The Reason American Socialists Don't Win
theatlantic.com
theatlantic.com
I saw people interviewed on the street on why they will vote for him. "Lower taxes" was one of the reasons. LOL.
The long answer is that there's some nuance between hoping something will happen and being morbidly amused when it does happen. In other words, you could be be pretty sure trump policies will fuck over most of the people who voted for him, but still hope that nobody actually gets hurt.
Bernie calls himself a democratic socialist even if he won’t join the DSA
I ponder if it's because, at a fundamental level, humans actually prefer shitness. Like it's anxiety-removing. That having a moment of "triumph of the people", and enjoying the ease of delusionally believing in some leader who says he's going to help us, followed by decades of stagnation (that was completely option but only occasionally meaningfully reversed, e.g. Argentina recently), is actually preferred by people, because above all else, they can handle having less resources, but they cannot stomach the pain of responsibility.
Hence why society actually tends to proceed due to powerful and often disliked unelected leaders, e.g. business tycoons, who can push things ahead despite this tendency.
You had me up until this paragraph. Are you trying to write ayn rand fan fiction?
Also, keep in mind that when americans say "socialism" they mean "government funded infrastructure projects", it sounds like you weren't aware of this.
And yes, society only moves forward due to a small number of leaders. In the past this has been more focused on state leaders and conquest, but in the modern day more so industrialists and technologists. It's not controversial that the vast majority of people just want to be provided a comfortable lot in life by others.
> It's not controversial that the vast majority of people just want to be provided a comfortable lot in life by others.
It's not controversial in the same way that saying the earth is flat isn't controversial, it's just wrong.
Society "moves forward" because every day that passes there are literally billions of humans working to build/harvest/grow/research/construct/etc different things.
Nobody actually believes e.g. elon musk is out there putting rocketships together, right?
President kennedy said "lets go to the moon" then he went back to the white house to attend state dinners and sleep with whoever came near. Ten thousand nasa employees went to work every day and actually built rocketships.
(The generic argument here is something like "well elon musk gave them money to build rocketships" except then you have to ask where musk got the money to give to other people in the first place and the argument rapidly breaks down)
That should teach us that we can't look at soeciety from some sort of logical principles. It bears all the markings of sociologically created in-groups, or as the kids would put it, "identity politics". It doesn't have to make sense.
LOL
edit:
In English it some how makes sense to use a word like "progress" without defining whereto. It isn't very sophisticated.
All the talk of immorality and corruption is justified when aimed at Soviet style communism. But that's not the only way. When a balance is sought however it works really great. Much better than the unlimited capitalism as in the US. My boss recently asked me if I wouldn't move to the US lol. I wouldn't think about it. What I care about in life is not having the ability to make unlimited amounts of money but having safety, both on the street and in terms of a social and healthcare safety net. We have all this.
We can also call in sick when we're actually sick (no limit to 'sick days'). Can't be fired at will, we get a month of holidays per years plus extras, and our cities are a nicer place to live in with fewer cars and better transport.
This kind of left wing doesn't even exist in the US (even Bernie is more right wing than us). So I can imagine Americans thinking that the only socialism is the way the USSR did things.
I don't really understand how people think the system works so great when so many Americans struggle to pay rent, healthcare bills, student loans etc. I don't pay out of pocket for healthcare at all here. I just gave a government card that allows me treatment when I need it.
And yes of course I own things. I don't own a car because I don't want one, I hate driving. And I don't have to because public transport is so great and cheap (22€ per month for an unlimited pass). That won't even buy half a tank of fuel.
I don't own a flat but I could, I'm looking for the right one. I'm just fussy. And I own all my stuff, I hate renting or leasing stuff. In fact the dogma "You will own nothing and you will be happy" comes from the WEF which is basically all the big capitalist billionaires thrown in one room.
It's funny how Americans think socialism is such a hellscape. And then come to Spain and love it. Spain is very socialist even by European standards.
Like I said: socialism, at least as we know it here isn't really communism. It's much more of a balance.
I appreciate your sentiment and I don't think it comes from a bad place. I also hate driving, it's an unpleasant experience in total. But I also think you're young. Please, just for yourself and those around you, keep a keen and dispassionately analytical eye to the surroundings of all these things and the future.
We in Spain live totally fine too :) I have more than enough money to buy what I need. We always go for lunch in a restaurant when I'm at the office, it's not like we don't have two pennies to rub together. All the restaurants have cheap lunch menus. Everyone goes for lunch there in Spain, so much so that we don't even have a real canteen in the office.
