A young Democratic Socialist of America member told journalist Nate Friedman that socialism is about “community” and “hugging strangers” at basketball watch parties. What he left out: the tens of millions who lost their lives under socialist regimes.
The pitch went viral on X. The DSA member promised socialism would deliver friends, sports parties, and protection from millionaires taking your house.
“Community. Are you tired of sitting alone and being by yourself and having no one to talk to? Be a socialist. It’s all about community. It’s about literally sitting down and having coffee with a random stranger and talking to them about the game. Hell! I have hugged more strangers in this past summer because of the Knicks game. Because of the World Cup. Because socialism works.”
The member continued: “It ain’t a scary word. It ain’t me taking your house. It’s about me making sure your house remains in your hands and some millionaire doesn’t take it from you. That’s it.”
That’s not it.
The NBA and World Cup — the very events the member credits for his newfound community — are merit-based systems run by capitalists, sponsored by capitalists, and broadcast by capitalists. Socialism didn’t build those watch parties. Capitalism did.
New York City DSA Co-Chair Gustavo Gordillo revealed the reality when pressed by Fox News’ Martha MacCallum. Defending the city’s plan to open taxpayer-funded grocery stores that undercut corner bodegas, Gordillo said if a government-subsidized competitor puts a small business under, maybe they shouldn’t have been in business in the first place.
Asked separately how much profit a landlord should be allowed to make, Gordillo said no one has a constitutional right to a double-digit return on their investment.
Manhattan’s median rent hit an all-time high of $5,295 per month — this after the mayor DSA members installed froze rent on a million apartments. Freezing rent for some drove prices sky-high for everyone else.
The young member promised socialism would stop millionaires from taking your house. But it’s DSA activists — not millionaires — calling for the abolition of private property, the seizure of property from white families, and the seizure of property from landlords. It’s written into the DSA’s own national platform.
The DSA’s biggest media star, Hasan Piker, addressed the College Democrats of America last weekend wearing a Zhongshan suit — Mao Zedong’s uniform. Mao is the dictator whose policies historians estimate ended tens of millions of lives through famine and political purges.
Piker has called Mao “one of the great leaders of this world” who “changed the entire universe.”
The DSA’s platform calls for abolishing private property, abolishing ICE, opening the borders, and taxing everything you own or create. They’ve turned on Democrats. They’ve turned on Republicans. And they’ll defend a communist dictator’s legacy faster than they’ll defend a shop owner’s right to keep the lights on.
Lenin had a name for recruits like the member in the video. He called them “useful idiots” — because the movement doesn’t need you to believe forever. Just long enough.
Socialism has always marched in on the backs of overeducated young adults with too much free time and not enough skin in the game. The DSA’s bench is stacked with candidates holding more degrees than job offers, upbringings comfortable enough to make revolution a hobby, and résumés heavy on studio art and light on payroll.
What socialism is actually offering — once you clear away the vibes and read the platform, meet the co-chairs, and watch the guy in the Mao suit get a standing ovation — is a rent freeze that doesn’t lower rent, a leadership committee stacked with Leninists, and a movement that reveres the architect of history’s deadliest famine as a personal style icon.
Capitalism gave that member his friends: an NBA app, a World Cup broadcast, and a bar with a working TV. Socialism gave him a sales pitch that leaves out the body count.
I asked a DSA leader to pitch you socialism. This is the elevator pitch that he used to convert 1000s of voters into socialists and he did it door to door. The DSA got 3 socialist congressional candidates to win their primaries, so I would listen.
If you would want to see who… pic.twitter.com/Uu5cuqgHdx
— Nate Friedman (@NateFriedman97) July 19, 2026
Hey New York You get what you voted for.
DSA Co-chair Gustavo Gordillo wants the government to drive bodegas out of business:
“If 1 publicly owned grocery store that brings prices down in the neighborhood is enough to put someone out of business then maybe they shouldn’t have… pic.twitter.com/zjqoQz695M
— Americaforever (@onetexgal9) July 18, 2026
