The democratic socialist mayor of New York City gave his personal definition of socialism while on a podcast this week, and many found it to be naive and unserious.
On Thursday’s episode of his “This Past Weekend” podcast, comedian Theo Von asked Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) to define socialism.
‘That’s not socialism, that’s fantasy.’
“I want to talk a little bit about socialism, right, because it’s a buzzword, right?” Von said. “… Will you define socialism for us? Because people say it a lot and don’t know what it is. And sometimes, those people are me.”
Mamdani laughed.
“I’m so happy to be with those people right now,” he responded.
“Socialism, to me, it means that you will have whatever you need to live a dignified life and that it is the government’s job to deliver on that, right?” Mamdani said.
“It’s a belief that you shouldn’t live in a place where all you can do is pick your own leaders,” he added. “You should also be able to have that power in the rest of your life, right? People talk about it as the extension of democracy from the ballot box to the rest of your life.”
The exchange can be viewed below on Von’s podcast.
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He then explained what dignity meant under his political beliefs.
“When people say dignity, I want to be very clear, we’re talking about the things that allow you to take a breath: housing, child care, right, public transit,” the mayor said. “No one should be priced out of these things. These are non-negotiables; you need these to live.”
He also repeated the well-worn trope that the country was already operating under socialist principles.
“And what I think is so confusing is there’s parts of life in our country that line up with this belief,” Mamdan said. “Public education — we believe that everyone should be able to go K through 12 for free, and they do. Libraries — we believe that everybody should be able to read a book that they’d like to for free, and they do. But when it comes to early childhood education, right — before kindergarten — we’re comfortable with people paying $20,000 a year to afford it.”
Mamdani added, “As a socialist, what I’m fighting for is that nobody is priced out of dignity.”
Many criticized Mamdani for the hollow definition.
“That’s not socialism, that’s fantasy. And that’s what this podcast between Mamdani and Von was all about,” responded columnist Libby Emmons.
“Socialism is very much like the plantation owner-slave relationship,” replied one X user. “You are housed and fed and kept relatively healthy so that you can be of some use to the state and its ruling elites. If Democrats are successful selling this to American descendants of slaves it will be the biggest con job in human history.”
“Some bureaucrat gets to decide what you need and what a dignified life is. I’d rather have no government at all,” said another critic.
A poll in 2020 found that Americans favored capitalism over socialism by a 2-1 margin, but more recent polling has seen many Americans turning toward socialism because of inflation and the affordability crisis.
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