Socialism on the rise?

AionPhanes

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According to a recent PEW poll fourty-nine percent of voters under the age of thirty had a positive view socialism whereas only fourty-six percent had a positive view of capitalism. Socialism beating out capitalism in popularity with young voters represents a massive change in public opinion. Not long ago socialism was a smear term conservatives used to scare people with but now it's not so scary but has instead become down right popular. What does this mean for the future of America? Could we see the rise of a new socialist party or the "take over" of the Democratic party for socialism simmilar to the far right tea party take over of the Republican party?

The New Yorker :

"A 2011 Pew Research Center survey found that, among voters under the age of thirty, forty-nine per cent had a positive view of socialism. (Only forty-six per cent had a positive view of capitalism.) Peter Dreier, a professor of politics at Occidental College, who has written about Sanders, says that younger voters “may not be willing to entertain a whole new system, but they are open to a pretty profound critique of the current one. They’re not as naïve as Americans used to be during the Cold War—they know that there are varieties of capitalism, that there is social democracy in Scandinavia and Canada, where the government plays a bigger role in regulating corporations and in expanding the safety net.”​
 
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AionPhanes

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It's too bad the Occupy movement lost steam. Something like that would provide a nice vehicle for radically reforming the Democratic party. We might witness the rise of a simmilar movement in the future though.

Who knows maybe a Democratic Socialist party will coalesce and replace the Democratic party all together. Our government might be set up in a manner that favors a two party system but whose to say they have to be the ones in existence now.
 
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Chesterton

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I'm sort of surprised this didn't happen sooner. Schools have been teaching our young to be stupid for decades. I guess it's finally paying off for the Left.
 
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JackRT

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I'm sort of surprised this didn't happen sooner. Schools have been teaching our young to be stupid for decades. I guess it's finally paying off for the Left.

For forty years I taught my students to evaluate the data and to think independently. If it is paying off it is for humanity, not just for left or right.
 
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Chesterton

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For forty years I taught my students to evaluate the data and to think independently. If it is paying off it is for humanity, not just for left or right.
Glad you taught that way, but you're one person.
 
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Smidlee

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According to a recent PEW poll fourty-nine percent of voters under the age of thirty had a positive view socialism whereas only fourty-six percent had a positive view of capitalism. Socialism beating out capitalism in popularity with young voters represents a massive change in public opinion. Not long ago socialism was a smear term conservatives used to scare people with but now it's not so scary but has instead become down right popular.
It's usually true that the youth are more liberal but becomes more conservatives as they get older. The youth doesn't have the experience to know the difference between something that is for the good from something that just feels good. Socialism only works if the masses have the mentality on working hard for something and only lean on the government when they have no other choice. The problem with socialism is the next generation doesn't have the same working mentality so they rely more and more on the government to provide them with their needs. Some will even get the mentality that these freebies are owe to them and it's their right to have all these freebies at the expense of others. Then socialism becomes the evil in a society the conservatives warns you about that eats away like a cancer in the body.
 
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I'm sort of surprised this didn't happen sooner. Schools have been teaching our young to be stupid for decades. I guess it's finally paying off for the Left.

Why bother teaching at all if they wanted to see the students end up stupid?

Teachers should have instead went into business to make money off of the cheap labor due to the uneducated masses.
 
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SummerMadness

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It's usually true that the youth are more liberal but becomes more conservatives as they get older. The youth doesn't have the experience to know the difference between something that is for the good from something that just feels good. Socialism only works if the masses have the mentality on working hard for something and only lean on the government when they have no other choice. The problem with socialism is the next generation doesn't have the same working mentality so they rely more and more on the government to provide them with their needs. Some will even get the mentality that these freebies are owe to them and it's their right to have all these freebies at the expense of others. Then socialism becomes the evil in a society the conservatives warns you about that eats away like a cancer in the body.
Your statements about the mentality of the younger generation mirrors that of previous generations going back centuries.
 
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Fantine

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I'm a little confused. It's the 1 percent who want huge capital gains for doing nothing, and pay little or no taxes. On order to get these they outsource and downsize and merge companies with no concept of the good of society.

So young people want socialism? Call it cause and effect.
 
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BrianJK

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It worked the opposite way for me. When I was younger, I was much more conservative than I am now. I would never have considered socialism in my 20s, but I am considering it now. There is no one formula for people and politics, I think.
 
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JackRT

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It worked the opposite way for me. When I was younger, I was much more conservative than I am now. I would never have considered socialism in my 20s, but I am considering it now. There is no one formula for people and politics, I think.

Me too.
 
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JackRT

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Your statements about the mentality of the younger generation mirrors that of previous generations going back centuries.

Socrates (died 399BC) wrote --- Our youth now love luxury, they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders, and love to chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their household. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
 
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I am in my 20s conservtive on most issues particularly as it relates to topics like soicalism and while I am not God I do not see that changing.
 
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