congresslady fall into that group:

Millennials embrace socialism but can't define it https://t.co/6OWjRDmuGt pic.twitter.com/XbqUjjK5gk

— The Christian Post (@ChristianPost) August 6, 2021

On the Left side of the aisle, it seems, a substantial number believe socialism regards personal ownership.

As the idea goes, under Hitler’s preferred economic system, if you work at Starbucks and we switch to socialism, you suddenly own the company.

It may be worth pointing out that that isn’t in any way correct.

By contrast, when socialism kicks in, Starbucks is owned (in part) by AOC.

It’s a notable coincidence for the socialism-promoting legislator, but nonetheless true.

Rather than socialism making you a corporation’s big cheese whereas you were previously on janitorial staff, socialism is a system in which the government owns all products and means of production.

All power and control go to those in politics.

Amid that paradigm, you are forcibly prevented from owning your own business.

AOC went on to define capitalism…to her:

“[T]o me, capitalism, at its core — what we’re talking about when we talk about that — is the absolute pursuit of profit at all human, environmental, and social cost. That is what we’re really discussing.”

Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on what it means to each individual, as the word has an actual definition. Capitalism is a system based on a free-market economy in which an individual may own his or her own business.

So you have a choice, some might say: Your business can be owned by you, or it can be owned by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Her vote: her.

An increasing number of peoples’ vote: her.

via @RedState: https://t.co/BuYvk9RGbk: Great News! Millennials Like Socialism! https://t.co/uOaEPJf15e pic.twitter.com/wGekGQ6fvj

— The Irishman 🍊 (@commonpatriot) June 30, 2018

Curiously, the internet seems lacking in those criticizing capitalism while accurately acknowledging what it is. Conversely, there appears a dearth of those endorsing socialism while nodding to its rightful definition.

Per AOC, capitalism is for bums:

“And what we’re also discussing is the ability for a very small group of actual capitalists — and that is people who have so much money that their money makes money, and they don’t have to work. And they can control industry. They can control our energy sources.”

Speaking of energy, she’s fighting the power:

“They can control our labor. They can control massive markets that they dictate and can capture governments. And they can essentially have power over the many. And to me, that is not a redeemable system for us to be able to participate in for the prosperity and peace for the vast majority of people.”

“I think at the end of the day,” the representative posed, “it is about who has control over the very core assets of production and society.”

She isn’t wrong.

“If it ultimately comes down to a billionaire or the Koch brothers or the Koch family having control over the vast majority or large plurality of our oil assets in the United States, if it’s a handful of very wealthy families having control over — you know, private families having control over means of production, that is essentially the capitalist system that we live in. It is a small group that is of privatized control over what we eat and how we fuel our society.”

Capitalism allows for many owners; socialism caters to the ultimate big business, otherwise known as government. Or perhaps I’m entirely misinformed.

If so, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is here to help.

She’s asserting markets can still be free without the freest economic system to have ever thrived:

“Free markets are not the same thing as capitalism. And you can have markets where businesses and ways of producing, trading, selling goods are really controlled and not just controlled but giving more power to workers. People get a fair shake. Union jobs, unionized workplaces, all of these are different steps and levels that we’re talking about in a more just economy.”

Under socialism, of course, things will be controlled by her and her peers.

Is that really what some Americans want?

We may never know — unless we can figure out the meaning of those big ol’ words.

-ALEX

See more content from me:

COVID Conquers All: Pub Possibly 1000 Years Old Gets Crushed by Government’s New Grip

University Professor Goes the Route of ‘Ungrading’ — in Math

In Honor of Black History Month, University Asks, ‘Is Professionalism a Racist Construct?’

Find all my RedState work here.

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