Emma Jonson 
Sen. Ted Cruz has come to the defense of the toy-making giant Hasbro on Thursday after the company came under fire over a “Monopoly Socialism” game.
The Texas Republican took to Twitter to defend Hasbro after a critique of the game by the corporate went viral on the same social media platform.
Sen. Cruz’s tweet reads, “Why do Left academics so fear pointing out of the manifest failures of socialism?” Cruz also proposed other parody versions of the board game such as a “Venezuela edition,” a “Russia/USSR edition” and an “East Germany edition.”
He further tweeted mockingly saying, “Or we could do the University edition: you imagine a magic money tree; you give everything free to anybody who wants it; nobody works, studies, or innovates; and everybody gets an A!”
The barrage of tweets came after Nick Kapur, a Rutgers history professor and author of a book about the 1960s Japan, sparked a backlash by posting a detailed thread which labeled the board game “mean-spirited and woefully ill-informed.”
Kapur, who bought the game “so you don’t have to,” noted in his Twitter review of sorts that “Spaces on the board include a snarkily named hospital and school because schools are deemed to produce failures and hospitals are only assumed to help some of the people.”
“There are also tons of references to health food and veganism, notwithstanding the lack of any clear connection to socialism, presumably because what they share in common is that they are repulsive things that are a pleasure to ridicule,” he wrote.
“It’s also vital to taunt environmentalism because, haha, as we all know environmentalism is ridiculous and amusing,” he wrote.
“Get ready for laughs as the twists and turns of life put a hindrance on working toward a shared, utopian society. Cooperation isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be,” a description of the game on Target’s website reads.
Hasbro and Target did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The game is not available on Hasbro’s website, though it is listed on Target’s.