Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
How ‘neo-socialism’ brings class warfare to life today
How ‘neo-socialism’ brings class warfare to life today
Jul 11, 2025 10:43 PM

Democratic socialism is on the rise America, as evidenced by the popularity of politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as the mainstreaming of various collectivist policies. Many have shrugged at the movement, explaining it away as a far cry from the blood-soaked tyrannies of yore. But while the practical differences are certainly significant, many of the basic moral impulses remain the same, bent toward a particular ideal of social control and deconstructionism across individual and institutional life.

In a recent paper for the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Ayaan Hirsi Ali takes aim at the economic and moral problems of such efforts, arguing that democratic capitalism remains the best solution, “not only for its economic efficiency, but also for its moral superiority and the possibilities it provides for humans to flourish.”

“Democratic capitalism, in the framework of the rule of law and respect for individual rights, has benefited billions of human beings,” writes Ali. “It allows for gradual, incremental progress to remedy legitimate grievances as they arise. Until a better alternative can credibly be proposed, these are the institutions that we should celebrate – and defend.”

Raised in the Somali Democratic Republic, Ali is no stranger to these forces. She has experienced the failures of collectivism firsthand — economically, socially, and at every level of society.

She reflects on her mother, whose daily life largely consisted of “standing in line for hours on end to receive the daily ration of food allotted by the government.” Such lines were useful for the planning elite, she explains, reminding citizens of their dependency on the collectivist machine. “I recall that my mother and grandmother felt a sense of bafflement, indignity, and real powerlessness as a result of this daily grind,” Ali explains. It’s a telling portrait of how individual subjugation can stifle munity, undermining the real sources of provision through top-down organization.

Yet such injustice went beyond material devastation and individualized pain. Pressed by the state’s various restrictions, some Somalians would eventually express their creativity in other ways. “They began to smuggle, scheme, game the system, and lie,” Ali explains. Predictably, state officials were happy to modate such behavior, leading to a system wherein the wealthy and well-connected consolidated their control through the power of the state. By overemphasizing equality in select areas, they inevitably neglected it elsewhere:

The system of scientific socialism as implemented by the government did not result in equality and justice. On the contrary, it was the people with the strongest political connections to the government and to influential clans who were most empowered under the system. A system that claimed to empower the marginalized and dispossessed showed an astonishing lack passion for precisely the least-connected people.

You had to “know someone,” invariably someone who was not accountable to the public. What I witnessed in those days was the very opposite of equality and justice. There was tremendous inequality and tremendous injustice. Siad munist regime brutally repressed dissidents, as did other authoritarian socialist regimes of the twentieth century.

Ali proceeds to highlight other case studies across the world, from Venezuela, to Cuba, to China, to various Eastern European states. “In every implementation and expression of authoritarian socialism, individual freedom has been promised for a utopian and unattainable collective idea,” she concludes. “The sheer number of failed socialist experiments raises important questions about politics, economics, justice, and human nature.”

So, how do the more recent pare?

On economics, today’s so-called socialists are noticeably softer, to be sure. Yes, they will promote lavish social welfare programs and seek to control certain sectors, but in doing so, they will also hem and haw about the legitimacy of capitalism, occasionally praising the good of private ownership. Very few will advocate for outright state ownership of the means of production, carefully cloaking their vocabulary with the typical qualifiers about how the authoritarian socialists simply did it wrong. The economic ideas are still heavily clouded by fatal conceits, but if there is a revolutionary aspect to all this, it seems to stem from something deeper.

For Ali, our modern “grievance politics” is the key — fixed on zero-sum battles against various oppressors fueled by the arbitrary ideals of the age.

Whereas “the socialism of the twentieth century was primarily economic in orientation,” Ali explains, today’s “neosocialism” takes its cues from the current streams of identity politics, seeking to politicize multiple aspects daily life. In our new “crisis of history,” we are no longer confined to a struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie but are part of a larger war among an amorphous array of peting classes” – social, economic, religious, racial, and otherwise.

This isn’t to say there aren’t distinct struggles among distinct classes in American life. Likewise, it isn’t to say that such struggles aren’t often perpetuated by select clusters of the entrenched and well-connected. It’s simply to note that socialism finds its remedy in exacerbating these tensions. Rather than managing our differences and disagreements in a context of ordered liberty, it seeks to squeeze us into a unified collective, promoting false notions of “equality” that, in application, diminish our cultural diversity and prod us ever closer to lifeless conformity.

“Just as in the socialism of old, the individual and his own moral contributions are [still] devalued,” she explains. “What matters, once again, is the group (the collective tribe) to which an individual belongs. Again, these collective groups are either oppressive or oppressed, and an individual’s moral worth is determined by looking at the group or groups to which he belongs. Capitalism, with its emphasis on individualism, meritocracy, and color-blindness, is patible with this worldview.”

Today’s democratic socialists relish the glories of popular control, seeking to distinguish themselves from their authoritarian forebearers. But democracy does little to correct for such targeted violations of individual freedom. Indeed, when tied to our current climate of mob politics, democracy serves to highlight socialism’s core flaws in uniquely destructive ways — expanding and diversifying our class warfare well beyond the typical categories of rich vs. poor, even if it is felt primarily at the levels of munity and social media warfare.

