Actually socialism is more popular now than ever. Enough that mainstream media constantly writes scare articles about how socialist the young generations are.
“Socialism” in the form of government regulations and healthcare is popular. Not so much Marxism or proleterian revolution
I think you’re seriously underestimating what most young socialists believe. It is true that they don’t believe in revolution, but many of them change when they grow older and they lose faith in the system. I’m confident that will keep happening.
I’m a millennial communist - though in any practical sense, I’m socialist. I’ve got very little faith in the system beyond it’s ability to act on its self-interest, but (as much as I’d like to believe otherwise) I believe revolution isn’t a sustainable way to bring about the change we want.
Revolution before we put in the groundwork to level wealth inequality will inevitably lead to power imbalance, and a likely collapse into autocracy. On the negative side, we see the likes of China and the USSR - massive death, famine, corruption, and a failure to deliver on the promise of worker enfranchisement. The most positive example I can think of is Cuba.
I want revolution to be a practical path forward - it brings the change we need quickly when we don’t have the time to wait and incremental transition will be all but impossible at this point, but I’d need to be convinced it won’t almost certainly lead to a worse state. What would be different about this revolution that would see it go right (or what examples am I missing?)
Socialism isn’t, but “SociALiSm” is.
Taxing people and providing social services is not Socialism. It’s capitalism and good governance.
No, an average person in the DSA believes in wayy more than any regular social democrat. I agree that they’re not radical enough, but they’re an enormous organization of people against the status quo and so many of them genuinely care, so it’s no surprise that a huge part of current radicals are ex-DSA members.
The DSA is not a significant political force, much less the people that radicalize out of the DSA.
In August 2023, the organization claimed 77,575 members.[1] According to the finance data for the 2021 DSA convention, the organization collected $4.6 million in membership dues in 2020.[157] The DSA allows membership dues waivers for members who “may be experiencing financial problems right now”.[158]
DSA membership in 2023 declined from 2021, when membership peaked at around 95,000 members
Even at their peak, 100k people is not a significant political force, nor what I would call an “enormous organization.”
