# Opinion: The Daily Signal's Tyler O'Neil Says 'Woke 1.0' Bred a New, More Virulent Socialism Built on Envy and Identity Politics

O'Neil argues the Left's new socialists mix economic control with intersectionality, and that social media's 'hall of mirrors' feeds relative deprivation even as Americans enjoy historic abundance.

- Section: [Opinion](https://rightnewsrightnow.com/opinion/)
- Published: 2026-10-31
- By: RightNewsRightNow Staff
- Canonical page: https://rightnewsrightnow.com/articles/opinion-tyler-oneil-gain-of-function-marxism-woke-1-0-new-socialism-gallup-40-percent-daily-signal/

This is an opinion column by Tyler O'Neil, a senior investigative reporter at the Daily Signal. The views are the author's.

His thesis. O'Neil says a "new form of socialism has escaped from the lab" of what he calls Woke 1.0 and is taking over the Left. He says the strain behind groups like the Democratic Socialists of America goes beyond government ownership of industry by pairing it with identity politics. These socialists, he writes, are "young, college-educated, and racially diverse" and speak the language of intersectionality, pronouns and microaggressions.

The evidence he cites. He points to a Gallup poll last month showing socialism's favorability topping 40%, and argues that is less about young Americans reading Marx than about "a noxious cocktail of envy, social alienation, distrust of institutions" and a framework that treats inequality as proof of oppression. He traces the lineage from Marxist class struggle to the Frankfurt School and later theories of race, sex and sexuality, and says the ideas spread through corporations, schools and government after 2020.

Envy and abundance. Social media, he argues, creates "a hall of mirrors" where everyone seems richer and happier. Americans enjoy "a gobsmacking level of absolute prosperity," he writes, while "increasingly measuring our lives by relative deprivation," and socialism "feeds on the gap."

His warning. The real danger, he says, is political power: socialism asks people to distrust a free economy and hand more decisions to top-down politics. He closes, "Call it gain-of-function Marxism, but whatever you do, don't spread it."

Note for readers: this is advocacy from a conservative outlet. Gallup's number is as cited by O'Neil, and the column does not include a response from the groups it criticizes. Our earlier Daily Signal stories are on the site.

## Source

Original reporting: [The Daily Signal (opinion by Tyler O'Neil)](https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/10/31/gain-of-function-marxism-how-woke-1-0-gave-birth-to-new-more-virulent-strain-of-socialism/)