Schadenfreude Socialism

Mamdani: For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty pic.twitter.com/EAqgWmBPci

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 1, 2026

We call those the “good old days.”

Mamdani: We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism pic.twitter.com/JYtcr7c350

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 1, 2026

I couldn’t hear the rest of what he said for the sound of so many heads exploding. Is it wrong that I enjoyed that?

Mamdani: The cost of childcare will no longer discourage young adults from starting a family. Because we will deliver universal childcare for the many by taxing the wealthiest few. pic.twitter.com/oB5VDmvAMm

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 1, 2026

We’ve been trained to call that “socialism.” Except in the 1950’s we taxed at that level to do things like build the interstate highway system. I went to college in a small, East Texas town that built a hotel for the city because the city needed a hotel. Back in the ‘50’s. The town I grew up in, near that town and built on the wild capitalism of the Texas oilfield, had two banks: People’s, and Citizens. Nobody thought it sounded socialist; although it does. The frigidity of rugged individualism; the warmth of collectivism. We fool ourselves on the former, of course. There is not one rich person in this country who earned it all by her/him-self, without relying on customers, or the federal government, or investors, or all of the above. The veterans of WWII were disgusted by the Hollywood films they came home to, that made it seem like the war was won single-handedly by John Wayne. Vietnam Veterans got Rambo revenge movies. 

Besides:

Caviar station and ice sculpture at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago party as food banks continue to be stretched thin pic.twitter.com/OXIcYaY7Z8

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) January 1, 2026

 

Thinking this is wrong is not radical.
Thinking it isn’t is. pic.twitter.com/ZQiIKb11Iz

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) January 1, 2026

And I’ll just drop this in here.

Step 1: Billionaires threaten to leave if you elect people who will fairly tax them.

Step 2: Billionaires never leave.

Step 3: Back to Step 1

“Billionaires will leave if you tax them” is the myth billionaires tell you so you won’t tax them. https://t.co/OKLoNnhXzo

— Melanie D'Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) January 1, 2026

I was living in Austin the first time it was supposed to rival Silicon Valley. The term used was actually “Silicon Prairie.” (Which would be West Texas; or Waco, about 100 miles north up I-35. Austin is on the edge of the Hill Country. It ain’t on a prairie.) That was about 40 years ago. Tesla moved in outside of town. Tesla’s future rests wholly on shareholders; not so much on product. And Apple’s not relocating from Cupertino anytime soon. Austin quit waiting for a “Silicon anything” a couple of decades ago.