Their biggest problem is overcoming the hurdle of re-evaluating 20th-century socialism, which their history and economics education taught them was a complete failure (rather than only mostly a failure) and guaranteed to yield mostly poverty, death, and suffering

let me guess, this was your path to socialism too? It certainly was mine. I remember being like 16 and when I looked up political ideologies it all said socialism was what I was closest to, but obviously that was wrong cus who wants to replicate Stalinist russia? The breaking point finally came from wikipedia of all places, when reading the historical account of what actually happened during the many soviet revolutions. It lays it all out pretty well. When you understand that, and actually understand what sanctions are, it’s hard not to put two and two together and realize that the entire communist world was basically under economic warfare the moment they emerged as a government in Russia. Of fucking course their economy sucked, they were limited to what little they could get on their own for the most part. Socialism wasn’t a failed concept, it was nearly defeated by the elites. But there is nothing stronger than an idea who’s time has come, and the elites are getting scared as fuck for a damn good reason. They understand the underlying economic elements that most regular people consider “marxist” and therefor offlimits like it’s some forbidden knowledge or some shit. They see the class consciousness that the internet is creating, despite it’s flaws it’s changed how humanity interacts with itself. They realize what’s coming and some are trying to oppose it, futially I think.