Socialism is no longer a scary word

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Tickets to Hamilton on Broadway are hard to get, but recently there was an event in which tickets were near impossible to get.

The first run of tickets to “Capitalism: A Debate” sold out in a day. So the organizers, a pair of magazines with clear ideological affiliations, socialist Jacobin and libertarian Reason, found a larger venue: Cooper Union’s 960-capacity Great Hall, the site of an 1860 antislavery speech by Abraham Lincoln. The event sold out once again, this time in eight hours.

Generally the mainstream news media, and especially anything right-wing, like to portray millennials as stupid kids who don't know any better.
But deep in this article is a clue that shows the kids may be a lot smarter than those who wag their fingers at them.

Chibber argued that the problem with capitalism is the power it has over workers. With the weakening of U.S. labor unions, “we have a complete despotism of the employers,” he said, leading to stagnant wages. When Mangu-Ward countered that Americans aren’t coerced on the job, the crowd erupted in laughter. “Every morning you wake up and you have a decision about whether or not you’re going to go to work,” she insisted, and the audience laughed again.

Not only are the kids smart enough to recognize political dogma when they hear it, but unlike those who dish out the dogma that doesn't resemble reality, they want to hear all sides of the debate.
I find it very refreshing and amusing that the kids can see right through the BS that so many of their elders blindly believe - capitalism and democracy are incompatible.
Which is why you hear the most anti-democracy rhetoric from the capitalists. They want you to believe that night is day and black is white and capitalism is freedom.

Young Americans have soured on capitalism. In a Harvard University poll conducted last year, 51 percent of 18-to-29 year-olds in the U.S. said they opposed capitalism; only 42 percent expressed support. Among Americans of all ages, by contrast, a Gallup survey last year found that 60 percent held positive views of capitalism.

The National Review warns: Socialism’s Rising Popularity Threatens America’s Future

The NY Times asks: Why Are So Many Young Voters Falling for Old Socialists?

TPTB are starting to get nervous.
If history is any guide, there will soon be a false flag attack that will be blamed on "radical socialists", followed by a brutal police crackdown.
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The MSM is right about one thing: socialism is on the rise.

Before the presidential primary season kicked off in 2014, DSA had just 6,000 members and about 30-40 local chapters nationwide. Just after Trump’s inauguration in January 2016, the number of active DSA members had ballooned to 20,000 and has continued to grow at a rapid click.
As of last week, DSA had more than 31,000 members with 145 chapters or committees to form chapters around the country, as well as 57 Young Democratic Socialist (YDSA) groups on high school and college campuses, according to senior DSA officials.
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Pricknick's picture

Marx would be as proud as I am of our youth.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Meteor Man's picture

Free speech for Socialists! Why isn't DSA scheduling Free Speech events at college campuses like that nut job Spencer?

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Meteor Man

Free speech for Socialists! Why isn't DSA scheduling Free Speech events at college campuses like that nut job Spencer?

Probably because DSA can't afford the money. Which, apparently, Spencer can.

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides find an off-campus venue? It looks like they wouldn't have much trouble selling tickets.

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Mary Bennett

thanatokephaloides's picture

Not only are the kids smart enough to recognize political dogma when they hear it, but unlike those who dish out the dogma that doesn't resemble reality, they want to hear all sides of the debate.
I find it very refreshing and amusing that the kids can see right through the BS that so many of their elders blindly believe - capitalism and democracy are incompatible.

The kids are all right, folks!!

capitalism and democracy are incompatible.
Which is why you hear the most anti-democracy rhetoric from the capitalists. They want you to believe that night is day and black is white and capitalism is freedom.

No better example exists of these facts than this passage from the National Review article gjohnsit linked to above:

It is time to play both the short and the long game. Now is the time to speak out and educate all who will hear about the history of this nation and the benefits of traditional values, free markets, and capitalism, which, though not perfect, are better than all the alternatives. Those who love this nation and the ideals of our experiment in liberty must counter the gainsayers in academia and the media or they will soon find that America as “one nation under God” is no more.

Anybody else want to toss his/her cookies after reading this? What "benefits"? "Free markets" do not and cannot exist. "Natura abhorret a vacuo", and unless the democratically elected government imposes regulations, there will still be restrictive rules, the ones imposed by the richest and most powerful participants in the market. And "one nation under" the God of the Puritan Calvinist Protestant "Christians"? No, thank you!

Bad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Cassiodorus's picture

are both antisocialist and anti-millennial.

Maybe I'll go on speaking tour after my book comes out. It'll be fun!

