Sowell says

There are few ideas more potent than the notion that all your problems are caused by other people and their unfairness to you. That was the royal road to unbridled power for Hitler, Lenin, and Mao—which is to say, millions of human beings paid with their lives for believing it.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) May 7, 2021

Sowell says

The whole political vision of the left, including socialism and communism, has failed by virtually every empirical test, in countries all around the world. But this has only led leftist intellectuals to evade and denigrate empirical evidence.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) May 2, 2021

Sowell says

You might think that the collapse of communism throughout Eastern Europe would be considered a decisive failure for Marxism but academic Marxists in America are utterly undaunted. Their paychecks and their tenure are unaffected. Their theories continue to flourish in classrooms.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) May 2, 2021

Sowell says

Seldom do people think things through foolishly. More often, they do not bother to think things through at all, so that even brainy individuals can reach untenable conclusions because their brainpower means little if it is not deployed and applied.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 29, 2021

Sowell says

In my old neighborhood, there was a special contempt for the kind of guy who was always trying to get other guys to fight each other. Today it's considered a great contribution to society to incite consumers against producers, women against men, and the races against each other.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 27, 2021

Saturday soapbox

Saturday’s soapbox is yours to use as you will – within the bounds of decency and absence of defamation. You’re welcome to look back or forward, discuss issues of the moment, to pontificate, ponder or point us to something of interest, to educate, elucidate or entertain, amuse, bemuse or simply muse, but not abuse.

Racism is not dead but it is on life support – kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists’ – Thomas Sowell

Sowell says

Wherever you get enough far left people in power, you can find a similar willingness to force everyone into collectivist conformity at all costs.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 26, 2021

Sowell says

Those who want to take our money and gain power over us have discovered the magic formula: Get us envious or angry at others and we will surrender, in installments, not only our money but our freedom.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 22, 2021

Sowell says

Many issues are misconstrued, not because they are too complex for most people to understand, but because a mundane explanation is far less emotionally satisfying than an explanation which produces villains to hate and heroes to exalt.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 22, 2021

Sowell says

One of the scariest things about our times is how easy it is to scare people and start a political stampede. There are people who could be upset if they were told that half of all Americans earn less than the median income—though of course that is the way median income is defined

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 21, 2021

Sowell says

What can any society hope to gain by having some babies in that society born into the world with a priori grievances against other babies born into that same society on the same day?

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 20, 2021

Sowell says

There is nothing so good that politicians can't make it bad and nothing so bad that politicians can't make it worse. Compassion is good but politicians have turned compassion into the welfare state. Crime is bad but politicians have made it worse by going easy on criminals.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 19, 2021

Sowell says

Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 18, 2021

Sowell says

Any politician, of any race or party, who fights against charter schools that give many black youngsters their one shot at a decent life does not deserve the vote of anybody who really believes that black lives matter.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 17, 2021

Sowell says

If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 16, 2021

Sowell says

The political left's attempts to silence ideas they cannot, or will not, debate are a confession of intellectual bankruptcy.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 15, 2021

Sowell says

People sometimes ask if I have tried to convince black “leaders” to take a different view on racial issues. Of course not. I wouldn't spend my time trying to persuade the mafia to give up crime. Why should I spend time trying to convince race hustlers to give up victimhood?

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 8, 2021

Sowell says

Of all ignorance, the ignorance of the educated is the most dangerous. Not only are educated people likely to have more influence, they are the last people to suspect that they don't know what they are talking about when they go outside their narrow fields.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) April 5, 2021

Sowell says

The assumption that spending more of the taxpayers' money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) March 31, 2021

Sowell says

Let’s face it, most of us are not half as smart as we may sometimes think we are—and for intellectuals, not one-tenth as smart.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) March 31, 2021