Q: “I think calling yourselves communists will turn people away. Why not try another label?”
To be a communist means you believe that the working class—the vast majority of society—can and should run society, and that workers and capitalists have fundamentally opposed interests.
In the past, Red Scare propaganda held a lot of sway in American society. Today, the crisis of capitalism is pushing millions to revolutionary conclusions. They’re not scared, but in fact attracted to communist ideas. A 2025 CATO Institute poll revealed the extent of this radicalization among the youth: 62% of 18 to 34-year-olds had a favorable view of socialism—and 34% have favorable views of communism.
For the capitalists, a tiny parasitic minority that lords over society, communism represents the ultimate threat to their rule. Through their control of the media and the education system, the ruling class tries to convince workers that communism is something uniquely and inherently evil, that must be fought tooth and nail.
Are Reds Still Scary?
The Red Scare of the 1950s took place when capitalism was in an unprecedented upswing. Because profits were growing rapidly, the US ruling class could afford to grant American workers a better standard of living than in the past. Parents could expect their children to be better off than themselves. This was the material basis for workers’ relative trust in the system. In this context, the ruling class’s spurious claims about communism had a certain persuasive effect.
That unique period of capitalist expansion is no more. An 18-year-old in 2026 would have been born amid the 2008 financial crisis—the worst recession since 1929. To these young people, talk of the “golden years” of American capitalism feels like a distant fable.
Today, more than half of Americans believe that the next generation will be worse off than their parents. 59% say the economy is on a downward trajectory. Over 65% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Meanwhile, the top 1% of Americans are now worth $55 trillion, more than the bottom 90% of Americans.
This rampant inequality is a recipe for mass radicalization. On top of that, in 2020, we witnessed how the profit-driven system botched the response to a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. After the police murder of George Floyd and the mass movement that followed, millions came to radical conclusions about the nature of the police and the state.
The US-sponsored genocide in Gaza sparked a seething indignation against imperialism among millions. The everyday violence of the capitalist system at home and abroad is increasingly visible for all to see. US sanctions alone have killed an estimated 38 million people worldwide since 1970. Since WWII, 13–23 million people have died in wars with direct or indirect US involvement.
Communism vs. the Epstein Class
Even before the latest revelations of the Epstein scandal, the institutions of capitalist rule were deeply discredited: in late 2025, only 17% of Americans said they trusted the government—a seven decade low.
Now, the revelations in the Epstein files have made huge swaths of society lose any remaining trust they had in the ruling class’s institutions. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that the Epstein scandal caused 77% of Americans to lose trust in US political and business leaders, while 86% now believe “powerful people in the US are rarely held accountable for their actions.”
The Epstein scandal incriminates the entirety of the ruling class. 52% of Americans believe that Trump bombed Iran to distract from the Epstein files. Millions are being exposed to the reality that the entire system is run by and for cabals of profit-hungry pedophilic psychopaths. It’s not for nothing that the moniker “Epstein Class” has entered common parlance.
As a result of all this, Red Scare propaganda no longer works—particularly on the youth. In their eyes, capitalism and the ruling class are deeply discredited. When the Epstein Class calls those who oppose their rule “communists,” workers will think, “If they think that’s bad, I’m all for it.”
This is why we are proud communists. Communism represents an unmistakably revolutionary banner. It’s a label that says: “We are totally separate from and opposed to the rot of the Epstein Class and their system.”
Communists stand for the emancipation of labor from capital, for a society in which working people can take their destiny into their own hands, in direct opposition to the bloodthirsty capitalist profiteers. This is the real meaning of the hammer and sickle. The RCA’s Manifesto for America’s Communist Generation declares:
Unprecedented social explosions and class battles against the capitalists are on the horizon. Our task is to assemble the new generation of class fighters into battle formation and arm them with Marxist ideas and methods. Our mission is to build a mass party capable of leading the working class to political and economic power. We vow to carry out the American socialist revolution in our lifetime.
And as Marx famously said, “The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”
If you think that workers should run society, and we need a revolution to get there, then I’d say you’re a communist too.