The embrace of literal socialism by many on the purported “Right” is, at this point, hard to ignore. Yet the word “socialism” remains so toxic to so many outside of the Left, so the Socialist Right must deceive, inveigle, and obfuscate their socialism by trying to redefine it as “stuff we don’t like”. or more specifically using the state to control society other than they’d direct.
Case in point is this rambling incoherent answer from J.D. Vance on how he’s define “socialism”:
.@VP JD Vance on the definition of socialism: "I think in reality, what it actually means in the American context, is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers, and you want boys to play in girls’ sports." https://t.co/jDxPAIeLBO
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 8, 2026
Organizing society to benefit the domestic worker is quintessential socialism. To many, it’s clear that it’s just a catch-all for social outcome they don’t fancy, and that it’s not socialism when they do it for the “common good”.
“Contrary to the vice president, ‘socialism,’ a theory of socioeconomic organization in which the state, to varying degrees, owns property and enterprise and redistributes private wealth and goods based on central planners’ determinations, is not a ‘hard term to define these days.’
“‘Classically, you would think, socialism is about prioritizing workers,’ Vance said. That sounds nice! But in the vice president’s view, today’s self-proclaimed socialists have perverted the philosophy’s noble intentions. ‘So, I don’t know what the term means anymore.’”
Socialism becomes the opposite of what it is in order to justify socialism in deed while condemning it in name, much like how war is peace or up is down.
Vance and the “Postliberal Right” have embraced the collectivism that destroyed Europe in the 19th Century, and want to replace the watered down American version with the true distilled essence of Europe:
“In other words, the vice president was, in some sense, saying he was adhering to good socialist principles with his immigration announcement. The actual self-described socialists, meanwhile, are not.
“It is a helpful admission. For many years, the Republican Party has made socialism one of its primary villains, and the opposition to it one of the party’s primary calling cards.”
To get around the aversion people have to the word “socialism”, they change it to whatever is convenient to hide the fact that they wish to continue to practice it.
Vance has openly called for state control of property.
Highlight reel of @JDVance (not a socialist!) calling to "seize the institutions," "seize the administrative state," "seize the assets" of enemy foundations, "seize the endowment" to "penalize these endowments for being on the wrong side of some of these culture war issues." https://t.co/S0YG83lzDX
— Jason Hart (@jasonahart) August 18, 2026
Vance can’t defend the free market because it’d upset his power base that opposes it, and so must defend the substance of socialism, being “classically […] about prioritizing works” by using a new definition that is the antithesis thereof. Apparently “Postliberal” means “Postmodernist” when it comes to words meaning things rather than be subjective.
