Find Doomscroll audio episodes on Apple, Spotify and all other podcast apps.
Welcome to Doomscroll. My returning guest is Vivek Chibber, a professor of sociology at New York University. He is the author of several books including Confronting Capitalism. He is the editor of Catalyst Journal and the host of the Confronting Capitalism podcast (Apple, Spotify, etc). You can follow him on Substack: Vivek Chibber
What do we mean by the word “socialism” in 2025? The term confuses many centrist or apolitical Americans. Even among the left, there is a high degree of uncertainty about what exactly we are advocating for. This episode is a detailed explanation of what socialism means today. Vivek Chibber answers foundational questions for political struggle in the 21st century.
In my earlier Gen Z survey research, I witnessed many instances of young people making good faith attempts to engage with the left but often finding insufficient answers to their questions. Are we fighting for reform or stoking revolution? Are we raising living standards or banning hamburgers? Are we planning the economy or breaking up monopolies? Our inability to answer these important questions makes outsiders rightly skeptical that the left may not actually have a coherent vision for the future.
Today, neoliberalism is in crisis. If we hope to take advantage of this political moment and achieve certain Sanders-style programs (or perhaps more), we will first need to have clarity amongst ourselves. Offering vague gestures isn’t going to cut it. We will also need to part with more than a few bad assumptions, comforting lies and sloppy rhetoric that has failed to win people over. My hope is that you can walk away from this episode as a well informed advocate for your political beliefs.
When you’re sitting down at family dinner this holiday season and your MAGA uncle tells you that Zohran is going to do ‘transgender communism and sharia law with Chinese characteristics’ — you will first laugh and sputter out the word “Based” because you have stage 5 internet poisoning — but upon regaining your composure, you can offer a patient, deliberate and articulate response that connects the most popular policies in the world with the necessary movement to achieve them.
Find the Confronting Capitalism podcast on Apple or Spotify.
If you have a response or want to add your thoughts on this topic, I’m going to ask you to comment on the YouTube video as opposed to other platforms this week. I’ll keep up with the thread and reply to people there. Commenting on YouTube will help to propel this content to the new viewers who still need to find it.
In addition to this week’s public episode, we have a nearly hour long bonus video where Vivek and I get deeply in the weeds about strategy and economy. In great detail, we discuss how the Marxist theory of declining rates of profit will impact the 21st century struggle for social democracy. If you’re new to these topics, I recommend watching the public episode first as we will build upon these foundational themes later. Our conversation includes voucher systems, nationalization and state-led investment programs. Most importantly, we compare the right and left populist visions to tackle American inequality and explore why only one of them can work. This week is a 2.5 hour block of socialist education. You’re allowed to take a break in the middle but I expect you to do your homework:
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Excellent - i like Chinber every time I hear him.
Well at least you come out finally as a SocDem. Its disappointing. I would love to debate SocDems on why not socialism? I can keep it friendly.