The SLU chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) hosted a “What Is Socialism?” meeting on Wednesday evening, led by chapter president Marianna Fulks.
According to Fulks, the event was held because “it is a part of Turning Point USA’s mission to educate” and because “one of our main things is against socialism.” She said collectively, TPUSA chapters are anti-socialist, and most members share that stance.
The presentation aimed to define and compare socialism, capitalism and communism through a visual graph outlining the history of each system, how it was intended to function in society, as well as examples of its implementation.
During the presentation, Fulks identified what she described as major concerns with socialism, including child labor and restrictions on religion. A video featuring North Korean defector Yeonmi Park was shown, in which she described her experiences living under the North Korean regime and the challenges she faced before escaping in 2007.
In the video, Park said, “Socialism goes against human nature,” and argued that under socialism, there is no “incentive” to work, which she said leads people to become unmotivated.
Fulks also compared South Korea and North Korea, describing South Korea as having “one of the most flourishing economies in the world,” while North Korea faces “severe human rights issues.”
The meeting included a question-and-answer portion. Graduate student Thomas Nealsson asked how Fulks would respond to the claim that socialism has not “had the chance to be practiced within the real world because of American imperial interference.”
Fulks acknowledged U.S. involvement in conflicts such as the Korean and Vietnam wars but argued the United States did not interfere in countries like Cuba and Venezuela, adding that if America had, “they wouldn’t be socialists at all.”
Nealsson also raised questions about whether American capitalism depends on cheap labor from third-world or communist countries. Fulks agreed this was a “huge problem with us heavily relying on China,” especially for products,” due to the fact that “we’re spending a bunch of money on cheap products that have been made by hard labor, where people were not treated very nice.”
As a potential solution, she suggested, “We need to definitely start cutting ties with China in that aspect,” and also placing tariffs on socialist countries like China because “you can place tariffs on things that come from China to try to get them to bring their business to America.”
However, Fulks also said if we were to go through with those actions, it could “potentially risk losing our place on the world stage.” When asked whether Americans would work for the same wages paid to overseas laborers, Fulks maintained that tariffs could help address the imbalance.
