Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Ben Stein Just Compared Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Hitler and Stalin, and He Has a Bonkers Warning of What Will Come From AOC's Proposals

Ben Stein Just Compared Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Hitler and Stalin, and He Has a Bonkers Warning of What Will Come From AOC's Proposals
Ben Stein appears on Fox Business, January 22, 2019. (MMFA video)

And...there it is.

Since she first won her primary against 10-term incumbent Joseph Crowley, New York Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has became a favored target of the right-wing. In their latest attempt to discredit her, Fox Business guest Ben Stein compared Representative Ocasio-Cortez to several genocidal dictators.

For those who only know Stein as a game show host or actor, he was also President Richard Nixon's speech writer.


In his remarks to Fox News, Stein said:

"We have a society in which there are an awful lot of people who have no idea that Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tse-Tung (Mao Zedong) all came to power promising the same kinds of things that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is promising. And it led to mass murder, it led to dictatorship, it led to genocide."

"These promises are old promises and they invariably lead to bad things. The promise of just saying to the people do what you can within the law to make your life better and your family's life better — that system works extremely well."

"Capitalism is a system that allows people to make something of themselves instead of oppressing other people. It's an incredibly good system."

"Making money is one of the most of harmless things there is to do in the whole world. And that's what our society is about."

"It's not about ordering people around, putting them concentration camps. What do you do if there is a richer or poorer person?"

"What do you do? Do you take him away? Do you shoot him?"

"Well that's what the Communists tried, it didn't work out very well for them. And at the end of the day we ended up with Russia with one of the most of unequal societies there's ever been in the world."

"In Vietnam, which promised all these things, and we wind up with one of the most of corrupt countries in the world. In Venezuela, I don't know how corrupt it is but people say it's one of the most corrupt countries in the world."

"We don't wind up with the promises people made."

Media Matters For America (MMFA) shared Stein's remarks on social media. Watch it here.

MMFA monitors print and online media and at least 150 hours of television and radio each week, providing fact checking as well as the lowlights and highlights. Comparing the New York Representative to genocidal dictators because of her conservative tax proposal—which would have far less impact than the tax brackets of the 1950s-1980s—was a lowlight.

People thought perhaps an adviser to President Nixon was not the best person to preach morality in the first place.

Ben Stein's own past featured in many of the reactions to his comments.

People also shared the tax rates of different Presidents, including Stein's boss. Did he also tell Nixon, he was just like Hitler, Stalin and Mao?

Many questioned Stein's knowledge of history.

While some merely questioned Stein's relevance now that he traded in spokesman for a president who resigned in disgrace for game show host of Win Ben Stein's Money.

Others refuted Stein's words.

While many noted how scared conservatives appear to be of Ocasio-Cortez.

Ocasio-Cortez suggested a higher tax rate, a throwback to the tax rates President Ronald Reagan eliminated in the 1980s, but only for those earning over $10 million.

More from People/alexandria-ocasio-cortez

JD Vance; Jen Psaki
Johannes Simon/Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Vance Gets Brutal Reminder After Accusing Jen Psaki Of 'Attacking' People For Praying Following School Shooting

Vice President JD Vance was criticized after he lashed out at MSNBC host Jen Psaki for saying that "prayer is not freaking enough" to end school shootings after a shooter killed two children and wounded 17 others during the first week of classes at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.

Psaki spoke out on X shortly after the shooting occured, to stress that "thoughts and prayers" don't actually address or prevent mass shootings and gun violence overall:

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @andydouglas.trumpboy's TikTok video; President Donald Trump
@andydouglas.trumpboy/TikTok; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Video Of Little Boy Sobbing After Finding Out Trump Is A Real Person Goes Viral—And We Totally Get It

Whether it was Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, or some other important facet of childhood, most of us found out when we were kids that something we loved did not exist, and it was absolutely devastating and world-changing.

But imagine there being something that you deeply disliked or feared, only for you to find out that it actually exists on the same plane and in the same timeline as you.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @originalsugarphly's TikTok video
@originalsugarphly/TikTok

Woman Stunned After Best Friend Of 23 Years Ends Friendship Over Her 'Mom Shorts'

We will all have friends who come into our lives for a reason, for a season, or for a lifetime. There are those situational friendships, like from work or school, that dissolve when we exit that space, and there are friendships that might form from knowing the same people.

Then there are those tried-and-true friendships that we think will truly stand the test of time—but even those sometimes fracture under pressure. And sometimes for the most ridiculous reasons.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @nurse_xtina129's TikTok
@nurse_xtina129/TikTok

Woman Sparks Debate By Putting Out Small Fire At Dunkin' Donuts After Workers Ignored It

Imagine hitting that afternoon slump and seeking out your favorite caffeinated beverage: a highlight in an otherwise dumpster fire kind of day. But then you arrive at your coffeehouse of choice—and there's literally a fire.

TikToker Cristina Conklin was waiting in line for a beverage at Dunkin' Donuts in Warwick, New York, when she became either a villain or a hero, depending on who was watching her TikTok video.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from David Dickson's TikTok videos
@new.beginnings639/TikTok

56-Year-Old Man Leaves The Internet In Shock After Showing Off His Mexican Facelift

Between constant conversations about generations not looking their age, and a resurgence of "skinnytok" and "beautytok," there's this renewed pressure for everyone to look their best, for them to refresh their look, and most importantly, to look a decade younger than they actually are.

Stories have been circulating about Americans going to Mexico, specifically Guadalajara, in search of quality and affordable plastic surgery to give them a fresh look, but patients are walking away looking much younger than you might expect.

Keep ReadingShow less