The Harvard Crimson has published, as a "special report," an admiring profile of Soviet dupe John Reed. The article concludes with a discussion of how the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders has made socialism fashionable on campus:
One of the long-lasting impacts of Bernie Sanders' campaign is the way that... he's been able to change the conversation around "the s-word," Tyrik LaCruise '17, an avid Sanders supporter, said. "Running as a democratic socialist, people are like 'Whoa, wait a second. It's not as dirty as I thought. The post office is socialism. Public schools? Socialism. We have roads. That's socialism.'"
Paul Adler, a lecturer in Harvard's History and Literature concentration, is intrigued by that reclamation. "The Sanders phenomenon is blowing my mind.... He calls himself a socialist. According to the polls of Democratic party voters, a lot of people are OK calling themselves socialists," he said. "Maybe it's been enough time since the Cold War that there can be a renewed attempt at all this."
If these Harvard folks think socialism is so nifty, why they don't all decamp to U. Mass., Amherst, or some other government-run institution? The whole situation seems pretty grim, at least to judge by this particular special report.