Post by @MicroWave@lemmy.world

2026-10-04 14:30 UTC

Zohran Mamdani says 'you have to luck out in some big way' to achieve the American Dream now—and many people see better odds of winning the lottery In an interview on Theo Von’s podcast This Past Weekend, Mamdani warned that if the American Dream is just an ideal that’s out of within reach, then people may start to give up. The democratic socialist compared it to legendary NYC Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s observation during the rise of fascism in Europe, saying people turned away from democracy not because they were tired of liberty, but because they were tired of being hungry. “So if democracy doesn’t mean the better life that it has to, it’ll lose its worth. And the same thing with the American Dream: if it’s something you can only see when you turn on your TV or you hear about that one guy you grew up with who made it, that doesn’t mean enough,” Mamdani said.

Replies (3)

@Formfiller@lemmy.world 2026-10-05 04:32

The lottery is rigged. The zoro ranch trust doesn’t win the lottery by accident. Stop buying lottery tickets

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@CharlesDarwin1809@piefed.world 2026-10-04 20:08

He’s right, and people can see he’s right, which is why they voted for him to become mayor of NYC Meanwhile Republicans are a bunch of oligarchs who are like “No you can’t vote for socialists because… look at all this culture war stuff! Please keep us in power!”

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@givesomefucks@lemmy.world 2026-10-04 15:15

Nepo babies are taking every opportunity, and the cute name doesn’t change the reality of it. When enough people realize it, it won’t matter how “cool” some of them are. Generational wealth inequality destroys everything, and it’s going to keep getting worse. Not just because the vast majority gets fucked over, but because the people who get to run shit are chosen because how wealthy their daddy was. The masses can keep shit functional for a while, but once that pattern starts you quickly run into the rich idiots at the top causing so much damage the rest can’t keep society moving. The wealthy are always the ones directly to blame for violent social upheaval, because they were the only ones with the power to fix it without violence. Their iron grip on their parents stolen wealth means there’s no other option. Just a matter of when.

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