We Won’t Get Europe with the Democratic Socialists of America

And that's what they're counting on.

Vanessa Mares
Sep 15, 2026




A commenter on one of my recent YouTube videos said the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are “doing nothing but trying to resurrect social democracy.”

For many Americans that may read as benign.

But what is social democracy? And if the DSA is only trying to resurrect it in the U.S., does that mean people against the DSA platform are just fear-mongering?

After all, social democracy is what’s popular in Europe.

Many Americans may not know that European-style of governance by the name “social democracy,” but now is the most critical time to get to know it.

Because conflating it with democratic socialism, is not only false, but playing with fire.
But First, How Did We Get Here?

For over 20 years now, social media has connected people from all over the planet.

Suddenly, what was happening in one place could be made visible in the palm of your hand, on the other side of the world.

And when that happened, millennials priorities shifted.

We saw the rise of what is known as the experience economy, where millennials began prioritizing experience and travel over physical things.

Around that time, came the rise in creator economies and cohorts of Americans and Europeans abroad turning their lives into escapism content for the American audience.

Their content would circle around praising the healthcare system, free education, the pace of life, food, etc.,— all to high engagement among Americans.

Many of these influencers rarely posted anything negative in their experiences abroad, likely because it didn’t perform as well.

As an American that lives in Europe, and has for many years now, I can state with certainty it’s not all roses like the influencers make it seem.

There’s nuance in every experience, yet this is rarely shown in escapism content.

So, it’s only natural that young Americans getting these European utopias on their screens everyday want what Europe has.

Any political strategist could tell you, this is a powerful entry point— which is exactly how the DSA are strategizing it.

In 2021, Zohran Mamdani virtually attended a 2021 Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) conference and said as much himself, in his own words.

I clipped the most revealing part of this strategy as he laid it out, for you below.

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