But we need to pause and rethink what we're actually seeing.

Gen Z isn't embracing socialism because they dream of five-year plans. They're listening because the "capitalism" they were sold was already broken—rigged for insiders, punishing for everyone else.

They've been:

Systematically lied to, about major issues

Shut out of real opportunity

Raised in an economy designed to reward incumbents, not strivers

Also, they didn't come pre-programmed. They don't warm to inherited allegiances. The ideological labels—capitalism, socialism, Zionism, democracy, equity—don't trigger the same instincts in them. In many cases, they don't trigger anything at all.

Because maybe they don't even know (or care) that they're supposed to be pro-this or anti-that. They weren't around for the Cold War. They didn't watch the Berlin Wall fall. They weren't raised on 9/11 flags or 20th-century partisan scripts.

What they were around for was collapse.

They saw their parents lose homes in 2008. They saw entire towns swallowed by fentanyl. They got locked in their bedrooms by "experts" who wrecked their lives and walked away clean. They were force-fed contradictions: "trust the science," "speech is violence," "men are women," "America is evil," "conform or else."

They weren't around for the great debates of the last century. They were around for the fallout. So no—don't expect them to fall in line.

I polled over 2,000 young adults, aged 18–25. The results were eye-opening. Yes, 43% said they view socialism positively, vs. 33% negatively. The other 24% weren't sure. Even among young Trump voters, it was a 40–40 split.

But they're not drawn to socialism because they want state control. They're drawn to something else—something different—because what's here now DOES NOT WORK FOR THEM! What they've seen isn't free enterprise. It's a crony system where power protects power.

Still, don't confuse them for leftists. They are, in many ways, anti-woke populists in the making:

67–21% say trans violence is a systemic issue

69–24% fiercely back free speech—even if it's "offensive" or "untrue"

They reject males in female sports

66–21% say we intervene too much overseas

70–20% are deeply concerned about the national debt