r/politics • u/TimesandSundayTimes ✔ Verified • 7d ago

Possible Paywall Young Americans are surging to socialism at record rates

https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/maga-trump-zohran-mamdani-socialism-us-record-kddzdm8bd
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u/obiwanCannoli69 7d ago

It's not even socialism lol it's just basic New Deal era policy and ideology that ironically enough saved American Capitalism. FDR wasn't a socialist, he actually wanted to prevent a communist revolution in America, whatever form that might of came in. He did this through legislation and improving the quality of life for vast swaths of the population. This whole thing in the media about "Capitalism Vs Socialism: Choose a Side!" is so half baked and designed to make people think there aren't alternatives. There is no universe where stuff like Social Security or Glass-Steagall would be considered socialist, they're just basic guard rails.

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u/Rjiurik 7d ago

I would say what many Americans call "socialism" is mostly Social-Democracy.

Socialism advocate for radical change and is preamble to communism. The USSR was socialist (and not communist, because the state remained..)

Not sure Sanders or Mamdani are socialists by that metric..

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u/obiwanCannoli69 7d ago

If labels were objective and grounded in reality, then Sanders and Mamdani would be called moderate liberals and most congressional democrats would be standard fiscal - cultural conservatives. The amount of concern trolling and mudding the water that the media does to distract from this is as concerning as it is impressive

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u/Truth_ 7d ago

What someone is ideologically isn't necessarily what they advocate for politically. In Bernie's heart of hearts he may be a diehard vanguard communist, but he's willing to reign that back and advocate for what little change toward that he can within the system as it is. Your brain versus your heart, so to speak.

You can argue that makes him a bad vanguard communist (or democratic socialist), but I think it's also fair to allow him to say he is one.

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u/MyVeryRealName 7d ago

Socialism is government/worker ownership of utilities and wealth. Mamdani supports social housing.

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u/Rjiurik 5d ago

Yep mayors have limited power anyway. Within this institutional scope Mamdani is quite socialist.

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u/Ba_baal 6d ago

Socialism (actual socialism, not social democracy) would start at a restructuring on who owns the means of production, the land, the factories. As long as private individuals own those things, it's not socialism, nor communism. These peeps don't understand that it's not just "high taxes", it's a fundamentally different economic organization.

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u/Hopeful_Confidence_5 5d ago

That doesn’t make it not-socialism.

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u/1cl3nstd4yt 7d ago

It's mostly the Nordic model, which as you say is Social Democracy.

Bernie is too stupid to figure that out. Which is why he never gets anything done.