498: Bill Whittle—Communism for Dummies

**Mike Rowe** (0:04)
Hey, guys, this is The Way I Heard It. My guest today is Bill Whittle. If you're a long time listener, you've heard Bill on here before.
He's a historian. I don't know exactly what his qualifications are in the traditional sense of being an historian. I just don't know anybody, Chuck, who's better read and more well-versed and more committed to understanding our history and in particular, Russian history, sidebar communism, comma socialism. And since these things are in the headlines today, like never before, and since I just kind of blew up last week on the social media's writing about it, I thought we might introduce a little segment called Communism for Dummies. I like it. That has turned into a whole episode.

**Chuck** (0:49)
Yes, yes it has.

**Mike Rowe** (0:50)
And boy, oh boy, Bill feels deeply.

**Chuck** (0:53)
He does, he really does. And he's got a lot to say. This is a guy who produced and starred in a series called...

**Mike Rowe** (1:03)
Empire of Terror.

**Chuck** (1:05)
Thank you.

**Mike Rowe** (1:06)
You're welcome.

**Chuck** (1:06)
Empire of Terror. I saw it. It's crazy. You just won't believe all of this. I highly recommend it because you won't believe how cruel and inhuman people can be to one another.

**Mike Rowe** (1:18)
Well, I currently am having a hard time believing how the word communist can exist in 2026 as anything other than a profound pejorative, an insult.

**Chuck** (1:32)
Yeah. It should be right up there with Nazi.

**Mike Rowe** (1:34)
Absolutely. But it's not.
It's not the DSA right now, just by way of backstory and maybe it's too much information, but I shared a clip that Bill Maher put up a week or so ago, where he shared lots and lots of quotes from members of the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America, who were self-proclaimed communists, who were talking about the need to elect more communists. And it just seems like socialism and communism are both on the march. This is an uncharacteristically political episode, but it's not really coming from a political place, for me anyway. It's just coming from a sudden realization that I think K-12 has failed in so many ways, but I think we have a lot of people, decent people, our fellow citizens and our neighbors, who just truly don't have any historical reference.

**Chuck** (2:34)
Yeah, and communism sounds real good on paper. Socialism sounds really good on paper. It just never works. And socialism always leads to communism.

**Mike Rowe** (2:44)
Well, you know, reasonable people spend a lot of time arguing about that very thing. I don't know the truth of it.
I just know that in general, communism has never ever worked anywhere.

**Chuck** (2:59)
Correct.

**Mike Rowe** (3:00)
It's never been realized anywhere.
And its defenders often say that, well, then how can you condemn it if it's never been fully realized in its utopian form, the way it's supposed to be? It's this thing that just keeps calling people back to give it another shot.

**Chuck** (3:20)
Because we're not robots is the answer to that question, because we're humans who have free will and who are petty and are greedy.

**Mike Rowe** (3:27)
Yeah.
Well, we have ourselves a pretty interesting national moment, I think. And it's an opportunity, I believe, for enlightenment, or at least a conversation.

**Chuck** (3:39)
I get it.

**Mike Rowe** (3:40)
Nobody wants a lecture. Nobody wants a sermon. But we need to start talking about the reality of what these ideologies have meant historically and what they could mean again.
And look, as I said in my post, which, by the way, not that anybody cares, but this thing's been shared hundreds of thousands of times. It's a topic. It's in the headlines. Yeah. People are truly talking about it. And people are getting elected. And people in positions of power are literally tweeting things, like, elect more communists.
So I thought we ought to have a conversation. And Bill Whittle starts, as he always does, but things get heated. And he cares deeply. And I do too. And I hope you will as well. We're calling it Communism for Dummies with Great Respect to Everyone, really. But you know the title of that series. And if there was ever time for a compendium, a helpful guide, perhaps it's now. And perhaps Bill Whittle can help us in our journey toward enlightenment right after this.
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