Theo Von asks Mamdani to define socialism — and critics fire back at his response



The democratic socialist mayor of New York City gave his personal definition of socialism while on a podcast this week, and many found it to be naive and unserious.

On Thursday's episode of his "This Past Weekend" podcast, comedian Theo Von asked Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) to define socialism.

'That's not socialism, that's fantasy.'

"I want to talk a little bit about socialism, right, because it's a buzzword, right?" Von said. "... Will you define socialism for us? Because people say it a lot and don't know what it is. And sometimes, those people are me."

Mamdani laughed.

"I'm so happy to be with those people right now," he responded.

"Socialism, to me, it means that you will have whatever you need to live a dignified life and that it is the government's job to deliver on that, right?" Mamdani said.

"It's a belief that you shouldn't live in a place where all you can do is pick your own leaders," he added. "You should also be able to have that power in the rest of your life, right? People talk about it as the extension of democracy from the ballot box to the rest of your life."

The exchange can be viewed below on Von's podcast.

RELATED: Outrage erupts at apparent insult from Mamdani during 9/11 ceremony

He then explained what dignity meant under his political beliefs.

"When people say dignity, I want to be very clear, we're talking about the things that allow you to take a breath: housing, child care, right, public transit," the mayor said. "No one should be priced out of these things. These are non-negotiables; you need these to live."

He also repeated the well-worn trope that the country was already operating under socialist principles.

"And what I think is so confusing is there's parts of life in our country that line up with this belief," Mamdan said. "Public education — we believe that everyone should be able to go K through 12 for free, and they do. Libraries — we believe that everybody should be able to read a book that they'd like to for free, and they do. But when it comes to early childhood education, right — before kindergarten — we're comfortable with people paying $20,000 a year to afford it."

Mamdani added, "As a socialist, what I'm fighting for is that nobody is priced out of dignity."

Many criticized Mamdani for the hollow definition.

"That's not socialism, that's fantasy. And that's what this podcast between Mamdani and Von was all about," responded columnist Libby Emmons.

"Socialism is very much like the plantation owner-slave relationship," replied one X user. "You are housed and fed and kept relatively healthy so that you can be of some use to the state and its ruling elites. If Democrats are successful selling this to American descendants of slaves it will be the biggest con job in human history."

"Some bureaucrat gets to decide what you need and what a dignified life is. I’d rather have no government at all," said another critic.

A poll in 2020 found that Americans favored capitalism over socialism by a 2-1 margin, but more recent polling has seen many Americans turning toward socialism because of inflation and the affordability crisis.

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House Democrats Propose Trillions Of Dollars In Unsustainable Entitlements

Democrats think 'affordability' means trillions of dollars in government spending.

Democrats are desperate to 'Europe' our health care system



European-style health care mandates are the latest fringe policies from the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America. Packaged as “Medicare for Ya’ll” and “universal care,” these extreme plans from politicians like James Talarico and Abdul El-Sayed push control of health care to the government and away from patients and their providers.

With Talarico recently walking back some of his more controversial statements, Texans should take a hard look at how he is missing the mark on health care policy and urge him and state politicians to keep radical, European-style health care out of the state House and out of Congress.

We don’t have to look far to know what happens when government takes control of our health care.

The dangers of European-style health care policies are currently playing out across the pond. The National Health Service in England reports that waiting lists for patients have ballooned to over 7 million cases, including patients with serious and life-threatening medical conditions like cancer and heart disease.

Nearly 80,000 patients were removed from the waitlist between 2024 and 2025, not because they received care but because they died.

The promise of improved care simply doesn’t bear out when European-style policies are put into practice, yet Democrats in America are doubling down on more government intervention rather than innovation and reform.

When government boards and committees control health care decisions, there is no free market competition and no incentive to innovate. It takes nearly 20 months in Europe before patients can access a new drug once it is approved.

Why would we import these failed policies to our country?

In 2020, Americans watched as presidential contenders proposed and then abandoned European-style proposals after failing to articulate a clear vision for how the system would be implemented.

Democrats are currently recycling those same bad ideas for the midterms, only this time they are fueled by the socialist craze to force government on every aspect of American life.

RELATED: The DSA’s history lesson has one big omission

Sarah Rice/Getty Images

Americans should send a message that a government-controlled health care monopoly is not the answer. Already, bloated government health care programs fuel waste and abuse in the American health care system. The runaway 340B program is the perfect example.

Launched more than 30 years ago as a way to help safety-net providers and hospitals serve low-income patients, the program has gradually ballooned into a revenue stream that allows hospitals to purchase drugs at steep discounts and then charge insurers full price.

