Grant Babcock asks the question at libertarianism.org in Do Socialists Mean Well?.
Because fascists have evil ends in mind, their malevolence is obvious. For socialists however, their ill intent is more insidious.
In discussions of illiberal ideologies, socialists are frequently praised for being at least well-intentioned, if naive or ignorant—unlike fascists, who mean to cause harm to certain groups of people. While it goes without saying that fascists have bad intentions, the comparison sets the bar too low for socialists. Conceding that socialists mean well gives them too much credit.
He goes on to explain that the evil in socialism is that it gives government too much power over the individual. He doesn't use the cliche that power corrupts. But that's the whole point of the article.
Those of us who grew up in an earlier era are already afraid of the current trend toward socialistism. So articles like this serve as bias confirmation. But that's not a bad thing when your biases are right to begin with.
As for whether socialists mean well, the question is still out there. Some of them probably do. But they probably think it will serve the downtrodden, and most likely themselves. Unfortunately, the people who actually gain from socialism are the people in power. Everyone else ultimately has to pay for it.
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2:39 PM 9/26/2018
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