Imagine a classroom in 2026: Twenty-somethings in Che Guevara tees, scrolling TikTok manifestos between sips of oat-milk lattes, nodding along to Zohran Mamdani's victory speech. "Seize the means!" they chant, eyes alight with the fire of revolution 2.0. Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist who just swept into New York City's mayoral office — the beating heart of Wall Street — didn't win on policy wonkery. He won on rage. The rage of kids who graduated into gig-economy purgatory, saddled with $1.7 trillion in student debt, staring down avocado-toast prices that could fund a mortgage in another era. It's not just NYC. It's a tsunami. A Cato/YouGov poll from March 2025 found 62% of Americans under 30 view socialism favourably — up from 51% in 2019 Gallup data, where young adults already edged out capitalism in the charm contest. Gallup's latest? 44% favourable to socialism among 18-29s, versus 40% for capitalism. Even communism polls at 34% positive among Zoomers. Dennis Weisman nails the "why" in his sobering essay: Skewed wealth (top 1% hoarding 30.8% of U.S. net worth, bottom 50% scraping 2.8%), uniform voting power (one person, one vote — democracy's great equaliser turned redistributive wrecking ball), and the seductive myth that you can slice the pie without shrinking it. But for the young? It's personal. It's visceral. And it's terrifying.
The Perfect Storm: Why the Kids Are Alright — With Marx
Walk in their Doc Martens for a mile. Born post-9/11, raised on iPads and Instagram filters, Gen Z inherited the American Dream's participation trophy: Participation, sure. Dream? No. They did the homework — college degrees up 30% since 2000 — only to graduate into a job market where entry-level means "Uber driver with a BA." Wages stagnate while housing costs balloon 50% in a decade; they're the first generation poised to earn less than their parents. Social media? A dopamine slot machine amplifying FOMO: Billionaire memes while you're couch-surfing. "If you've got large student loans, don't own your home & can't get a well-paying job," tweets Jason Calacanis, "you might reasonably feel that capitalism has failed you." Spot on. It's not abstract inequality; it's existential. The top 10% owns two-thirds of wealth, fuelled by stock surges and AI windfalls that Zoomers can't touch. Social comparison theory? It's on steroids: Scroll past private jets, feel the stab of "why not me?"
Enter socialism: The ultimate hack. No more bootstraps — just booty calls from the state. Free college! Universal healthcare! Rent control! It whispers, "The system's rigged, kid. Let's rig it back." And with voting power evenly doled out, that bottom 50% — controlling half the ballots but a measly 3% of wealth — holds the gavel. Mamdani's win? Exhibit A. NYC's millennials and Gen Z turned out en masse, propelling a DSA darling over establishment Dems. On X, it's raw: "Young people will always gravitate toward socialism," posts Gary Savage. "They're in the lowest class... It's very appealing to leapfrog higher by taking from those who have succeeded." Envy? Sure. But wrapped in moral velvet: "Equality! Justice! Collective well-being!"
Add the amnesia factor. Cold War ghosts? Faded like VHS tapes. Soviet gulags, Mao's famines — 65 million dead under communism — feel like ancient history to kids who think "breadlines" are a Portland bakery trend. Schools skim the horrors; TikTok romanticises the icons. "Gen Z is embracing socialism... because they can't afford life now," laments Sheryl Kaufman. It's biology meets burnout: Dysregulated dopamine from infinite scrolls, metabolic crashes from DoorDash diets, cognitive overload before breakfast. "Boomers think Gen Z doesn't want to work. Gen Z thinks Boomers don't get it," tweets Chloe Rae. "They're both right."
Trendline? Alarming. From Gallup: Positive socialism views among youth jumped from 36% in 2010 to 44% now. Why? "Unfairness in the economic system that favours the wealthy," per Axios — 76% of 18-24s agree. X echoes it: "Young Americans have favourable views of socialism because socialists say 'we will attempt to use power to make your life better,'" posts @HomericFuturist. "What future does 'Capitalism' offer them? Disenfranchisement and scorn."
The Damage Done: When "Temporary" Turns Terminal
Weisman's warning rings like a tocsin: Capitalism's "inherent vice" is unequal blessings; socialism's virtue? Equal miseries. Sure, youth flirt with the reds — Boomers did too, in the '60s. But history's littered with "they'll grow out of it" graveyards. Venezuela's millennials? Still queuing for toilet paper. Cuba's Gen X? Defecting on rafts. The pivot from "youthful idealism" to "entrenched entitlement" happens fast — especially when early votes lock in policies like wealth taxes or UBI that calcify dependency.
Madison in Federalist 10 foresaw it: Unequal faculties breed unequal fortunes, and "the regulation of these... involves the spirit of party and faction." Today's faction? A youth bulge wielding half the votes, eyeing the top's pie. The result? Not equity, but erosion. "If I can't have it, then you won't either," as Weisman warns.
The Reckoning: Salvage Capitalism Before the Reds Rewrite It
Weisman's Hobson's choice? Dilute the dream to save it. Tax reforms to blunt the skew? Safety nets without snares? Education on socialism's body count — 100 million in the 20th century? But deeper: Rebuild the ladder. Affordable housing. Debt forgiveness tied to trades, not TikToks. Teach biology over burnout — energy hacks, dopamine detoxes — so kids can build rather than beg.
The young will turn — life's grind has a way of curing utopian fever. But by then? The damage is done. Policies ossify. Incentives atrophy. And the "equal sharing of miseries" Weisman invokes becomes our inheritance.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/11/why_is_support_for_socialism_growing.html