Since 2016, calling yourself a “democratic socialist” has been the fashionable thing for young progressives to do.
The trend kicked off with the presidential run of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who won the hearts and minds of millennials all over America by promising to make college free and make student debt disappear into thin air. To be fair, the campaign caught a lot of traction, only to be derailed by neo-liberal elites who supported Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s nomination.
But, the fascination with this supposedly friendly kind of socialism — which we are told is distinct from the Soviet philosophy used to justify throwing millions of dissidents into Siberian gulags — is back. But, is it really a new philosophy?
If we’re taking the words of Sanders to heart, it really isn’t. It promises redistribution of wealth, open borders, and a federal jobs guarantee which no one can seem to explain how it works. Essentially, it subverts economic realities into childish fantasies — the same idea that ended in the deaths of millions over the past century.
~ Facts Not Memes
