I’m talking about people like Vaush, Adam Something, even Elon Musk. Hell, even people like George Orwell claimed to be socialist so it’s not a new thing. They’re not “Marxist but not Leninist”, or anarcho socialists/communists or whatever, but people who don’t even come close to being any sort of leftist at all!
It’s not like socialism is a very glamorous thing to be in the West, or ever was. The average Westerner either thinks socialism is even worse than fascism, or thinks fascism is a type of socialism. Those two are generally for people like and don’t like fascism respectively. It’s definitely not like being an athlete or being in a band or something where you stand to actually impress the general populus if you lie about it.
So I genuinely don’t understand this: if you’re a Westerner, why would you pick socialism as part of an already fake character you’re casting yourself as? What favours is it doing for you?
Like, I’m a Westerner (at least, I live and grew up in the West, not born there and not white tho), and I’m genuinely a socialist (Marxist-Leninist). And I do the opposite to these fake socialists: I keep that identity on the down low in public places IRL, because I’m worried I might actually get persecuted for it (physically attacked, probably not unless I’m in a really far right crowd, I’m mainly worried about things like job prospects). I definitely don’t do things like broadcast that identity to people who know me IRL (most probably think I’m Sanders-esque socdem at best), and especially not to random people I come across on the street. I genuinely can’t imagine anyone in the West getting brownie points for being a socialist, so why wear that hat unless you actually believe in socialism?
I think it is a bit different in Europe, specifically the UK. I don’t think many people associate it fully with communism. Thus it’s easy for people who have no aspiration or knowledge about seizing the means of production to label themselves socialist because they feel sorry for poor people etc.
The term “champagne socialist” is popular in the Uk as a mocking descriptor because a lot of well off people like to espouse socialist views, as far as alleviating the pressures on poorer people or relaxing immigration controls. However that’s about it. There is no intention to alter the real state of affairs and institute actual socialism.
It also doesn’t help that we in the west generally greatly benefit by the unfair exploitation of the rest of the world. As a result socialism in Europe really just means improving wages or increasing government help. Nothing to do with achieving actual socialism which might mean actually giving up our privileged position.
I won’t deny though that some of the American craziness is creeping in.