Why I am definitely NOT a socialist anymore. This is a comoft zone video in which I talk about topics beyond the usual scope of this channel in order to stretch my speaking abilities. In this video I challenge the belief that socialisim is 'kind' (as I used to think) and instead propose that it makes people weak by enabling them not to contribute. Although I do not talk about immigrants and migrants in this video, this talk follows on from a previous video I made called The Migrant Crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfmKo9ayr9s My point of view is that for the native population as well as immigrants and migrants, welfare robs people of their personal power. We like to tell ourselves that socialism helps people, but my own personal realisation was that the oppose is true. ---- Hey guys! This is a comfort-zone video. It’s me talking about a different kind of subject than I usually talk about on the channel. And it’s just to stretch my own speaking skills to talk about a different kind of topic. And because it’s not something I normally talk about, it’s usually harder for me to speak about, and the perfectionist in by brain wants to stop and go back to the beginning. But, because it’s a comfort-zone video, and I’m pushing my comfort zone, I’m going to resist those feelings, like: “Oh, I want to start again; it’s not good enough.” I don’t claim to have all the answers, but in this video I’m sharing my own opinions about socialism, and specifically I’m talking about why I turned on socialism. So I used to think it was kind, it was good, it was helping people. I used to think like that about socialism. That the state, the government looks after, looks after, cares for poor people; makes sure that they’ve got somewhere to live; and helps you if you haven’t got a job and that kind of thing. I used to think that was kind. And now I’ve turned on it. Like I said, I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I’ll talk you through my thinking process. So, I grew up in England, a socialist country. Was I programmed to think this way? Was it a conclusion I reached myself, looking around at my life? I can’t say. Looking around at the society, I had nothing else to compare it to. But I grew up in the understanding that socialism is kind. It’s a caring ideology, because if someone is sick, if someone loses their job, you know, they’re never gonna, things are never gonna to get that bad for them, because the state’s going to be there. The state’s going to be there to catch you if you fall—that kind of thing. And personally, I grew up in a single-parent family, so I think my outlook was definitely influenced by that thought of: “Oh my God, if the state wasn’t looking after us...if, you know, we didn’t grow up on benefits, you know, how awful would it be? Would it be like Victorian times? Would we, would I be born in the workhouse, or would I, um... Would I have any shoes? That kind of thing, like: How bad would it be? So, yeah, my understanding about socialism for most of my life—this is only a fairly recent change—was that it’s needed and it’s good and it’s kind. And I think now it’s funny to look at any ideology and assess it in terms of its kindness. Because I think they’re all different systems, and I don’t think morality comes into like these things, like how are we going to shape society, as I’m going to get into now. So why and how have I turned on it, then? Especially because you could be watching this video and say, “But you’ve benefitted from it!” And it comes down essentially to the one single point, which is: Are you actually helping people by creating this—what can we call it?—like, this safety net, that stops you ever falling down. Are we really, really, really helping people? Because...when you fall down in life, as I’ve experienced myself, more than once, different times; when you fall down in life, you can, it can be a real learning experience for you. You can fall down, and you could say, “Well, I ‘m not doing that anymore.” It’s not actually great to be feeling like... You know when people talk about falling to rock bottom. They could be talking about financially, emotionally, blah blah blah. But falling to rock bottom can allow you to soar back up. Right?

• published: 06 Dec 2015
• views: 9819