Dinesh D'Souza Quote
One of the central claims of modern progressivism, that wealth is created not by entrepreneurs and workers but rather by society, and therefore the proceeds can be allocated by the state according to its perceived benefits to society. Of course, if the premise is not true, then the conclusion doesn’t follow, and the progressive redistributive project is built on a fallacy. Therefore progressives like Obama are very keen to inform entrepreneurs, You didn’t build that. Obama’s explicit claim is that society did it and the implicit suggestion is that society could have done it without you. Interestingly there is a confinement center corollary to the idea that society did it. It is the idea, sometimes heard among the criminal class, that society did it to me. Or, to put it a bit differently, society made me do it. These two ideas—attributing wealth creation or criminal behavior to society in general—seem to be based on the undeniable truth that the outcomes of our actions depend on many factors outside ourselves. Society becomes a stand-in for the innumerable, sometimes untraceable influences that contribute to our choices and the results of those choices. The two ideas have something else in common: they both subtract from the idea of personal responsibility. In one case the businessman or entrepreneur doesn’t get the credit; in the other the criminal or wrongdoer doesn’t take the blame. A closer look can help us see the dangers inherent in granting to society outcomes that would never have occurred without specific individuals freely undertaking specific courses of action.
One of the central claims of modern progressivism, that wealth is created not by entrepreneurs and workers but rather by society, and therefore the proceeds can be allocated by the state according to its perceived benefits to society. Of course, if the premise is not true, then the conclusion doesn’t follow, and the progressive redistributive project is built on a fallacy. Therefore progressives like Obama are very keen to inform entrepreneurs, You didn’t build that. Obama’s explicit claim is that society did it and the implicit suggestion is that society could have done it without you. Interestingly there is a confinement center corollary to the idea that society did it. It is the idea, sometimes heard among the criminal class, that society did it to me. Or, to put it a bit differently, society made me do it. These two ideas—attributing wealth creation or criminal behavior to society in general—seem to be based on the undeniable truth that the outcomes of our actions depend on many factors outside ourselves. Society becomes a stand-in for the innumerable, sometimes untraceable influences that contribute to our choices and the results of those choices. The two ideas have something else in common: they both subtract from the idea of personal responsibility. In one case the businessman or entrepreneur doesn’t get the credit; in the other the criminal or wrongdoer doesn’t take the blame. A closer look can help us see the dangers inherent in granting to society outcomes that would never have occurred without specific individuals freely undertaking specific courses of action.
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About Dinesh D'Souza
Born in Mumbai, D'Souza moved to the United States as an exchange student and graduated from Dartmouth College. He was a policy adviser in the administration of President Ronald Reagan and has been affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution. He became a naturalized citizen in 1991. From 2010 to 2012, he was president of The King's College, a Christian school in New York City, until he resigned after an alleged adultery scandal.
In 2012, D'Souza released the documentary film 2016: Obama's America, an anti-Barack Obama polemic based on his 2010 book The Roots of Obama's Rage; it earned $33 million, making it the highest-grossing conservative documentary of all time and one of the highest-grossing documentaries of any kind. He has since released five other documentary films: America: Imagine the World Without Her (2014), Hillary's America (2016), Death of a Nation (2018), Trump Card (2020) and 2000 Mules (2022). D'Souza's films and commentary have generated considerable controversy due to their promotion of conspiracy theories and falsehoods, as well as for their incendiary nature.
In 2012, D'Souza contributed $10,000 to the Senate campaign of Wendy Long on behalf of himself and his wife, agreeing in writing to attribute that contribution as $5,000 from his wife and $5,000 from him. He directed two other people to give Long a total of $20,000 in addition, which he agreed to reimburse, and later did. At the time, the Election Act limited campaign contributions to $5,000 from any individual to any one candidate. Two years later, D'Souza pleaded guilty in federal court to one felony charge of using a "straw donor" to make the illegal campaign contribution. He was sentenced to eight months in a halfway house near his home in San Diego, five years' probation, and a $30,000 fine. In 2018, D'Souza was issued a pardon by President Donald Trump.