The US Left doesn’t quite exist.

Everything you might call “the socialist movement” — anarchists, Marxists, democratic socialists — is on the edges of a bigger phenomenon. A few months ago a multi-year study was published, finding that the strongest predictor of an individual’s politics isn’t demographics, party affiliation, or even self-identified ideology. Rather, the US has seven distinct segments with their own ideologies, demographics, social networks, and “basic values” (for instance, how they raise children). US politics happens through that set of political subcultures.

US socialism exists inside one of them: the “Progressive Activists.” Members of that subculture are far more likely to self-identify as liberal than as radical or revolutionary. However, they are the people that socialists hang out with, live next door to, and have friendly debates with at parties. They go to the same protests and the same colleges. They engage with the same media outlets (and use social media much more than other segments). They share the same values (not to mention the same backgrounds: Progressive Activists are 80% white, whiter than any segment except the far right, and 3% Black — the least Black of any segment, including the far right. They are concentrated in coastal metropolises and have much higher rates of college education than the population at large. A quarter of them make six figures — twice the national average and more than any other segment — and they’re less than half as likely as the average to make less than $20,000/year).