The consistently shallow spectacle of American politics provided a rare teachable moment last week when a Newsweek headline read, “Socialist Bernie Sanders Wears a $700 Jacket While Complaining About Rich People.” The article (hit piece) in question bemoaned Sanders’ alleged hypocrisy in a simple-minded, uninformed polemic, which included a few quotes from Sanders regarding economic issues, then topped things off with a mention of the summer home he and his wife recently purchased. Unsurprisingly, the piece omitted some noteworthy context: The jacket was a gift from Sanders’ son, and was made by a company located in Vermont (Bernie’s home state).

This incident was merely a drop in the bucket of Bernie Sanders smears by the mainstream corporate news media, but it was also a chance for leftists to engage in critical dialogue regarding a common misconception about socialism: the notion that people apparently shouldn’t have nice things.

Daniel Marans of Huffington Post offered a fine rebuttal of the aforementioned Newsweek ad hominem attack, in which he included the opinions of actual socialists. For instance, associate editor of Jacobin magazine Micah Uetricht opined, “There is this idea that some people seem to have that socialists believe we should all be walking around wearing burlap sacks. That’s not true. Everyone deserves to be wearing a nice coat like Bernie Sanders.”

An article in Current Affairs elucidates this concept further: