Listening to Dissenting Opinions

[DISCLAIMER]

“Socialism” refers to a political and economic system or an ideology in support of such a system. Under this ideology, a socialist advocates the idea that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community or larger group as a whole.

If a self-avowed socialist maintains that a nation preferentially should adopt the tenets of socialism, though the person wouldn’t self-disturb with irrational beliefs about matters if or when this preference doesn’t come to fruition, then I see no need to dispute a personal preference.

I suggest this, because preferences are flexible in nature. Who hasn’t preferred for something to or not to happen only to discover that one’s personal preference isn’t shared by others? When this occurs, an individual may merely wind up being disappointed, frustrated, or annoyed.

Alternatively, if a socialist rigidly commands that a nation absolutistically should adopt the tenets of socialism, I maintain that this self-disturbing form of demandingness is worth disputing. After all, demands of this variety tend to cause unhelpful levels of anger when left unfulfilled.

In any case, I’m not an advocate of socialist ideology. While I understand its possible utility for small groups which voluntarily agree upon shared means of production, distribution, and exchange of goods and services, I maintain that socialism on a nationwide scale isn’t pragmatic.

It’s actually harmful. Nevertheless, I value listening to dissenting opinions rather than subjecting myself to a proverbial echo chamber in which confirmation bias deafens me to alternative perspectives. Thus, I recently listened to content of the Workers Strike Back (WSB) conference.

I heard about WSB from the Due Dissidence YouTube channel, featuring Keaton Weiss and Russell Dobular, when Kshama Sawant—a self-avowed socialist—was featured on an episode of the channel. Interestingly, that wasn’t the first time that I heard of Sawant.

In 2014, concerning a separate YouTube video, Sawant debated Ben Shapiro regarding the topic of a $15 minimum wage. Personally, Shapiro’s argument was more persuasively compelling. In particular, the following dialogue unfolded:

Shapiro: In an ideal world, and I’m sure we’ll get to this, I’m wondering what exactly the minimum wage should be. Why $15? Why not 35? Why not 55? Why not $100? If we are going to be ideologically consistent about all of this—

Sawant: Are you going to fight for $50 minimum wage?

Shapiro: I will fight right alongside you for $1,000 minimum wage, because I want to see leftist policies implemented in this city [Seattle, Washington] so that people actually recognize what impact they have.

During her speech at the WSB conference, Sawant bragged about having achieved her goal of a $15 minimum wage for Seattle. One source reports that “the most common response to the wage increase was to raise prices or fiddle with workers’ hours.”

There’s a simple economics lesson inherent in the minimum wage increase case study. Placing a hefty burden on a company to pay workers more will inevitably serve as an encumbrance to customers.

If paying a worker $15/hour is required, whereas the pay was once $10/hour, customers will wind up bearing the cost of a financial penalty. Still, the people of Seattle may have argued that individuals should pay more for quality services and goods.

What impact has a $15 minimum wage had over a decade later? For this answer, I turn to the WSB website which states, “We strongly support the fight for a $25 an hour starting wage by workers trying to unionize their workplaces—in major cities that’s just a basic living wage.”

Turns out that Shapiro’s facetious argument for an arbitrary increase at an exponential rate is precisely what WSB is now advocating. At what point does minimum wage stop increasing, when all workers across the nation earn exactly the same amount of money?

What would it take in order to achieve that preposterous aim? One speaker from the WSB conference boldly answered this question by stating, “Take big corporations into democratic public ownership.” The term “take” does a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.

I appreciate listening to dissenting opinions so that I can understand the intentions of people. In this case, I don’t think it’s a logical leap to presume that the ultimate objective of a socialist WSB movement is to steal businesses from owners, as such logic unfolds using a syllogism:

Form (hypothetical) –

If p, then q; if q, then r; therefore, if p, then r.

Example –

If company Y is worth a couple trillion dollars, then socialist policies are needed to redistribute wealth for democratic public ownership.

If socialist policies are needed to redistribute wealth for democratic public ownership, then stealing company Y from its owners is the morally and ethically right thing to do.

Therefore, if company Y is worth a couple trillion dollars, then stealing company Y from its owners is the morally and ethically right thing to do.

Although a debated number, one source states, “Socialism is responsible for the deaths of more than 100 million victims.” One imagines that if the aforementioned syllogistically irrational belief was used, death would inevitably follow from its logical though unreasonable premises.

Of course, when discussion about the arguable number of deaths attributable to an ideology stemming from Karl Marx is presented, it isn’t uncommon for people to claim that true socialism hasn’t been attempted. However, I concur with what one source states in this regard:

Over the last 100 years, over two dozen countries have attempted to implement socialist economies. The list includes not just the Soviet Union, Cuba, and North Korea, but Yugoslavia, Albania, Poland, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Romania, Venezuela, Somalia, Ethiopia, Cambodia, and many others.

Countries in nearly every continent, with virtually every climate represented, with varying histories, cultures, languages, and traditions have tried—and consistently failed. In every case, the economies declined or collapsed, suffered reductions in prosperity and growing poverty, and in most cases eventually abandoned the attempts.

I don’t want pure socialism on a national level in the United States (U.S.). Arguably, we already have mixed socioeconomic programs which report varying degrees of failure. Moreover, I don’t advocate an “eat the rich” approach to wealthy corporations.

Nonetheless, I find that listening to dissenting opinions serves well my interests and goals. Although it may be comfortable to experience effects of an echo chamber, I choose discomfort as a means of striving for high frustration tolerance (HFT) and in order to build resilience.

Besides, I agree and disagree with some of what I’ve heard Shapiro, Sawant, and others say. In order to think critically, agreement and disagreement will inevitably occur when hearing logical, illogical, reasonable, unreasonable, rational, and irrational propositions.

As a final example, I’ve heard Shapiro advocating U.S. support for Israel (at this point, who hasn’t heard Ben droning on about this topic?). However, I disagree with his stance and instead prefer Sawant’s position on this matter, as our nation could benefit from terminating support.

Doubtlessly, many people will disagree with my perspective. If you’ve made it this far in the blogpost, I hope you’ve benefited from listening to dissenting opinions. If you’d like to know more about HFT and resilience-building, then I’m here to help.

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

Photo credit, fair use

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