And no I'm absolutely not young lol, I'm 50+. I've also lived in many countries (4 in total) including ones with much higher wages. And much more capitalist ones like Australia. But Spain is by far my favourite. I think the country is doing great and the system works really well. I would definitely not want to live in the US. Even if I could make 3 or 4 times as much money there. Which, realistically, is probably how much more I'd make in silicon valley (including stock bonus, which tbh I don't want, I prefer real money)
In fact, a FAANG offered me a job there just before the pandemic. But looking into the cost of living around their fancy office I'd still have had to live tens of miles away from the office in some dopey town (San Francisco wasn't possible either financially) and they wanted in-office presence every day. Here I just take a 15 minute subway ride. I'm supposed to be at the office regularly but I don't actually bother to go there often (another thing about Spain, rules generally aren't enforced very much). Anyway, I declined due to quality of life. I love living in a big city that is also quite compact. And have no worries. I'm not very ambitious, I just want to enjoy my life and work is but a means to that.
Money really isn't everything. Especially as you get older, having good and free (well, tax-paid) healthcare is a huge plus. Same with all the other benefits like job security, state pensions. In the US I'd have to cover all that myself, be dependent on my employer for healthcare plans and have a lot less rights as an employee. Another thing that's important because an employer can easily consider you 'too old' and it's very hard to find something else at my age.
One of my friends has been on a (genuine and pretty bad) long-term sick leave of over a year and has had no worries due to the illness benefit. This kind of worry-free life matters a lot. It's bad enough when you get a serious illness, having to worry about being able to live is not something you'd wish on top of that. I don't mind a large portion of my taxes going to such things, because it means it's there for me too if I ever need it.
The one exception is the housing market which is a bit crazy here (but nowhere as crazy as in the US). But the problem is not the socialism, it's that it's too much of a free market. They are bringing in more restrictions like a rent price limitation and longer mandatory contract terms. And banning AirBnBs all over the city so we don't have to compete with tourists paying 100-200 euro a night anymore. They never should have allowed those in the first place, but anyway...
But the idea that the American model is the only one that could work is just not true. If your goal is to get lucky and become a millionaire/billionaire and be one of that sweet 0.001%, then yeah, sure. For the rest of us it works way better like this.
Also, America is tearing itself apart right now. Here things are mellow, as LGBTIQ+ we are respected and welcomed, rather than be considered a 'political ideology'.
Overall it's about 10,29% (first half of 2025) with only around 8% in highly industrialised communities like Catalonia. Which includes people with disabilities. Which is also around 8% in fact, but some of those people are only partially disabled and do work. It's really not bad. The southern areas have higher unemployment but this is because their economy is very seasonal and tourism/farming driven.
Things can still be improved but it's not bad at all.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment_in_Spain
Many of my friends are young and they don't have issues or worries about their future. Though several just got laid off because Meta suddenly closed their moderation office (after Trump decided that moderation was only "woke" and could be done without, and Zuckerberg couldn't wait to follow on).
It's also important to note that Spain has a very high number of Latin American immigrants, for whom it is a bridge into Europe (Spain has an easy path to citizenship for its former colonies). for them it's however harder to find a job because their qualifications are often not recognised or quite as valued by companies, especially large multinationals. It generally takes some years of upskilling locally. It's one of the reasons the unemployment is higher. They are however very welcome <3 unlike latin american immigrants in the US.
Truth is, your generation isn't going to be looked on favourably in the future (already now actually, but I think that's just a start). You've all been too self-centered.
I think self centered is true but more in terms of the environment, the younger generation will feel the effects of climate change much worse. Whereas the boomer generation still pretends nothing is going on. Another reason I'm glad not to have a car and not consume too much. I don't even have aircon.
My conceptualisation of socialism is the property rights concept as presented by actual monkeys. He who possesses possesses, and he who does not is to dispossess the latter of such if his force allows. In the modern era, this is: he who can, by sufficient narcissism and IQ, explain why other's fruits of their labor and risk taking is actually "theft", such that he can indirectly participate in a competing form of (true) theft himself.
Im completely missing where average workers have significant control in either economic or political decisions that would make it socialist or communist or anything other than capitalist controlled.
Is it possible what you parrot is an ideology taught to you by twisted university dwelling goblins for their own benefit, to taking advantage of an us/them anger that actually has ultimately stemmed from childhood issues, rather than something you've reasoned yourself from first principles?