An “-ism” is simply what your mind is willing to put time and effort behind. In America, you may choose yours so long as it does not extinguish anyone else’s. That remains the country’s actual magic. Gather friends on a commune, raise food, distribute it collectively — have at it. History already wrote the ending. Just do not demand the rest of us underwrite the experiment. Voluntary association is one thing; compulsion is another.

No matter which -ism you prefer, you are still fed and sheltered by the personal capitalist who actually produces things and gets them to you. Adam Smith’s butcher, baker, and brewer do not supply your dinner from benevolence; they do it from regard to their own interest. Every ideology, including the ones that denounce markets, ultimately rests on the daily work of people who turn effort into goods and move those goods to the people who need them. When the -ism pretends otherwise, it simply feeds off the same producers it lectures.

They rigged the maps to force you to pay for their ‘-isms’

Harry and Meghan are back to cash in on Britain’s $680 million royal lie

Republicans want to cut it. Democrats want to fund it. Neither knows how to fix it

Statism is the compulsion that pretends otherwise. It converts the Constitution’s limited government into a permanent parent that soothes feelings, redistributes dollars, and invents rights faster than it protects the old ones. When bureaucrats enjoy higher pay and benefits than the people they are supposed to serve, that is pure statism — the political opposite of responsible individualism. Between the two poles (total responsibility to the state, or........

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