Ok, I know, you don’t go to Teen Vogue for scholarly economic or political analysis, and nobody there has heard of Milton Friedman or Thomas Sowell. Nor do I expect it to have much in-depth coverage of how to fight back against COVID-19. In fact, I’d expect little more than an analysis of the cutest congressman or how to participate in politics even if you can’t legally vote for three more years. As a father, it no longer sneaks up on me when Marxist indoctrination is woven into the societal fabric of being a teen in America. After all, this is the same rag that ran the series a few years ago teaching teens how to have anal sex. And yet, when the writers interrupt their drivel to run articles openly calling for the destruction of capitalism in response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, even I sit up and take notice.
The following articles appeared this week in Teen Vogue in its continuing coverage of COVID-19:
The Coronavirus Pandemic Demonstrates the Failures of Capitalism
The Coronavirus Makes Me Wish We Already Had a President Bernie Sanders
With the Coronavirus Crisis, We Must Cancel Student Debt Immediately
Rent Strike 2020 Is Calling for a Rent Freeze Because of the Coronavirus
Yes, the first three articles are technically op-eds. The Bernie Sanders article was written by the magazine’s political editor, and the article on the failures of capitalism was co-written by a former policy advisor to the Elizabeth Warren campaign. A search of the site for the word “capitalism” doesn’t return a favorable result. It seems safe to assume they won’t be inviting Grover Norquist or Matt Kibbe to write op-eds for them anytime soon.
That fourth article is equally instructive, though — it’s an interview with long-shot congressional candidate Joshua Collins out of Washington State. He describes himself as a socialist truck driver who advocates for federal rent control and the Green New Deal.
So, on the failures of capitalism, Kandist Mallett writes:
Selling your labor in a capitalist marketplace so you don’t end up on the street is horrible and unnatural, and we shouldn’t have to exist this way. While many of us have long questioned the idea of working our lives away to pad a company’s bottom line, the pandemic has given us a glimpse of what an anti-capitalist society could actually look like. This isn’t to romanticize what is happening — after all, people are gravely ill and dying every day. But if we are to fully examine the crisis for what it is, then we must recognize that COVID-19 is not the only virus that must be destroyed. We also have to confront capitalism and the world that sustains it.
On the mythical superhero presidency of Bernie Sanders, the political editor writes:
As a University of Michigan doctor told Up North Live this week, the cost of treatment will likely depend on coverage provided by insurance companies, the for-profit industry Sanders wants to make obsolete. But instead of being replaced by the single-payer system Sanders has championed, some fear insurance may be about to get much more expensive; a report from California’s Obamacare marketplace warned that insurance premiums could increase or even spike next year as the insurance industry takes a hit after what had recently been soaring profits.
Were Sanders in the White House right now, his administration might have made enough progress on health care to help ensure that those who get sick with COVID-19 wouldn’t have to worry about personally paying for treatment. But instead we have Vice President Mike Pence meeting with insurance company bigwigs and getting a commitment that only testing, not treatment, will be free.
Canceling student debt sounds great to kids who haven’t even applied for college yet, but can envision legally skipping out on their obligations:
Some legislators are already hard at work on this. For example, Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) has introduced legislation that provides both short-term payment cancellation and long-term balance reduction to ensure that borrowers get immediate relief, while also boosting the economy over time. Congress failed young people in the last economic crisis. This time, it’s critical they get it right.
Our socialist truck driver advocates the suspension of all housing costs until the pandemic ends. Note that he doesn’t say how the banks and landlords should be expected to survive a prolonged lack of revenue:
So the language in the petition is calling on specifically governors — in a few cases mayors, like with Washington, D.C. — to do what is necessary to suspend the collection of rent, residential mortgages, and utility payments. We want people to not have to worry about those particular bills for at least two full months, and lasting until the end of this crisis. Originally I just did it for my own state, Washington. And it blew up so quickly that we decided to just do it in all 50 states.
Now if you’re familiar with the Yellow Vest movement in France, the way that movement actually started was very similar. They chose yellow vests because everyone had one in their car. Like the yellow vest, everyone has a white sheet that they don’t use, right? So people have just been hanging white sheets outside their window. That actually started out in Montreal as a symbol of the rent strike movement, and now we’re seeing it in the United States as well.
Side note: this is not the first time in history that Democrats have advocated the use of white sheets.
The way this stuff gets interwoven among articles about how celebrity teens (them/they) use the quarantine to dress for themselves instead of dressing for others, or how teen guys (he/they) can experiment with different makeup options, it almost escapes notice. It sure does demonstrate how easy it can be to whip teens and young adults into a capitalism-smashing frenzy.
Jeff Reynolds is the author of the book, “Behind the Curtain: Inside the Network of Progressive Billionaires and Their Campaign to Undermine Democracy,” available now at www.WhoOwnsTheDems.com. Jeff hosts a podcast at anchor.fm/BehindTheCurtain. You can follow him on Twitter @ChargerJeff.
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