I got a message from my KPFT 90.1 FM Houston Station manager. A listener complained about my suggestion that we nationalize oil. Here is what happened when I called her back.
She complained but …
Like most Americans, I am upset about inflation and gasoline price extortion. I have done many radio shows explaining why both are farces. From elementary school to graduate school to business school, our education system brainwashed us to believe in an ordained economic system. They made our thinking, in many areas, anathema to both math and reality. Worse, it taught us to accept the word of those with ulterior economic interests on faith.
I provided a complete segment detailing why the price of gasoline is a farce. At the end of the radio segment, I said we should nationalize specific industries like energy and healthcare delivery to stabilize our economy. Many jump on that statement as being Marxist. Ironically, those in business who echo that sentiment are the same ones that say companies want predictability and stability.
If it were up to the corporate sector, they would privatize everything. Ironically, that is a recipe for economic collapse because of the permutations that expand the degrees of failure. But that is for another more expansive blog post.
Could you ponder this? Just like humans had nothing to do with putting water on earth, the same applies to oil, hydrocarbons, and minerals. We-the-people, the government, generally process water and distribute it at cost. Nobody owns water or makes a windfall on it. Bottle water and the attempt to privatize it is for another post, but the government controlling this vital resource is not Marxist. I would proffer that gasoline, heating oil, etc., are no different than water. While right-pricing will be necessary for environmental reasons and the level of scarcity, we have enough computing power to ensure stable prices. What do businesses in a free enterprise system want? A fair system, where essential resources in the commons are not used to extort, steal, and transfer the wealth and income of the many to the few.
The listener called the radio station to tell them that she would stop donating to the radio station because of my “Marxist” ideas. Interestingly, the support for the message I am putting out brings us more new station supporters than losses because I justify my positions unabashedly.
It was clear talking to this lovely lady that so much misinformation and factless information surrounded her that specific keywords triggered her. When I asked specific questions, she could not help but agree. But that muscle memory of the nonsensical information continuously pulled her. But ultimately, it was clear that she went from a person uninterested in discourse to one that would allow her mind to open.
Many continue to give me hell from engaging these folks. These videos that I make will have zero effects on those with liberated minds, progressive minds, or those prone to independent thinking. But it will plant seeds in many who quietly listen. I point out a lot of this in my book “It’s Worth It: How to Talk To Your Right-Wing Relatives, Friends, and Neighbors.”
I know many want us to concentrate on the Progressive base. We must do both. The Right is relatively successful with a corrosive and destructive ideology because they invest in talking to people in every corner that will allow them to enter. We cede rural America and the red states to the Right because we are often unwilling to meet people where they are. Some don’t have the patience. I, along with many others, do. We must invest in both methods, especially now, where misinformation is in vogue and ubiquitous.