[Fraqtive42]

Yep, they are called revisionists now.

Yes. It is interesting to look at the breaks within the Marxist movement (Bernstein, Lenin, etc.). Each broke away for a variety of reasons, although you could definitely say that nearly all common contemporary leftist movements can have their lineage traced back to Marx.
Marx was indirectly responsible for the Nordic Model, fascsm, etc..

[Meta777]

Most of these people probably think socialism means higher taxes on the wealthy and more social services.

That wouldn't be surprising, and can you really blame them?
Especially considering that anytime anyone mentions raising taxes or increasing benefits, opposition labels it as socialism.
Romney has been called a socialist by Gingrich for being in favor of a VAT tax.
Gingrich has been labeled a socialist by Bachmann for favoring Medicare Part D.
Bachmann also accused Bush of socialism for going through with the bank bailouts.
Bachmann has been called a socialist
for being in favor of tax incentives for health care providers who give free health care to those who can't afford it.
Using words in this way renders them meaningless.

-Meta

[nucklepunche]

I am an American in my early 20s and a non-Marxist socialist who used to be a right-wing libertarian. (Actually I was a socialist back in my teens, became a libertarian, and later came full circle). However I tend to think, as an earlier poster said, that these young people think it means higher taxes on the rich and more social services. Yes, out and out socialism is more popular but so are other "alternative" ideologies like libertarianism due to the influence of the Internet. I think these people like social democracy. That being said I'm noticing a trend in my generation. It seems on the margins most people in my generation are liberal or libertarian on social issues, however I suspect this will be e a much more polarized generation in terms of economics. It is going to be a generation not of liberals and conservatives, but socialists and libertarians, though with a slight edge to socialists.

[ralfy]

The only "recovery" that the U.S. will get will be from more fudging and replacing one debt with another.

[Slayerddx]

Obviously not everyone knows what socialism means(even within this thread), but I think the main takeaway from this is that young people see that capitalism isn't working for them. I doubt a lot of them have a clear idea as to what socialism is, but they probably make the association that socialism equals "not capitalism," and that's why they support it. So the real story here, I think, is not the support for socialism, but the opposition to capitalism.

You hit the nail on the head with this one...too many young people here in America see what capitalism has done to our country, over the past few decades it has been one roller coaster ride after the next, bad to worse then alright and bad again. We have sat and watched as our grandparents are fed countless amounts of experimental drugs per day, and end up worse than actual druggies.

We are tired of big business control...sick of seeing companies that make billions of dollars in profit each year not hold up to their side of the bargain. You really want to know why crime is so bad? It's not because kids have bad parenting or that we have genes that make us do it as Mak would say.....but because we are growing up watching corporate greed destroy our families, making us angrier and angrier throughout every stage of our lives. Our children have medicines forced down their throats because they are hyperactive...and the drug companies paid someone to start a campaign about ADD...when all we really needed was a new way of learning...not sitting in a classroom for 8 hours a day doing nothing. Involve us!

You can say what you want...but something has to be said when the "great" capitalist country of the world has to get loans from socialist countries.