This is a revised and expanded version of a message I wrote to a friend who politically identifies as a libertarian (or "classical liberal" if you're a stickler to traditional political theory terminology) and an anarcho-capitalist.

1. This is a revised and expanded version of a message I wrote to a friend who politically identifies
as a libertarian (or "classical liberal" if you're a stickler to traditional political theory
terminology) and an anarcho-capitalist:
According to your note, the wealthy love and fund socialism. Thus, according to you, I’m
mistaken about associating the wealthy people and corporations with capitalism. In fact, you
write that I should associate the wealthy and “big business” with socialism. You also write:
“Rich and poor people (two-tier society) will always exist in all systems”. Well, no doubt those
two tiers also apply to capitalism, feudalism, and other modes of production. Not just socialism.
Nevertheless, you write: “[…] the hallmark of a good system is one that maximizes freedoms
and opportunities for independent living”. Knowing your politics, I wouldn’t and shouldn’t be
surprised to find that this ideal, beneficial, even halcyon, system is capitalism. Or at least your
vision of “capitalism.” Please note my use of the term “halcyon”, because you’re referring to a
period of capitalism, or rather the transition from feudalism to capitalism, which no longer exists.
Also, notice that I used quote marks the second time I mentioned capitalism in this paragraph.
That’s because I don’t think you realize capitalism doesn’t “maximize freedoms”, much less
“opportunities for independent living”. Under capitalism, most people work for wages and
salaries because they have no other way to support themselves. That’s anything but “maximized
freedom” and “independent living”.
You bluntly conclude: “I don't think you fully appreciate the freedoms you have in the United
States”.
I'll have to discuss the distinctions between capitalism and socialism in a later message. Suffice it
to say, though, I actually think capitalism, classical liberalism, classical republicanism, and the
nation-state system were all, broadly speaking, "progressive" in a longer-view, bourgeois-
democratic sense--destruction, weakening, and/or replacement of feudalism, dynasties, lords and
vassals, aristocracies, monarchies, etc. Just think of the French Revolution and the 1848
European uprisings.
That said, I can still at least, in that same bourgeois-democratic revolutionary sense, appreciate
the rights and freedoms U.S.-American citizens have. More so than you may think.
Here's why: Kyle Kulinski and Christopher Hitchens, both of whose politics are to the right of
mine, correctly note that aspects of the U.S. Constitution and/or Declaration of Independence
reflect the (again, bourgeois-democratic revolutionary and also Enlightenment-era) emancipatory
aspects that existed, albeit suppressed and/or distorted, in this nation-state's legal foundations....
and origins. In a similar sense, Nat Hentoff, a onetime left-liberal turned full-fledged reactionary,
had a not-illegitimate point about being a "free speech" absolutist who's also a stickler to the
First Amendment. I write this, by the way, while strongly disagreeing with Hentoff about
abortion rights, affirmative action, LGBTIQ rights, and the Iraqi war.

2. I also think this country came close to fulfilling its founding promises after defeating the
Confederacy, implementing the Reconstruction, and witnessing the civil rights era. It certainly
helped during the Second World War’s European theatre even though, let's be honest, the Soviet
Union did most of the actual fighting.
Please note: I'm willing to write the above while still being upfront about the US government's
support for assorted right-wing military dictatorships, religious fundamentalists, and far-right
paramilitary forces throughout the world. Augusto Pinochet's Chile, the Afghan mujahideen, and
the Nicaraguan contras are egregious examples. I can just as well mention the US military's
napalm bombardments of the northern part of the Korean peninsula during the early 1950s (more
colloquially known as the Korean War): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba3dgDUtE9A
Not to mention the Phoenix Program and Agent Orange in Vietnam.
Henry Kissinger, furthermore, is still at
large: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxe4XomNEpc
If I didn't truly appreciate civil liberties and civil rights in this country, I wouldn't be so critical.
It's precisely out of respect for such values, in truth universal ones stemming from the
Enlightenment, that I'm willing to speak and act out.
So much for now.
Stephen Cheng
(revised text based on a message originally written and sent on July 14, 2020)