“Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it”

Simplified Meaning:

The quote is suggesting that socialism, as an idea, has not worked well in practice. The results of trying to implement socialism have often been very bad or unsuccessful. Despite this, some highly educated people still choose to overlook these failures and continue to support it. For example, there have been countries where socialism led to economic problems and shortages of basic goods. Yet, some intellectuals, who are often those with more education and theoretical knowledge, might still believe in the ideas of socialism, ignoring the evidence from these real-world examples. It’s like if a chef keeps making a recipe that always turns out badly, but a food critic with no practical cooking experience still insists that the recipe is great just because it looks good on paper. The advice here is to pay attention to practical results rather than just theoretical ideas, especially when making decisions about economic or social policies.