The incoherence of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her ignorance of basic economics is well known by now. But this example from her appearance at SWSX might top everything she's said to date.

AOC was asked a question from the audience about the threat of automation. It's a serious matter as up to 10% of the workforce could be replaced in the next 15 years by automated systems.

But the democratic socialist actually embraced the idea of robots replacing humans.

The Verge:

 During a talk at SXSW, an audience member asked Ocasio-Cortez about the threat of automated labor. “We should not be haunted by the specter of being automated out of work,” she said in response. “We should be excited by that. But the reason we’re not excited by it is because we live in a society where if you don’t have a job, you are left to die. And that is, at its core, our problem.”

Are the unemployed really "left to die"? In AOC's worldview, where people are incapable of taking care of themselves and actually, like, you know, going out to find another job, I have no doubt this is true. But in the real world - wtf is she talking about?

“We should be excited about automation, because what it could potentially mean is more time educating ourselves, more time creating art, more time investing in and investigating the sciences, more time focused on invention, more time going to space, more time enjoying the world that we live in,” she said. “Because not all creativity needs to be bonded by wage.”

I listened to stoned out, tripping hippies in the 1970s who sounded just like that. That's the world of "free love," and where everyone will feed you for nothing because, well, free love. And no war because of free love, and no profit because profit is evil and you don't need profit because of free love.

It's actually close to the Star Trek philosophy where money isn't necessary and people devote their time to improving themselves and humanity.

Beam me up, Sandy.

But where in the name of all that is good and holy does she think all that money for all those beautiful things will come from? Sheesh.

In truth, the only reason for a company to replace humans with robots is to increase profit. Corporations will not automate so that it will free people to have more time to do all those nice things that AOC is excited to think about. They will automate because everyone else will be automating and getting rid of human workers will pay huge dividends to a company's bottom line.

But...but...but...I thought AOC said profit was bad.

"Capitalism is an ideology of capital — the most important thing is the concentration of capital and to seek and maximize profit," she said during an interview at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, according to Bloomberg News.

"To me, capitalism is irredeemable," she added, arguing that capitalism's goals come at a cost to people and the environment, Bloomberg reported.

So, maximizing profit is bad but automation - that will maximize profit - is good.

Welcome to the wild and wacky world of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.