I spent three days undercover at the biggest socialist conference of the year.

I'll show you what the real far-left talks about when they think you're not listening.

From September 1-3, I went undercover at the largest socialist conference in the country, Socialism 2023. In this series, I’ll show you what the real Marxist left talks about when they think we aren’t listening.

The Socialism Conference cost me about $3,000 to cover (and, if I’m honest, more than a bit of stress). My work is funded entirely by you.

To support my work, please consider an $8/month or $80/year subscription.

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Last week, I told you guys I was taking some days off of streaming to visit family.

But did you guys really think I would allow the largest socialist conference of the year to pass me by without infiltrating it?

This weekend was the annual Socialism Conference.

Hosted by a prominent socialist book publisher, this event brings together hundreds of real, self-professed, socialist, Marxists, and communist activists and organizers - the further of the far left, the most dystopia of the dystopian - for a weekend of socialist politics and education.

Yes, they really do call each other comrade.

The Socialism Conference in 2022 is what started my Socialism Saturday live streams.

Last year, I randomly stumbled upon the live stream for the Socialism Conference and asked my community if they wanted me to snipe it for a watch party. We dubbed it Socialism Saturday, and have been watching real Socialism every Saturday at 6pm on my challenge for a full year.

Because of this, I truly believe people who regularly attend Socialism Saturday know more about what the real far-left is doing, how they’re infiltrating our institutions and advancing their ideology, better than anyone on the planet.

Make sure you subscribe to join us every Saturday, if you’re interested.

Because Socialism Saturday has been so impactful in shedding light on what the far-left is doing, I couldn’t let the one year anniversary go by without celebrating the event that started it all.

So, I registered for the Socialism Conference, booked a flight to Chicago, and got a hotel. I was ready to go.

Until the Socialists pre-emptively banned me from their conference for violating their code of conduct.

No seriously.

They pre-emptively banned me from their conference for a code of conduct violation before I had even left New Hampshire.

But I suspected they would do that. Time for civil disobediance.

One of the recordings you’ll hear in the coming days is that I have them recorded talking about how they violate anti-critical race theory laws in schools using something they call “fugitive pedagogy.” So, I didn’t think the socialists would mind if I engaged in a little “fugitive pedagogy” of my own by ignoring their pre-emptive (and groundless) ban.

The thing about the real socialists is that most of them are academics.

And that means they all think they’re smarter than us.

But what the socialists didn’t know was that I had registered under a fake name weeks prior to registering under my real name.

Sometimes, I like to play games. I registered under my real name just to see what the socialists would do, and if they would allow someone like me to learn from their sessions.

It was a test, to see how tolerant and inclusive they really were.

And they failed.

Now, what I didn’t anticipate is that the socialists would find out where I was staying and cancel my hotel while I was flying there.

That really happened.

They canceled my hotel.

So, I found a new hotel that was a block away from the old one that didn’t violate my privacy and give my name out.

I know full well that I can never pull this stunt again. I know this is my first and last Socialism conference in person. So, I had to make the most of this.

Of course, I had to change my look.

I already look pretty leftist. Except for the hoodie pointing out that public schools turn kids into queer zombies in the environment most closely resembling prison that most of them will ever experience.

Two weeks before the Socialism Conference, I ordered new glasses. I had needed new glasses for a while but figured if I was going to get them anyway, I could use them as a disguise by not wearing them publicly before the conference. This was a moment that required gawdy glasses.

I also dyed my hair and styled it differently than I usually wear it. It was supposed to turn out with a blue tint. Instead, it came out dark brown.

Eff it, good enough.

Really, the Socialism Conference was asking for someone to infiltrate it.

Because four years into the pandemic, the Socialism Conference still required attendees to wear masks.

Some people were even double masking. You can’t make this stuff up.

So, I ordered a plain black version of my favorite fake mask (one that you can breathe in), and I was good to go.

Then I added a red hat that perfectly matched my Socialism Saturday thumbnail and a non-binary outfit that was dowdy and made me look bigger than I really am.

