Bernie Sanders Agrees Americans Are Brainwashed into Believing in Capitalism

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) addresses an audience on the
Sara D. Davis/Getty Images
Hannah Knudsen

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) held a campaign event in Decorah, Iowa, on Monday and agreed with a woman who suggested that Americans are brainwashed into embracing the traditional American dream and capitalism, telling the crowd that she is “exactly right.”

Sanders held an event in the Luther College gymnasium and took a remark from an attendee, who suggested that Americans are brainwashed into believing in the American dream and capitalism.

“I think that the kind of brainwashing – the idea at least that I grew up with – is that our definition of success is like the American dream and great capitalism,” she said.

“You’re rewarded for getting everything and just keeping it to yourself and not worrying about everybody else,” she continued.

“That’s sort of like the psychology that we’ve all been taught. Well, not everyone, but a lot of people have been taught that that’s the American way, so I think that has something to do with it,” she added.

Sanders did not push back, adamantly agreeing with the attendee and calling her remarks “exactly right.”

“It’s a profound point,” the socialist senator added.

On Tuesday, Sanders unveiled a massive redistribution scheme in the form of an “extreme wealth tax,” which would tax the wealthy on their assets, starting with a one percent tax on couples with a net worth over $32 million:

The tax rate would increase to 2 percent on net worth from $50 to $250 million, 3 percent from $250 to $500 million, 4 percent from $500 million to $1 billion, 5 percent from $1 to $2.5 billion, 6 percent from $2.5 to $5 billion, 7 percent from $5 to $10 billion, and 8 percent on wealth over $10 billion.

Sanders openly expressed his desire to diminish the wealth of the rich, noting that billionaires “would be cut in half over 15 years” and lamenting their existence in a tweet which read, “Billionaires should not exist”:

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