Socialist Girl Summer

How Capitalism Spent Billions to Demonize Socialism — And Why That Spell Is Breaking

As the founder of Slow Factory, I design everything you see—every typeface, every framework, every campaign. I don’t outsource the vision. I shape it. And I started Slow with one goal in mind: to rebrand socialism, justice, and environmentalism—not as niche causes, but as cultural movements essential to our survival. Design isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about power. And I use design as a tool to imagine, demand, and build better worlds.

For nearly a century, the United States has spent billions of dollars, media bandwidth, and educational muscle to ensure one thing: that the word socialism would strike fear in the public imagination. That’s not because socialism failed. It’s because socialism threatens power—especially the kind of power that hoards land, labor, and life for profit.

But something is shifting. The re-election of Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in New York—an openly socialist organizer who unapologetically defends tenants, workers, and Palestinians—marks a rupture in that narrative. A new generation no longer flinches at the word. They embrace it. They are building it. They are winning.

But before we can move forward, we must understand what we are up against.

A Propaganda Empire Built on Fear

From Cold War cinema to first-grade civics books, socialism was rendered as the enemy. Not because it endangered democracy, but because it questioned private property, militarism, and capitalism’s sacred cow: unlimited profit.

The U.S. government, backed by its capitalist elite, responded with a sweeping cultural war.

The Red Scare and McCarthyism turned union leaders, civil rights activists, and artists into traitors.
The FBI surveilled and imprisoned people for organizing against poverty and racial capitalism.
Hollywood blacklists sanitized storytelling and sold capitalist mythology as aspirational truth.
CIA coups, from Chile to Iran to the Congo, dismantled democratically elected socialist governments because they dared to nationalize oil, land, and education.

This wasn’t a fear of failure. It was a fear of redistribution.

Why the Spell Is Breaking

Capitalism made big promises. But it delivered gig work, burnout, debt, climate collapse, and endless war. A growing number of people—especially Gen Z and Millennials—aren’t buying the myth anymore.

According to Pew Research (2023), 70% of younger Americans support some form of socialism.

Mutual aid groups, public power campaigns, and tenant unions are taking root in cities across the U.S.

And politicians like Mamdani, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Summer Lee, and others are bringing these values to governance—publicly, unapologetically.

This isn’t a rebrand. This is a return. A remembering.

Designing Liberation

Design has always been political. It’s a tool used by empires—and also a tool of resistance. Every successful propaganda campaign used design to criminalize solidarity and glorify capitalism.

Mid-century posters showed socialism as monstrous: Stalin as an octopus devouring the planet. Red flags engulfing American homes in flames. Inspectors peering through windows. These visuals weren’t neutral. They were weapons.

But today, we’re flipping the frame.

As a designer, I use visual culture to demystify and disrupt these fear-based narratives. We design not just what we see—but how we see. And when we shift that perspective, we make new futures possible.

My work at Slow Factory has always been about this: telling stories rooted in care, equity, and ecological justice. Whether through open education, cultural programming, or climate justice campaigns, I’m reprogramming what power looks like—and who it belongs to.

Zohran Mamdani and the Future of Storytelling

Mamdani’s victory isn’t just electoral. It’s cultural. He won while calling for an end to genocide in Gaza, organizing with workers instead of corporations, and speaking openly about the harms of capitalism and imperialism.

He won while the establishment poured millions into defeating him.

His win is proof: the old script is wearing thin.

Reclaiming the Word, Reclaiming the World

Socialism has always been about care—public housing, free healthcare, universal education, the right to rest and exist without fear. These are not fringe demands. These are the bare minimum for a livable planet.

The villain was never socialism. The villain was the empire that told us we didn’t deserve care unless we could afford it.

We are entering the Possible Futures era. And it’s being led by people who no longer fear justice—but are terrified of its absence.

Designing that future means unlearning propaganda and replacing it with stories of survival, resistance, and imagination. We must reclaim the visual language of dignity—transforming symbols of domination into frameworks for liberation.

We don’t just need to rebrand socialism.

We need to remember it.

And redesign everything.