But he said—And this is the part that people forget. They think, “OK, well, it’s socialist so that’s why they’re all so happy there. They get cradle to grave redistribution—”No, no, no!”

In his first work on this, he said the people in Denmark are happy because they’re free. Ah! [There] was a difference.

Bluey: I’m glad you mentioned that word, freedom, because I think that comes into play when we’re talking about socialism. One of the things that we do at The Heritage Foundation is publish the Index of Economic Freedom each year. In fact, Denmark falls two spaces behind the United States. The United States’ economic freedom rating is 76.8 and Denmark’s is 76.7.

So, in many respects, that argument just fades away. As you said, Denmark’s own people have debunked some of the things that we hear from American politicians.

But I want to ask you a question about this because we have a situation where college campuses, even, maybe, younger kids, are learning from professors and others who clearly embrace the principles of socialism and are talking to them about what they view as the benefits of this system.

If you’re a parent and you’re reading this, what is it that you would tell them if their son or daughter were to come back home from college and say all of sudden that they embrace socialism and that’s the approach that they’d like to see in America?

Wright: I’d probably say, “Why am I paying for this?”

One of our speakers put together a presentation called “How Not to Raise Communists” and it begins with basic concepts like individual responsibility versus group rights and that sort of thing. So, another thing I would say, as a parent, to advise parents is sign up for our presentation on how not to raise communists.

Bluey: That’s great advice. I encourage our readers to do that.

One of the things that we heard from Jennifer and Darian on The Daily Signal Podcast when they joined us were some of the totalitarian abuses that these countries experienced. Particularly the communist countries that they’ve witnessed firsthand. China in particular for Jennifer, who told such a moving story.

Can you talk about that aspect of it and how we not only lose our freedom, but we tend to see these human rights abuses in communist or socialist-leaning countries?

Wright: We have one speaker, he’s a lecturer at Liberty University. He says, “Forget all this ideology stuff.”

Socialism isn’t about ideology. Communism, Marxism, it’s not about ideas. It’s all about thuggery and gangsterism and that’s the essence of it and that’s the way we should frame it.

So what these systems do is, the worst thugs rise to the top. These are inherently corrupting systems, as Darian laid out a couple of weeks ago on the podcast.

People have to make their quotas in the production system and they’ll do it any way they can, even if it’s under the table. These are inherently corrupting systems.

Another one of our speakers is from Czechoslovakia and—I’ll never forget this, and this is why I’ve been so enriched by meeting and working with these people for the last five or six years—that person says … in Communist Czechoslovakia, if you’re not stealing from the state, you are robbing from your own family. That’s how inherently corrupting a socialist system is.

Allen: And for those who would like to get involved with the Anticommunism Action Team and follow your work, how can they do that?

Wright: Sure. We have a website, it’s called Spider-And-The-Fly.com, with dashes between the words. We have a mailing address, [email protected]. We have a weekly news roundup, this will give you fresh ammunition every week with which to fight socialism.

That’s where I learned about social credit two years before anybody else I know was talking about it. The social credit monitoring system in China.

It’s also where I learned how Nepal, which is under an elected communist government, is going the way of all communism in terms of shutting down free press, concentrating power in the office of leader of the country, weaponizing the intelligence agencies, and so we have that.

We have the speakers bureau, and I’m hoping that people will support us by finding us more speakers, more survivors of communism. We’d welcome those.

We would also welcome more venues to present our message. We’ve been in front of classrooms and groups. We’ve been on porches, college campuses, so far this year, and we’ve been here at The Heritage Foundation presenting to your interns.

Bluey: Do you want to explain the meeting of the Spider and The Fly?

Wright: Sure. That’s a poem from about 100 years ago and the spider is trying to catch the fly but it has to seduce the fly and trick the fly. So, the spider that … every refrain ends come closer, the spider said to the fly and finally, snatch! The spider snatches the fly. And this, to me, is the essence of communism.

It’s so sweet sounding. It talks about social justice and equality and all these wonderful things, but in essence, like the lecturer at Liberty University says, the essence of it is gangsterism and it snatches people and it takes their hopes and their dreams and their lives away as we’re witnessing now in Venezuela where the store shelves are empty.

And, people, … this [is] the value of following the news, people go to the zoo and try to take the zoo animals so they have something to eat. Now, when’s the last time you heard of that happening in the United States?

Bluey: Yeah, it is truly frightening.

Chris, thank you so much for the work that you’re doing. We encourage our readers to check out your work and the Anticommunism Action Team. It is great to have you back at The Daily Signal. We hope you’ll keep in touch.

Wright: Wonderful. Thank you, Rob. Thank you, Virginia.

Allen: Thank you.

This first appeared in The Daily Signal here.