I was even wearing a chest binder. That shit’s uncomfortable, but I felt like it enhanced the effect.

Finished off with my Doc Martens, and I was good to go.

Now, because the socialists had canceled my hotel, I figured they knew I was coming. So I went from being confident to being REALLY nervous.

Luckily, a volunteer came to the rescue.

At this point, I have to give a giant should out to Murphy’s Pool.

Murphy’s Pool has been a valued member of my community for a while. He lives several hours away from Chicago and decided to drive out and bring me a gift bag with snacks, alcohol, and pepper spray (he was worried about me being by myself in Chicago).

While he was here, I asked him to go pick up my name badge.

I figured they would be looking for me at registration, and that would be the most obvious place they would get me.

But I had registered with a non-binary name - KB Kelty. Anyone could register as me.

KB is obviously my initials. Kelty is a tip of the hat to my Grandma Kelty (God rest her soul), who was a lady who never took grief from anyone (least of all the dozen grandchildren she babysat every day after school while sitting at her table, smoking Marlboros, maybe with a smidgeon of whiskey, doing her crossword puzzles).

So, some could argue I did register under my real name, and they just didn’t see what was right in front of them. That made it more satisfying.

Anyway, I asked Murphy’s Pool to go pick up my name badge.

We formulated a story - he knew what the initials stood for if people asked (Kyle Bourigard), that he was looking to be a union organizer, and that his husband Victor had signed him up for this. If they had asked for his ID, he would have told them he didn’t bring it with him in case he got mugged. I hoped that the socialists would be low-tech enough not to put a photo on the badge.

And he went off to sign into the conference and pick up my badge.

Minutes after he got in line, he texted me that I was in!

The largest hurdle was overcome, getting past the only time I’d be required to talk to organizers all weekend. He returned to the hotel and dropped it off, complete with the appropriate they/them sticker.

Cheers, Murphy’s Pool. I’m drinking this Peroni in your honor. It’s really not a bad beer.

And off to the Socialism Conference, I went.

I headed over to arrive in time for the first session (It was called Kids As Comrades, and it was all about how they’re indoctrinating their own kids to be the next generation of socialist activists. You’ll learn more about it in this series).

I visited their massive bookstore. They had socialist board games. They had a section about how they’re influencing education. They had a kid’s section, complete with coloring books. I’ll show you some of the books they sold there. I even bought myself a book and some socialist t-shirts.

I spoke to their sponsor tables and got some absolutely incredible swag. I’ll walk you through some of it.

And I listen to their sessions.

I also recorded audio of many of them, because no one has an expectation of privacy when they’re speaking into a microphone in front of a room full of people, some of whom are also recording audio or video.

I didn’t record any private conversations, only what was said publicly into a microphone. You’ll hear what they say to each other in the open.

In the “My Day With The Socialists” series, I will take you inside their world. I’ll share what they’re teaching. I’ll show you their organizing materials. I’ll teach you what they really believe.

These are the people who are pushing the talking points of the Democratic Party.

These are the people who took over the universities and then the K-12 schools.

These are the people who led (what they call) the George Floyd uprising in the summer of 2020.

These are the people driving the cultural revolution.

They are highly effective, and they are winning.

In this series, you’ll learn WHY they are winning and the world they hope to build.

Buckle up. The next story drops later today, and you’re not going to believe it.

By the time you read this, I will be on a flight home, having safely escaped the socialist metropolis of Chicago without getting my ass beat by Antifa.

But before we conclude, I want to say a word or two to the socialists whose conference I infiltrated.

Dear Socialists,

I’m sure you’re pretty pissed I got by you.

But the fact that I did is proof that you didn’t have to pre-emptively ban me. I didn’t harass or demean anyone. I followed your mask policy (thank you for that). I didn’t even violate your recording rules (well, not technically anyway. You told me I couldn’t record video. You said nothing about audio…and since you were recording audio of “all sessions,” no one there had any expectation of privacy).

