Did Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York say, "Under capitalism, man oppresses man, under socialism, it's the other way round"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Ocasio-Cortez ever made such a statement. No credible reports from news organizations or other reliable sources support the claim.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @atensnut account on X on Sept. 3, 2026. It read:
Please.... Make her the Democrat nominee.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @atensnut on X.)
News searches
Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) and did not find any matching reports for "Ocasio-Cortez," "capitalism," "socialism," and "oppresses man."
The expression "Under Capitalism, Man Oppresses Man, Under Socialism, It's the Other Way Round" and its close variation, "Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under socialism, it's just the opposite," have been falsely attributed (archived here) to Ocasio-Cortez and, before that, economist John Kenneth Galbraith (archived here). The likely origin of the expressions is a cynical Soviet-era Russian joke. The statement has also been erroneously linked to economist Russ Roberts (archived here).
