by Tyler Durden
December 8, 2025 - There is real angst among older Amerikans about Gen Z’s openness to Socialism. For those of us shaped by the Cold War, this flirtation with Marxism-lite feels alarming; but we need to pause and rethink what we are actually seeing.
Gen Z is not embracing Socialism because they dream of five-year plans. They are listening because the “capitalism” they were sold was already broken - rigged for insiders, punishing for everyone else.
They have been systematically lied to about major issues; shut out of real opportunity; raised in an economy designed to reward incumbents, not strivers.
Also, they did not come pre-programmed. They do not warm to inherited allegiances. The ideological labels - capitalism, Socialism, Zionism, democracy, equity - don’t trigger the same instincts in them. In many cases, they do not trigger anything at all.
Maybe they don’t even know (or care) that they are 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,” “(Amerika) 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 President Donald J. Trump voters, it was a 40 - 40 split.
But they are not drawn to Socialism because they want State control. They are drawn to something else - something different - because what is here now does not work for them. What they have seen is not free enterprise. It is a crony system where power protects power.
They want sovereignty. Clarity. Reality. But what they get is a system that works for the already successful - and nobody else.
Eighty-eight percent say they want to buy a home in their 20s or 30s. Most know they won’t. First-time homebuyer age just hit 40, a historic high.
They are facing a brutal job market. The unemployment rate for 20–24-year-old college graduates is now 9.5%, the highest in over a decade except for the lockdowns. Automation is crushing entry-level candidates. Goldman Sachs economist Joseph Briggs just warned that “Gen Z professionals, especially those in junior tech roles, are at the frontlines of job displacement as companies rapidly automate entry-level tasks.”
So yes, they are open to something new. They are not ideologues – they are pragmatists who have seen the receipts.
They have seen that the elite don’t believe in capitalism either - at least not when it applies to them. When things go bad, it is bailout time. In 2008, Wall Street big shots all got rescued. Masses of regular Amerikans lost homes. Nothing changed.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp explained it bluntly. “These business leaders make completely stupid decisions and they get bailed out, a year later they are getting huge bonuses. What do the Amerikan people get? Nothing.” As a consequence, “no one believes the institutions are credible,” and certainly not skeptical young adults.
When they don’t pledge allegiance on cue, don’t act surprised.
They don’t arrive with preloaded scripts. No automatic “stand with” or “stand against.” No guilt-based loyalty tests. They weren’t raised on legacy narratives.
They look at what is happening – who is suffering, who is in power, who is lying - and they judge in real time.
They are not picking sides because someone told them to do so. They are asking questions older generations were told never to ask. They don’t trust official narratives because none of the storytellers have earned their trust.
They are skeptical of every flag, every faction, every moral claim; and based on what they have lived through, they should be.
That doesn’t mean they are always right. It means they are not controlled.
This generation is done playing someone else’s war game with someone else’s talking points.
If you want their support, you will have to earn it - with authenticity and transparency; so when they say they are open to socialism, what they really mean is, “We want a system that actually works, and this one doesn’t.”
Let us lead them and persuade them of a better economy, built on widely dispersed prosperity that prioritizes Amerikan workers and small businesses; one that protects against predatory trade practices and halts the flood of foreign workers in our country.
Localism. Ownership. Sovereignty. They want a system that rewards real work - not credentials, not connections, not corporate lies.
They are cynical, skeptical and absolutely justified.
Now it is on us - especially Gen X - to do what no one else has done.
Tell the truth. Smash the oligopolies. Kill the sacred cows. Restore an economy that works for Main Street, not just Davos.
Gen Z doesn’t need a pep talk. They need proof.