"I’m sure there is a lot of becoming human going on at this conference, but it is not a good place for it. Indeed, my point at this point is that the evil conference center is emblematic of the problems we face, and maybe conferences are too. If we can all agree we need more becoming-human, then there need to be better formats and spaces more conducive to the kinds of connection and development we want to see. But this is—as anyone who has ever organized such a thing knows—very difficult. How to rebuild the socialist beer halls of the workers’ movement when beer and rent are so expensive? But the problems may also be cultural. Over the last decade, I have watched a continuing dominance of discourse in anarchist, communist, and socialist spaces by professional or semi-professional writers like myself, and a decline in writing by non-professionals. This leads to a situation where there are talkers and then listeners rather than talkers and listeners. Part of this has to do with a change in literacy and in habits of reading and writing in the age of smartphones and now artificial intelligence that must be addressed directly."

https://brooklynrail.org/2026/10/field-notes/why-is-there-no-socialism-in-the-united-states/