Amanda Seyfried thinks socialism - an ideology responsible for killing over 100 million people globally last century - is a gorgeous idea. She couldn’t be more wrong.
Seyfried, who is promoting her new film “The Testament of Ann Lee” on the founder of the Shaker Movement, told Variety her unique definition of socialism.
“Thank God we’re talking about Ann Lee so much, because there’s a direct relationship to what she created and what we’re lacking,” Seyfried told Variety. “How about we all don’t have any kind of agendas? How about our agenda is take care of each other? Socialism is a gorgeous idea, and I know it doesn’t work perfectly, or that people understand what the word actually means. For me, it’s taking care of each other. If I have more money, I can spend more money on other people.”
The Shaker Movement, strangely enough, received praise from Frederic Engels, pal of Karl Marx, in 1884. He wrote positively of New Lebanon, New York, which he deemed a communist colony:
Another colony of Shakers, New Lebanon in the State of New York, was visited by a second English traveller, by the name of Pitkeithly, in the year 1842. Mr. Pitkeithly most thoroughly inspected the whole town, which numbers some eight hundred inhabitants and owns between seven and eight thousand acres of land; he examined its workshops and factories, its tanneries, sawmills and so on, and declares the whole arrangement to be perfect. He, too, is surprised at the wealth of these people who began with nothing and are now becoming richer with each passing year…
Ms. Seyfried, reportedly worth $16 million, is free to give away her money in a socialist manner. But she’s not immune to criticism for downplaying socialism’s bloody legacy. Does Amanda, a self-described feminist, know what socialism did to women? The majority of women had no agency in the former Soviet Union. They couldn’t own private property, start businesses, or openly practice their faith. Women, like men, had to wait in breadlines and equally experienced food shortages and famines. Just like their male counterparts, women who disagreed with their occupiers were also imprisoned and sent to gulags, often to die.
If Seyfried wants to play empowering female roles, she should lobby to make and star in a movie about women who survived Stalin’s gulags. I recommend adapting Dressed for a Dance in the Snow: Women's Voices from the Gulag by Monika Zgustova into a Hollywood production. I read this book a few years ago and proudly own a copy.
Townhall readers are aware of my grandpa’s imprisonment in one of Stalin’s gulags at the Belomor Canal situated on the Finnish-Russian border. But few know about the plight of women in the gulag. So-called feminists like Amanda Seyfried ought to read this book and reach out to the remaining survivors.
One survivor, Zayara, recounted her arrest in 1949, stating, “I left home dressed as if I were going to a dance.” She was imprisoned in Lubyanka penitentiary and deported to a Siberian camp, where she was subjected to hard labor. “The way you’re going, you won’t earn enough to eat,” a gulag supervisor told her. Another gulag survivor, Ella, was also sentenced to 25 years of hard labor above the Arctic Circle.
What else does Zgustova write about the gulag conditions for women? They were far from gorgeous or glamorous, per this review:
In some camps, women tried, often in vain, to defend their honor. Galya, Zgustova’s youngest interviewee, was not arrested and sent to a camp but rather born and raised in one. Elsewhere, we hear of botched abortions in filthy conditions and babies being separated from their mothers. To escape the predatory advances of her superior, Elena took the drastic measure of asking for a transfer, swapping her relatively comfortable job in a camp clinic for the daily danger and hardship of the mines.
In a recent op-ed I authored with Nicole Kiprilov, daughter of Bulgarian refugees, we urged young Americans not to be duped by democratic or “gorgeous” socialism. We warned, “Given 20th century socialism’s record, Mamdani’s smiley socialist brand won’t succeed. Controlling housing, punishing business owners, redistributing wealth, dismantling law enforcement, and replacing merit with extremist ideology echoes the very system our parents experienced in Bulgaria and Lithuania. Mamdani’s slogans are smoother, but the underlying impulse is the same: the state knows best. What the state giveth, the state equally taketh–including your autonomy and freedom.”
Although Zohran Mamdani’s pop Marxism sounds appealing, it’s still the same socialism that produces horrible outcomes. Americans on the Left - and increasingly the fringe Right - are falling for it. It would be a grave mistake to elevate this ideology in New York City and beyond.
With rising support for socialism and communism among young Americans, it’s imperative to support organizations like the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. VOC’s museum, if you aren’t aware, is located two blocks from the White House. Next time Townhall readers find themselves there, pay the museum a visit. My family entrusted them with my dad's experience with Soviet antisemitism and his recounting of my late grandpa’s imprisonment in one of Stalin’s gulags for their Witness Project video series. There are dozens of video testimonies of survivors that should be shared, too.
Actress Amanda Seyfried has a big platform and can wield influence positively. Yet, her recent comments endorsing socialism are hypocritical and ignorant. It doesn’t reflect well on a millionaire like her. Remember: Socialism isn’t a gorgeous idea; it’s grotesque.