The Government Accountability Office has warned about insufficient oversight and improper use among hospital participants. There’s no accountability mechanism to ensure that the savings are used for charity care or passed on to low-income patients. As the program has grown, so has the waste, fraud, and abuse.

The Trump administration has made efforts to tackle the rampant abuse in the system, but Congress needs to act in order to enact lasting change. The Democrat response is more government control and health care expansion, bringing us one step closer to Europe’s harmful health care policies and further away from meaningful reforms.

States must reject attempts to import failed European health policies and government control into our health care system. Texans and Michiganders should push back against the socialist agenda that glorifies waitlists, price controls, and drug rationing over patient care.

We don’t have to look far to know what happens when government takes control of our health care. Americans need to send a clear message during the midterms: Don’t Europe our health care.

There Is No Such Thing As A Moderate Democrat Anymore

Democrats can keep pretending they are 'moderate' to win general elections, but moderation requires more than just saying the word over and over again.

Glenn Beck unpacks Socialism 2026’s top freak-show moments — and the strike plot no one is talking about



Socialism 2026 — Haymarket Books’ annual gathering of Marxists, abolitionists, and far-left activists — ran September 4-7.

As you might expect, content centered on abolition — not just of capitalism, but also of police, prisons, borders, the family, and “cisness.” Not to mention plenty of speeches on Marxist theory, Palestine solidarity, anti-ICE organizing, and labor strategy.

Glenn Beck was horrified and amused at the freak-show antics of the four-day conference. On this episode of “The Glenn Beck program,” he revisits the most viral lowlights of the event and warns of the looming 2028 strike plan hiding behind them.

While many of the session titles were predictable, some were truly unhinged. Glenn names a few: “Health Fascism,” “Body Politics,” “The Anti-State State,” “Feminism Against Cisness,” “Abolishing the Family Through Black Feminist Lens,” and “Tarot Cards for Socialists.”

The one about tarot cards, he laughs, was his “favorite.”

“Apparently the godless need some advice and a second opinion as well,” he quips.

Another noteworthy moment, Glenn says, is when Hassan Piker — the celebrity salesman of abolition socialism — gladly received a hat from a Stand with Abortion Now member with the inscription “Satan’s School of Gay Communism.”

He then plays a clip of self-described queer/trans Afropessimist and anarcho-communist Da’Shaun Harrison arguing that GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic are “fascistic” because they exist in “a world fixated on genociding fat people.”

While Harrison’s anti-GLP-1 argument makes Glenn roll his eyes, it’s the fact that he’s still wearing a mask that really ticks him off.

“For the love of Pete, COVID is way in the past. The mask didn't work in the first place,” he scoffs, noting that “a lot of the people at this convention were still wearing masks.”

As for Harrison’s fat-genocide grievance, Glenn sees a glaring flaw.

“Why would Americans want to genocide fat people? We'd all be dead. We'd all be dead. Have you been to a mall lately? Have you seen the American public recently?” he asks, baffled.

Sitting next to Harrison on the “Health Fascism” panel was Beatrice Alder Bolton — a disability-justice writer and podcaster.

“The fantasy of being fitter than the fascists — it's not just that it's cringe or strategically bad, though it is. I think it's also politically revealing. Fitness is a measure of relative disposability under capitalism,” she argued.

“Our task is not to become less disposable, to become more useful to the ruling order. What we all need to be doing is rejecting disposability in all of its forms,” she added.

Again, Glenn sees the irony. Bolton, who is wearing a mask to protect herself against sickness, is arguing that being fit and healthy is a capitalist trap.

“We don't have to worry about being healthy? Then take the mask off, sweetheart,” he snaps.

The problem with this group of radical abolitionists, he says, is not that they have bad ideas. “We all have bad ideas. … Bad ideas happen all the time. What you're looking at here in Chicago is a room where a bad idea has no place to die,” he says, explaining how dissent is equivalent to treason in such movements.

But the most alarming thing about Socialism 2026, Glenn argues, isn’t found in the viral videos about fat-genocide and fitness-as-fascism. It’s what’s coming in 2028.

“Mayday 2028” is “not a slogan” but a planned and well-organized strike that, if successful, will shut down many workplaces simultaneously.

“The UAW has called for aligning major union contract expirations on May 1, 2028. Other unions have moved their dates to match. DSA passed its resolution at its convention committing to build a mass action,” says Glenn.

“One organizer called [Socialism 2026] a structured test — a rehearsal to count how many people will actually walk out when asked. They are patient. They are funded. They are well scheduled, two and a half years out,” he continues.

So while most people are busy buzzing about viral X clips, “the calendar is the part that matters,” he warns.

To hear more, watch the video above.

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