A Thanksgiving lesson on socialism

It's always fun to ask those with little life experience and common sense who know it all a few questions on the history of modern-day slavery, better known as socialism.

For the appetizer, ask them when the concepts of an ideal state and collectivism were first "discussed."  The odds are that they will be off by a few thousand years, given that these can be sourced to Plato's Republic, written in ancient Greece in the 4th century B.C., or 2,400 years ago.  So much for socialism being based on new ideas.

Follow that up by asking when and what "the first theoretical expression of a genuinely socialist position" was, at least, according to the Communist Party of Australia, among others.  This one is measured in centuries — over 500 years.  As in the book Utopia, first published in 1516, by Saint Thomas More.

At least maybe they can tell you why the word Utopia means "no place," since that describes where socialism has been successful.  (You may have to carefully explain that to anyone who filled out a ballot for the fascist far left in the last election.)  Just for reference, if they spew the usual projections, remind them of a couple of the Universal Aspects of Fascism, from the Labor Charter of 1927...