State operated energy grids are not "communism"

I'm sure we've all seen or heard some deluded idiot shouting about how the Labour plan to renationalise the UK's national grid is some kind of evil communist plot haven't we?

One of the things that makes this accusation so insane is that there are dozens of countries in the world with publicly operated national electricity distribution networks.

If public ownership of the electricity distribution network is an identifier of communism, then countries like Denmark, France, Finland, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden are all communist countries. Even various states and regions of the United States are a bunch of communists too.

Surely it's time for people to accept that they're guilty of mindlessly spewing toxic political diarrhea if their definition of "communism" is so dysfunctional that it defines Texas as a communist state because their electricity transmission grid is run as a not-for-profit entity which is accountable to the Texas legislature?

Amazingly the worst of it isn't even the fact that these idiotic right-wing ranters are using a definition of communism that is so warped that even the reddest of red states in the US is guilty of communism. The worst of it is so unbelievably backwards that even a political satirist would think it way too far fetched.

As a result of the Tory privatisation in 1990, and subsequent sales and sell-offs, one of the biggest stakeholders in the UK's national electricity transmission grid is now the Chinese state (through their CIC sovereign wealth fund)!

So anyone accusing Corbyn of "communism" for wanting to renationalise the national grid so that it can be used for the benefit of the British people and the British economy, is actually arguing that taking control of our public infrastructure out of the hands of the Chinese communists is some kind of evil communist plot!

The fact that so many people are parroting this kind of extreme-right propaganda nonsense about Corbyn's plan for the energy market just goes to show how easily programmed people are, and how irrelevant facts have become in modern political discourse.

If you tell them that Jeremy Corbyn's public ownership policy is "communism" they'll shriek and wail until they're blue in the face in favour of keeping things the way they are, and allowing the Chinese state to continue to own a significant stake in the UK energy distribution network!

It's both fascinating and terrifying how stupid people can be.

It's fascinating that these political sleepwalkers can be convinced to support foreign communists actually owning UK infrastructure simply by telling them that opposition to communist ownership is ... err ... communism!

It's terrifying because these deluded idiots are going to flock to the polls in their millions to vote for the Tories, and enable them to continue flogging off our public assets at bargain basement prices, to literally anyone who wants to buy them, including communist China.

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