Like horses in “Young Frankenstein” that whinny at “Blucher!” maga followers scream when a magaGOP politician hisses “socialism!” No threat exists [FN1], but magaGOP guts public ed [FN2] to foster an ignorance that is an effective tool to manipulate voters. 1/11

maga people can’t define “socialism” [FN3] but they know it is evil, because it just is. Contrast it w/ “capitalism” as “good” though its definition is cold [FN4] but it has warm & fuzzy attributes: “free markets” and “competition.” That’s where we have problems. In undergrad, 2/11

where a professor disparaged his intellect [FN5] & in a real World littered w/his bankruptcies, the current occupant of the Oval Office is not very good at economics. Few should be surprised that trump is spending public monies as his own, but he’s buying businesses. 3/11

This week, in a “Presidential Memorandum,” trump okayed a road 211 miles long to be built in Alaska wilderness to mine “valuable minerals located in the Ambler Mining District” & the U.S. will purchase a 10% stake in Trilogy Metals, a business involved. [FN6] 4/11

A dynamic of a “free market” in “capitalism” is failure. The risk that a business will fail paints a picture of the survival of the fittest. trump’s father covered trump’s losses for years. After he died, Russian banks filled the void. Now taxpayers will cover trump’s losses. 5/11

What trump is doing to our economy can be called many things, but none of those should be mistaken for “free markets” or “capitalism.” Buying up & owning the means of production is more akin to socialism. Neither trump nor our system is capitalist. 6/11

Footnotes:
FN1. “Blucher”: “has no particular meaning as a normal word in German and certainly does not mean ‘glue.’" Hyde Flippo, “‘Young Frankenstein’ and Those Whinnying Horses,” ThoughtCo, updated 01/28/19, accessed 10/8/25. 7/11

FN2. Of many destructive proposals in Project 2025 is “elimination” of Dept of Education, fed ed funding, civil rights protections, and “diversion of public money to private school voucher programs.” Jessica Alcantara and Laura Petty, “ TIME, 7/22/24, accessed 10/8/25. 8/11

FN3. A “political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.” Oxford Languages, accessed 3/29/21.
FN4. An “economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.” Oxford Languages, accessed 10/8/25. 9/11

FN5. “Wharton marketing professor William T. Kelley” said trump “dumbest goddamn student I ever had.” Conard, Kristin, “The Scathing Claim One Of Donald Trump's College Professors Reportedly Made About Him,” MSN, accessed 11/17/24. 10/11

FN6. Judd Legum, “Trump approves mining road, delivers $70 million windfall to MAGA billionaire,” Popular Information, 10/8/25. 11/11