Socialism 2026 — which just wrapped up — was a conference that purported to be “a place for both seasoned radicals and new activists to sharpen analysis, hone strategy, and build community.” In practice, it was a factory producing thunderdunk-worthy social media clips at a rate that would impress Henry Ford. Breakout stars include the GLP-1s are “genociding” fat people guy, the shutting down an airport might lead to socialism lady, and the healing is “health fascism” lady. Even some leftists were uncomfortable with the level of crazy; panelist Hasan Piker showed some awareness that his remarks would end up on Fox News — he may be close to gaining sentience! On one hand, I get the frustration: Piker and other leftists don’t want to answer for every crazy thing said by anyone who calls themselves a socialist. On the other hand: See how it feels to have some lunatic show up and poison your brand by spouting a bunch of crazy bullshit? Really sucks, doesn’t it?
If socialists want to write off Socialism 2026 as a circle jerk by irrelevant losers, then that’s fine with me — we are in concordance on the irrelevant loser point. But let’s not lose sight of one of the conference’s most notable features: It was turbo-woke. I’m surprised that clips from the conference don’t have that wavy, heat-coming-off-a-desert-highway look too them — that’s how thick the wokeness was! Even if we write off the conference as a verbal wank-fest, its existence is a data point in the “who did the wokeness?” debate. Some leftists argue that “establishment” Democrats are the source of identity politics, that they’ve foisted race and identity issues onto leftists who wish to remain laser-focused on economics. But if that were true, then these clips would not exist. Socialism 2026 shows how socialism and wokeness are often mixed together in the Lefty Revolutionary Kool-Aid.
Consider this clip from the conference:
