When US opinionmakers talk about people dying from government policies in communist regimes, those deaths are always attributed to the evils of communism. But when Americans die from government policies (or lack thereof), the pundits never attribute their deaths to capitalism.

When you make this point, someone will inevitably criticize you for whitewashing Stalinism or whatever. But what do we call the 60,000 Americans who die annually from lack of health care if not a Great Purge of our own? To what ideology do we credit the lead water pipes in Flint?

There is a conscious effort to pin the deadliness of US capitalism on corrupt individuals only, maybe on a greedy industry here or there (never on the capitalist model at large). Meanwhile, every death in a communist state is “proof” of the despotic evils of the system.

In socialism, death in jail is the result of tyrannical malice. In capitalism, death in jail is the tragic case of a potential millionaire gone wrong. That’s the depth of the propaganda they would have you believe. Socialism kills you on purpose, capitalism kills you on accident.

Let’s lift the blinders and try to think clearly. We attribute death by communist state policy to communism. OK, let’s do the same with capitalism. Because US government polocy is killing vast swaths of our country (and of humankind around the world) right now, as we speak.

An estimated 65,000 Americans die every year from lack of health care. Our government could end that purge now, but capitalists won’t let them.

Our wars have killed countless millions. Our government could issue a ceasefire now, but capitalists won’t let them.

Etc.