TRIGGERnometry - The Real Reason Socialism is on the Rise - Konstantin Kisin

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Starting point is 00:00:30 Why socialism is on the rise. In the wake of Zoran Mamdani's win in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York, there's been a glut of commentary from people who didn't see it coming, attempting to understand what is happening. Some, like investor and former trigonometry guest Bill Ackman, argue that Mamdani is a uniquely talented retail politician who outworked a competition. In this conception, his policies were not the determining factor.

Starting point is 00:01:00 Others, like fellow investor Tyler Winklewost, believe that it's simply time for young people to be reminded of their realities of socialism. According to this view, indoctrinated at school and university and let down by parents who failed to prepare them for the real world, millennials and Gen Z just won't wake up until they face the reality of Mandani's insane policies, like government-run grocery stores and rent-freezers. Others still take a dimmer view of the next generation, proclaiming that Mam Dani won because of vibes. The center-left, on either hand, consoles itself with the notion that he was up against a terrible candidate in Andrew Cuomo. All of these people are right, and all of them

Starting point is 00:01:38 are wrong. It's true that Mamdani appears to have the common touch, but many people who do are unable to produce a stunning victory he achieved. It's true that young people do not understand the history of socialism and have little idea of just how terrible the consequences of Mamdani's policies will be. It's true that vibes were a powerful force in this election, but politics has always been about vibes. The elections of Barack Obama. and President Trump were about vibes too. And yes, it's true that Cuomah is a terrible candidate who's facing allegations of sexual harassment

Starting point is 00:02:10 as well as scrutiny for his disastrous decisions during the pandemic. But that doesn't explain the popularity of Mamdani, only the unpopularity of Andrew Cuomo. The reality is that none of these variables on their own are sufficient to explain the rising popularity of socialism in many Western countries, or, more specifically, many large Western cities. Every comedian has to live.

Starting point is 00:02:32 learn this lesson the hard way. You may have great jokes, but people will only laugh if they agree with the premise of those jokes. The fact that for at least a decade, our schools and universities have acted as work madrasas is sufficient to prime young people for receptivity to socialism. But it does not explain why the ideas are landing as hard as they are. So why is socialism becoming popular? I tried to remind my conservative friends of this at the end of my speech at the first our conference when I said, Many of you here are conservatives. I'm not. I look terrible in Tweed.

Starting point is 00:03:08 That's why I identify as politically non-binary. But I can tell you conservatives something. You will never get young people to want to conserve a society and an economy that is not working for them. We will not overcome

Starting point is 00:03:25 woke nihilism as long as young people are locked out of the housing market, unable to pair up, unable to have kids, unable to plan for the future. Born in 1982, I am what you might call a geriatric millennial. I entered the workforce in 2003 and worked solidly for over a decade, making a good income as a translator and then as a circuit comedian. Together with my wife's modest income as an artist,

Starting point is 00:03:51 we earned a little above the median household income in Britain. We bought our first property, a tiny apartment, at the age of 35. Far from being unusual, this is becoming normal. In London, the average age of a first time by, is 35. In New York, it's now 37. The counter often wheeled out against this argument is that while certain aspects of life have become more challenging, young people now enjoy access to an immense array of consumer goods, electronics, food variety and so on. But the problem is that some things matter more than others. Housing is one of them. Most people, for example, would not want to have children

Starting point is 00:04:30 until they have a place of their own. And as any parent will tell you, having kids change. is everything. If you can't afford to buy your own place and settle down, you're stuck in a permanent adolescent limbo in which making the right decisions no longer makes sense. I know many people of my generation and younger who, it could be said, waste lots of money on coffees, eating out and so on while paying rent instead of saving up for their own place. The problem is, though, that saving £200 a month towards a deposit on your first property makes very little sense when the price of that property grows by tens of thousands every year. The sense that the things you actually want deep down

Starting point is 00:05:10 are speeding away from you on a train you'll never catch is the real driving force behind the popularity of politicians like Mamdani. Young people are open to socialist demagogues not because they've sat down and done the sums on their policies. They're open to them because they're desperate and see no way out. This, by the way, is always how radical and unworkable ideas become popular. The rise of communism and fascism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was the direct result of the excesses of the Industrial Revolution.

Starting point is 00:05:41 During that period, human wealth shot up, but so did wealth inequality with the people at the top accumulating most of the gains. By the middle of the 19th century, the top 1% of people in Britain owned 50 to 60% of the wealth. Sound familiar? The rise of socialist politicians and the popularity of left-wing commentators like Gary's economics are not the problem. They are a symptom. And until the real problems are addressed, it's Mam Dany's all the way down. If you enjoy these videos, you should know that they're

Starting point is 00:06:12 available as articles on my substack at www.com.com, days, weeks, sometimes months ahead of time. So head on over to www. constantincinnikish.com now and subscribe. The news doesn't just tell you what's happening. is happening. And these days, the biggest red flag isn't what's said. It's what gets left out. That's why I use Ground News. It's the only site and app that compares coverage from across the political spectrum and highlights which stories are being ignored entirely. See for yourself at ground.com slash trigonometry. Their blind spot feed is one of my favorite features. It surfaces around 20 stories a day that are being overlooked by either the left or the right. It's a simple but powerful way to track media bias in real time. Like this, NIH scientists recently published a declaration

Starting point is 00:07:05 criticizing Trump's cuts to public health research. That's a major move, and yet, only 2% of the coverage came from right-leaning outlets. A new study found that 2024 saw the most armed conflicts global since 1946, a staggering statistics. But you would have missed it if you'd only read left-wing news sources. Ground news gives you the full picture. Headlines, ownership, bias rating, and contexts, so you can actually understand what's going on, not just react to what you're told. Head to ground.news slash trigonometry for 40% off their unlimited advantage plan, the same one we use, and start thinking for yourself.

TRIGGERnometry - The Real Reason Socialism is on the Rise - Konstantin Kisin

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