“The rise of tribalism, identity politics, critical race theory; the ideological bent of gender studies, the focus of intersectionality on collective blocs rather than the human individual – all of these correlate with the rise of a new socialism,” Ali explains. “Consequently, we are at risk of losing the ideal of a universal humanity, which can be based only on a respect for individuals, regardless of their backgrounds and attributes.”

It doesn’t represent our only tribal temptation, of course, particularly now that populists and nationalists have found their own footholds in American identity politics, each boasting their own ironic bits of Marxist revolutionary flair. But given the their heightened position across institutional life – the academy, the media, business, and elsewhere – the neosocialists hold cultural sway that seems likely to endure, regardless of whether it has any successes in the realm of “practical politics.”

The more we hastily divide our neighbors into groups of “oppressed” vs. “oppressor,” elevating collective conformity as the only way forward, the less justice we are likely to see across all spheres of society. Even if the “market” or “democracy” aren’t being dismantled directly in favor of Venezuelan-style economic autocracy, the social and relational ripple effects of these cultural movements will inevitably mirror the values at the heart of those tired economic aims.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
James V. Schall on Islam and the West
Pope Benedict XVI made an fortable claim in his 2006 Regensburg address: contemporary Muslim terrorism may owe something to Islam’s conception of God. A year later, Father James V. Schall SJ wrote a book about the address which, as Acton Director of Research Samuel Gregg says, placed it in the wider context of a set of religious and philosophical challenges that many Westerners still can’t bring themselves to address: Over the past sixteen years, Schall has written numerous articles on...
The Parable of the Long Spoons explains free markets
“How can we explain this emporiophobia—a fear of markets—given the overwhelming evidence that such institutions provide the greatest wealth, health and happiness for humankind?” When economics professor Paul Rubin asked that questionhe answered by saying that we need to shift the metaphor of markets from petition” to “cooperation.” Cooperation isn’t just more important in the economic sphere—it’s also mon. We cooperate with everyone involved in making all the products we buy and sell, millions of people we’ll never know. […]...
What do stock markets do?
Note: This is post #89 in a weekly video series on basic economics. pany can raise money and create new investment by selling shares through an initial public offering (IPO). When you buy pany’s shares on the stock market, though, no new investment is created. So what exactly do stock markets do? In this video by Marginal Revolution University,Alex Tabarrok explains how stock markets serve as a financial intermediary and serves as a key institution encouraging new businesses. (If you...
10 things political scientists know that we don’t
“If economics is the dismal science,” says Hans Noel, an associate professor at Georgetown University, “then political science is the dismissed science.” Most Americans—from pundits to voters—don’t think that political science has much to say about political life. But there are some things, notes Noel, that “political scientists know that it seems many practitioners, pundits, journalists, and otherwise informed citizens do not.” Here are excerpts from Noel’s list of ten things political scientists know that you don’t: #1. It’s The...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren brings government muscle to corporate ‘accountability’
It was in Godfather III where Al Pacino as Michael Corleone said it first and said it best: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” Before we were able to put away our party hats after celebrating the Supreme Court’s Janus decision in June, Missouri rejected a right-to-work measure at the state’s primary ballot box last week. And now Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wants to do a federally legislated end run around Janus with a...
Chafuen on ‘The vocation of the think tank’
Alejandro Chafuen – the Acton Institute’s Managing Director, International – received the prestigious 2018 “Premio Juan de Mariana”award from the Intituto Juan de Mariana earlier this year. Today at Acton’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website, we have posted the full text of his acceptance speech. Chafuen holds special affection for Juan de Mariana, the Jesuit priest and thinker associated with the School of Salamanca. In his remarks, Chafuen summarized the theologian’s economic and political thought, saying: He states that God...
The bright side of the trade war with China?
“This year marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most consequential anti-poverty programs in human history,” says Rev. Ben Johnson in this week’s Acton Commentary. “Now, there is evidence that its spillover effects may lift millions more out of dire need.” The new openness to enterprise, private property, and investment led to China’s meteoric economic rise. Now, Donald Trump’s tariffs are encouraging manufacturers to take their factories elsewhere. Ian Chen, CEO of a Chinese technological exporter, said that Trump’s...
Radio Free Acton: Econ Quiz on pensions and public debt; Upstream on Frida Kahlo and Stalinism
On this episode of Radio Free Acton, host Caroline Roberts speaks with Dave Hebert, Professor of Economics at Aquinas College for another Econ Quiz segment on the topic of pensions and state debt. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks to Phil Terzian, a writer for The Weekly Standard, on the blind spots in the legacy of Frida Kahlo as well as our modern understanding of Stalinism. Check out these additional resources on this week’s podcast topics: Read...
7 Figures: Trends in global restrictions on religion
A new study by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation reports on the extent to which governments and societies around the world impinge on religious beliefs and practices. Here are seven figures you should know from the study about trends in religious hostilities: 1. Of the 198 countries included in the study—covering 99.5 percent of the world’s population—28 percent had high or very high levels of government restrictions in 2016 (the most recent year for which data...
Pope John Paul II’s statue violated state secularism: French court
France remains so deeply wedded to secularism (laïcité) that its courts ruled a statue of Pope John Paul II can only remain in place if its cross is removed. Beyond a mere clash of church-and-state, “this case is symptomatic of the identity crisis suffered by France and Western Europe in general,” writes Priscille Kulczyk,a research fellow for theEuropean Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), at the Acton Institute’s Religion & Liberty Transatlantic website. “They reject their Christian roots, culture, and...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved