“Socialists Identify With Humanity as a Whole”

Nathan J. Robinson

We speak with Nathan J. Robinson, founder of Current Affairs, about self-interest versus moral conviction, the cruelty of conservatism, and the cluelessness of liberalism.

Nathan Robinson speaks with Bernie Sanders press secretary Briahna Joy Gray on the Sanders show Feel the Bern. YouTube


Nathan J. Robinson is the founder and editor of Current Affairs and the author of Why You Should Be A Socialist. Jacobin’s Meagan Day spoke with Robinson about self-interest versus moral conviction in the makings of a socialist, the cruelty of conservatism and cluelessness of liberalism, the revolutionary reform agenda of Bernie Sanders, and the state of socialist organizations and left media today.


Meagan Day

I’ve read your book, so I now know why you want me to be a socialist. But why are you a socialist, and how did you become one?

Nathan J. Robinson

I grew up in Florida in a very segregated city, and I went to a fantastic public school that was nearly all white in a town and a county that wasn’t nearly all white. I was disturbed by that in high school, and I was disturbed by the way that good liberals appeared to be fine with it. I think a lot of socialists have, at one time or another, found ourselves disturbed by what good liberals are okay with and able to rationalize.

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