All I did was come, listen to your sessions, take notes, participate like any other attendee (I’ve been watching your content for a year, I know how to speak your language), and have perfectly lovely conversations with people. I even gave your sponsors some money.

I just don’t see what the problem is here. No one reported me. No one had any issue with me. How do you hope to advance your revolution if you don’t allow people who disagree with you to listen to you?

Believe it or not, there are things you guys believe that I agree with.

I’m on your team on abolishing the police. I think the police are a gang, and the prison industrial complex is irreparably corrupt. When I listened to Bettina Love in the Abolition Education session, I found myself agreeing with far more things she said than I disagreed with.

I hate the book bans and Moms for Liberty, and have spoken out publicly about both since they started this over a year ago. You are absolutely correct that the GOP has become the party of book banning and outrage over drag shows held in private clubs, and I don’t think it’s effective. See, we have so much in common.

I’m also pro-choice, and I find the pro-life movement insufferable. Now, I’m not pro-abortion, and your “shout your abortion” stuff is ridiculous and gross…honestly, it’s this stuff that makes me want to be pro-life more than the pro-life movement does. However, that means we can agree that the pro-life movement is also ridiculous, and it’s important to acknowledge the common ground where you can.

And like you, socialists, I hate the Democrats (or the neo-liberals). I’m also just as harsh on the conservative right for all of their authoritarianism, too. And I probably fight more with the real alt-right than you do.

I also have to give you credit, socialists. I think you have created a really positive environment. I admire the way you build community. I felt significantly more comfortable at the Socialism Conference than I did when I went to CPAC. You guys are really nice when you think people are on your team, or when you’re trying to recruit them.

This is a true story: Towards the end of the conference, I reflected on the fact that I genuinely believe most people there have positive intent. I think they’re people who have struggled, and their worldview has formed from that struggle. I think that many of them truly believe they are trying to create a society in which people show each other more humanity.

The problem is not that they are bad people. Most of the people I met at the conference were not bad or malicious people.

The problem is they have been misled about the logical outcomes of their ideas, a fact they will not find out until it’s too late.

I’m an anarchist, socialists. I don’t care if people are black or brown or gay or trans. I think that the conservative right has gone insane on a lot of issues. I think you guys are insane on some things as well (family abolition, anyone?).

But, ultimately, I think we agree on more than you think we do. Your fight for average people is good. Your tactics of assuming that everyone who doesn’t agree with you is a hateful monster is bad.

There’s a part of me that wishes we could just learn to get along and sit down and have a normal conversation, socialists. I really think you missed a golden opportunity in this regard. I believe in a world in which you should be able to live however you want to. If you want to take over the state of Vermont and create your communist utopia, I will wish you the best. I just don’t want you to force me to participate in it because that is not a lifestyle I want. If I can stay in the libertarian homeland of New Hampshire and you guys take over the communist homeland of Vermont, we can all live in the way that makes us happy and peacefully co-exist with each other. Maybe we can even find ways to trade and work together on things we agree on.

Wouldn’t that be nicer than being enemies?

I can promise you this, socialists: I’ll cover you fairly. As I show people what happened in this series, I’m not going to use hyperbole or gotcha tribalist strategies to present you unfavorably. I will quote you accurately, with context.

Let the people decide for themselves if they are comfortable with your ideas, or not.

But at least we’ll be open and transparent about what your ideas are.

If you feel I’ve gotten something wrong, you’re welcome to get in touch and tell me, and I will correct it or include your statement that I got it wrong if I disagree with you.

And don’t worry. I won’t be back next year. For real. I know I can only get away with this stunt once.

But that doesn’t mean others won’t go.

And next time, they won’t be public people.

They’ll be people you’ve never heard of, so you can’t pre-emptively ban them.

You’re trying to start a revolution in this country, and you’re having a lot of successes. People have a right to know what is going on and who’s responsible.

Game on.

KB Kelty (aka Karlyn Borysenko)

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Questions?

Let me know in the comments!

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