Why capitalism keeps LOSING the battle of ideas

[@tennoio1392]

I think Nikos got a lot better at giving speeches. This is excellent.

[@nikossotirakopoulos6876]

Thank you! This is from 2 years ago, so hopefully I've improved further since then.

[@voswouter87]

The answer is justice. Respect for property rights is just. Social justice is the opposite of justice.

[@ab_c4429]

You're really good at public speaking. Not once an 'uhm' or anything. One of my goals to become good at that! How did you do it? Just practice a lot?

[@nikossotirakopoulos6876]

Thank you! I will publish a video with my rehearsal protocol, but in short: 1) first write your talk as a text, and make sure it makes sense, 2) start rehearsing via reading from the text, 3) every time you rehearse, use the notes less and less. The point is not to memorize the talk (then you become a slave of it), but to remember the structure, and the main points. If English is your native language (it's not for me) it will happen even faster.

[@eduardorpg64]

How come you only have 200 subscribers? This is awesome, Nikos!

[@nikossotirakopoulos6876]

Thank you Eduardo...it's a new endeavour, glad you are finding value in it!

[@CapitalistSpy]

Now it’s more than a thousand! One mind at the time ;)

[@eduardorpg64]

Loved how you described socialism as "it promises you glorified poverty." Would explain leftists' obession nowadays with banning fossil fuels, even though banning them wouldn't benefit any human being.

[@radidani1]

I love your presentations as a lifetime left thinking person. I'd like to know however where you stand with the welfare state as you had mentioned it in this presentation? The reason Im asking is because I find it terrible that people in the US who get a terminal disease wont be covered by their insurance and apart from dying, their family also get financially ruined. For this sole reason I'd never move to the US, but I see the trend of governments trying to move towards privatised healthcare in europe. The way I always seen at (and am probably alone with this) is that during the cold war, in the west was good to implement socialist ideas into capitalism to avoid people wanting to become communists. After the cold war when there was no more threat, capitalism was on the free run. Moreover, the deregulation of capitalism led us to 2008 financial crisis. Id love to hear your opinion on that!

[@nikossotirakopoulos6876]

Thank you for the kind words! Regarding the welfare state: I'd scale it back, while giving at the same time more options to people relying on it. Wouldn't take anything away from people who already rely on it. I disagree that capitalism led to the financial crisis of 2008. I tend to agree with this guy: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3WlepmmZZdsnaM&ab_channel=ExploringMindswithMicheleCarroll

[@entropino9928]

From 3:00 I start to disagree. I don't see how killing people with more wealth would have moral appeal or equality would have moral appeal (in a vacuum without propaganda). Many people, especially with socialism, have a lot of moral disgust when the socialists become progressive, see weimar republic. I think in the first instance that it subverts (neo)liberal morality with democracy and equality (and maybe even altruism) as its values (and even freedom as a value if you interpret freedom materialistically) and on the other hand that the frame of class struggle is a very power-accumulating outlook and strategy. Communism may not work economically or in the sense of making utopias, but when it comes to gaining power and even keeping absolute power, there is no true rival, even liberals/nationalists have to content with not having absolute ideological control once they rule.....

[@entropino9928]

Although I guess from 4:56 you start to get to the same point as my first point I guess. It subverts or I should say better expresses contemporary values liberal and christian values, you can say it is not true (insert philosophy/religion) but they are indeed the values espouses by the thought leaders of those ideologies(and yes I regard school teachers as thought leaders in that aspect). It is their natural evolution, I have the same values as you but I actually want it, not with a speedlimit because pesky reality gets in the way.

[@nikossotirakopoulos6876]

@@entropino9928 So here we assume the appeal of socialism to good people, not power-lusters or envy-driven nihilists. And it's what you mention in the 2nd comment: 'I espouse the ideas you've been told are good, only I actually mean business and will deliver on them'.

[@entropino9928]

@@nikossotirakopoulos6876 The appeal to power-lusters and/or envy driving nihilists is a very important factor in its popularity I think, or more so in capturing key people to take more power. But yea I was nitpicky but ended up mostly agreeing sorry.

[@MikolaBoyko-xr7fd]

I love how this guy completely ignores the fact that probably the most well-developed countries - Nordic countries - are social-democratic. :) The other part is also pure nonsense. Socialists are not idealists. They are materialists. Poverty drives masses towards economical democracy. Socialism wins battles of ideas not because of the "moral high ground", but because of empty fridges. :) Talking about "numbers and plots", I really suggest everyone reading the article "Economic development, political-economic system, and the physical quality of life" by S Cereseto, H Waitzkin to become familiar with real statistics (not some 15-min “personal opinion” “socialism bad” talk) on whether socialism really performs so poorly (spoiler: it outperforms capitalism).

[@nikossotirakopoulos6876]

In the Index of Economic Freedom, 4 Nordic Countries are on the top 12 freest economies in the world: www.heritage.org/index/ranking

[@MikolaBoyko-xr7fd]

@@nikossotirakopoulos6876 I think, this will tell a lot more, then just an index: - free education - free universal healthcare - high taxation - ~50% of GDP is the public sector - big trade unions movement - good protection of workers rights Nordic countries also have one of the highest values of (net) outcoming foreign direct investments (FDI) per capita in Europe (see World Data Bank or other sources). Basically, that means that capital abandons Nordic countries in favor of the ones with cheaper labor and lower taxation. So much of "Index of Economic Freedom". :)

[@MartinAndersson715]

Wow you are proving his point so perfectly. Going through all this mental gymnastics to justify socialist policies by somehow claiming that the socialist elements of mixed economies are what's responsible for their prosperity. The fridge wouldn't even be invented in a non-capitalist economy.

[@Raelspark]

@@MikolaBoyko-xr7fd bad education and inferior healthcare. High taxation of everyone.

[@Raelspark]

If there are empty fridges, then you have to Fill those fridges. You do that with work, production, salaries based on skills. The socialist way is the government just gives you $$$ and you use the $$$ to fill your fridges. But it is Never enough.