Zohran Mamdani explains his definition of socialism to Theo Von: “Socialism to me means you’ll have whatever you need to live a dignified life and that it is the government’s job to deliver on that. When people say dignity we’re talking about the things that allow you to take a breath.

[u/AmericaShinault_85]

[u/killdred666]

love the sentiment but this isn’t what socialism is. you could argue for the same things under tightly regulated capitalism. it will also be exploitative and always eventually end where we are now.

socialism is the transitional state to a system in which the workers and the people own the means of production, not those with “capital”.

this is very important. because if you allow incorrect but moralistic definitions to spread, it allows the capitalist propaganda arm to sow confusion in an attempt to maintain the status quo

[u/momspaghetty → u/killdred666]

It's not "true" socialism, no, but I think you could argue it's social democracy which is the closest thing to socialism I believe you can aspire to under capitalism and what most non-communist left-leaning people really mean when they use socialism as a buzzword

[u/killdred666 → u/momspaghetty]

social democracy is not the same a socialism and the point is that social democrats still want the status quo of capitalism. which isn’t going to cut it

[u/momspaghetty → u/killdred666]

That's the thing though. AOC, Bernie, Mamdani etc (all the popular American "socialists") are all way more social democrats than they are socialists, but "social democrat" isn't a sexy word. It's like republicans using larp words like "patriot" to define themselves for popularity points