"Like all taboos, capitalism as Americas’ last taboo makes Americans have a broken-down relationship with reality. If you’re not a “capitalist”, then you must be a “socialist.” Never mind that those who believe this aren’t capitalists to begin with — they’re just proles who’ve been deluded into believing their self-interest isn’t their own. It’s a bipolar, black-and-white, all-or-nothing fracturing — like all taboos produce. But the truth, is like most people in the world, especially other rich countries, you can be part capitalist and part socialist — and that is what sanity and reason both lead to. You can believe in public healthcare and retirement and maternity leave — and your neighborhood bar and iPhones, my friend. It doesn’t make you Che Guevara by way of Lenin. Yet the flip side of the taboo — never mention capitalism — is that if you do, you must be “a socialist”, someone who believes in totalitarian socialism, socialism for everything, and as we all know, a socialist is a commie is an enemy to be destroyed. The taboo allows Americans no shades of gray — but that is where reality, wisdom, and truth always reside."