Pope says he is not a Marxist, but defends criticism of capitalism

[bulloney]

7. The right will typically throw the "Marxist", "socialist", or whatever label to anyone

who dares criticize RW economic dogma, thinking it will shame that person out of the room.

The fact they're doing it to someone with the status of Pope is hilarious. These same people will constantly tell you how "Christian" they are and now they find themselves rebutting the head of one of the largest Christian religions in the world.

As an example of my opening sentence, I remember speaking on a panel discussion with the executive VP of a state Farm Bureau. For anyone who doesn't know the history of the Farm Bureau, it was founded by John Birchers with the support of the Chamber of Commerce and Lackawanna Railroad. Farmers historically have had their biggest struggles against railroads and big business (i.e. chamber of commerce). Arguably, the Farm Bureau is one of the hardest right-wing organizations of any type in the U.S. Their county annual meetings will address the typical guns-gays-gynecology issues in their resolutions to distract their members away from what the organization is really doing, while the state and national organizations lobby a big business agenda.

Anyway, I spoke against trickle down economics as they apply to farm policy. The Farm Bureau stooge immediately called me a "socialist". To which I read outcomes of a poll from a Farm Bureau publication, showing that their members supported the policies I had advocated in my presentation. I looked at the Farm Bureau rep and asked him if the Farm Bureau will heed the responses from their grass-roots members, or if this was another example of Farm Bureau "top-down" policy where their members say one thing and the organization's chiefs do another. It shut him up.