The major election year 2026 kicks off with a new mayor taking over GothamonJan. 1. From Sacramento to Minneapolis to New York, some candidates are peddling Karl Marx.The most glaring example isZohranMamdani, who pledges innumerable freebiesandhascalledfor "seizing the means of production."What are we to make of this"popMarxism"?What is its appeal?It is "pop" in two senses of the word.It ispopularin that it is shallow while presenting as novelandexciting.It ispopulistin a braying pretense of familiarity, its calls for costless gratificationandits gratuitous attacksonthe status quo.Underneath the pop lies a dangerous ideology. Call itMarxism, socialism or communism they aim for the same result. Marxandhis disciples foresaw an "inevitable" future, prophesying that democratic capitalism would give way to statist socialism, followed by full-blown communism.IM FROM GEN Z. WE ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE TO STOP SOCIALISM FROM TAKING OVERIn the first step, the unaccountable, indomitable administrative state takes control of all aspects of economic life.Allaspects: what type of work you will be allowed to do, where you shopandwhat you shop for, where you live, whether you receive an inheritance or it is redistributed to the faithful,anda thousand other economic matters.Andthat is just phaseone. Communism, the second step, means totalitarian control over not just where you goandwhat you do, but what you thinkandbelieve. Schoolsanduniversities, therefore, are the epicenters of indoctrination.Many seem to have done their job. In asurveyearlier this year, 62% of young Americans have a positive view of "socialism,"the ideology that murdered 100 million people at the hands of Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro, Maoandothers.NYC'S SHOCKING SOCIALIST VICTORY IS A DIRE WARNING FOR THE RIGHTAgain, what is the appeal?Young Americans are not poor, hungry, or oppressed, rather extremely well-off by historicalandcontemporary standards. Gens YandZ are, to put it plainly,privileged,andyet seduced byMarxism.Two things conspire to delude them: revisionist educationandinappropriate guilt.The first problem is flimsy, ideologically-driven history education. Each year, many high school classrooms barely make it to World War II. Then, exhausted teachers skip over the Cold War, the crimes of communism, the heroic tales of resistance,andthe vigilance of the Western democracies to end the school term with their preferred version of "current events," such as the purported bravery of eco-terrorists.NEW YORK'S SOCIALIST NIGHTMARE IS JUST BEGINNING BUT THERE'S STILL A WAY OUTAt the same time, the curriculum young people receive from grade schoolonup has been ideologically reconstructed. They were taught to view all of history through the neo-Marxist lens ofoppressorvs.oppressed.U.S. historyandliterature are framed around race, genderandwage slavery. America is guilty of exploitationanddomination.Second,popMarxismperpetuates a twisted sense ofguilt. They have been lectured that their blessings were not earned by their grandparentsandparents, but, rather, stolen from the underprivileged.The Greatest Generation? White men advancing Americas imperial agenda. The same for Cold Warriors from Berlin to South Korea. Americas wealth is ill-gotten, not the fruit of a free society that has encouraged innovation from Benjamin FranklinandThomas Edison to Carver, Einstein, Copland, Salk, Gates, JobsandMusk.CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONHere is the great irony: these young people simultaneously hold anti-institutional viewsanda gross sense of entitlement. They call for a revolution against corporationsandslow-moving government institutions but demand a subsidized first-world lifestyle. They want benefits without workandsecurity without responsibility. After all, doesnt equality mean free health care, free college, free transportationandguaranteed incomes?Then again, what have we taught them? They learned from the COVID lockdowns that money rolls off the states printing press, citizens could be paid to lounge at home,andpassing grades were "earned" just for showing uponZoom.Losing a majority of young Americans topopMarxismis not just unacceptable, it is dangerous.PopMarxisms leaders are rabidly political,andtheir young followers can get caught up in the destructive idealism of the moment.In contrast, todays silent majority of young adults is far less political, being concerned with earning an education, starting a family,andresponsibly paying his or her way.With 2026 being both an election yearandthe 250thanniversary of our nations birth, it is an appropriate time to be grateful for our blessings, tell the truth about American history, recommit to our founding principles of ordered liberty,andconfront the lies of communism.CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY ERIC PATTERSON