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

The Aspie Corner's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgJlsBCmrUA]

And given that it's now at an end stage, capitalism is eating away at itself, at least in 'Murica.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

mimi's picture

have no clue what old-style socialism and communism was all about. So they aren't sensitive to the "Socialism" scare tactics of the elder generation.

But they are very sensitive to unfairness, inequality, injustice and all those things that matter in any person's life, and if you throw a label on that it is rather irrelevant to them.

That's why they are the new hopeful change-makers. Thank God not everybody has given up to make some kids. As is proven, we need them. Wink

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Lily O Lady's picture

Democratic socialism can work as in Europe. I can’t see fascism working out of the 99%.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

"Does the US need to move beyond Capitalism?"
In talking to millenials I get a nearly 100% positive, but this is just my unscientific sampling. I suspect that this is real though, and that millenials are open to change as they are living in a dysfunctional America, especially from their perspective, and I don't need to go into the details, y'all know them well. I'd suggest that you imagine standing in their shoes and looking around as to the issues of debt, cost of living, diminished opportunity and a global climate going into crisis in their lifetimes. Ugh!

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

ewmorr's picture

I joined the DSA a couple of months ago, and we're trying to get an official chapter organized in our small-ish college town. The DSA seems to hold positions similar to the old Democratic wing of the Democratic party. I'm not sure at this point how much change we can bring to area politics, but I sure feel newly inspired to give it a try. I'll give quite a bit of credit to Bernie Sanders for this re-awakening of interest in socialism.

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"I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will" - Antonio Gramsci

promised prosperity for everyone willing to work.

The prosperity has vanished and the promise revealed to be a lie.

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Mary Bennett

WoodsDweller's picture

@Nastarana
still works for capitalists, but there aren't any crumbs left for labor - that part never worked well and now it is failing completely.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Nastarana

Capitalism, the much vaunted Free Enterprise System promised prosperity for everyone willing to work.

The prosperity has vanished and the promise revealed to be a lie.

That's because "free enterprise" and capitalism are different things.

Free enterprise means that anybody can start any lawful business they choose. Capitalism is the ownership of the economy by money-lenders.

Capitalism is what free enterprise deteriorates into, as the first thing capital owners do when capitalism takes over is to protect their enterprises from competition. At that point, the prosperity vanishes and the vaunted promise becomes the lie it is now.

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Amanda Matthews's picture

on the bucks of workers of today and do not want to end up like that. Go figure.

TPTB own you off work or at work. They monitor social media. They have you investigated and pull your credit for minimum wage jobs They began this whole mess by making everyone piss in a cup even for a job stocking shelves at a grocery store. The parasite class are of the opinion (and rightfully so because we stand for it) that they own us body and soul no matter where we are and what we’re doing.

And all these fuckwits clapping and cheering at people being fired because of something stupid they said on Fakebook just best watch out. They’re turn just might be next. Someone like a rogue cop full of rage and hate for minorities should be fired. But taking away a person’s right to earn a living because they said something disgusting and mean or in anger is a pretty slippery damn slope there folks.

It’s about time the parasite class gets nervous.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Daenerys's picture

and the vast majority of users on Tumblr are millennials and younger, I have hope. The vast majority are anti-capitalist, want socialized health care, reasonable gun control, and social justice for our LGBQTA+ friends. They are sick of taking abuse from customers and employers alike and getting paid peanuts (hell, packing peanuts!). They have no money and mostly live at home or with other people. Many of them have anxiety so bad as to interfere with their ability to work. We see how things are in other countries. Look at the response to Bernie's campaign. We know what's going on and how we're getting screwed over.

After I graduated college I looked at Suze Orman's book Young, Fabulous and Broke. What a waste of time. She talks about how even if you're young you should start saving for retirement OMG RIGHT NOW!!! Save 10% of your income no matter how much (or little) you make!! Which completely misses the point; if there's nothing left over after rent and bills there's nothing TO save. Period. And things have only gotten worse.

We are the ones we've been waiting for. I just hope we don't all become bitter and cynical and support the status quo as we get older because "that's how things are and have always been". A civilized society cannot survive without some form of socialism.

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This shit is bananas.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Daenerys

After I graduated college I looked at Suze Orman's book Young, Fabulous and Broke. What a waste of time. She talks about how even if you're young you should start saving for retirement OMG RIGHT NOW!!! Save 10% of your income no matter how much (or little) you make!! Which completely misses the point; if there's nothing left over after rent and bills there's nothing TO save. Period. And things have only gotten worse.

Thank you for recognizing how futile Suze Orman can be for most working class people!

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides