Happy Fourth of July, I guess.

Not feeling so patriotic after the one-two punch of the disastrous Trump-Biden debate on June 27 and the Supreme Court turning our presidents into unimpeachable monarchs on July 1? Same, buddy.

On the (very small, dim, fleeting) bright side, it’s a great time to talk about socialism. And it’s always a great time to talk about games, which is why I’m revisiting Molleindustria’s Democratic Socialism Simulator. The turn-based decision-making sim, which was released in February 2020, lets you play out presidential actions as if you were a democratic socialist elected to the office. (Yes, Democratic National Committee, I know you’ll never let that happen. You’ve made that very clear.)

The scenarios are presented by political actors illustrated as animals, like the lobbyist who looks like a shark or the activist who looks like a panther, which helps keep this game from becoming more depressing than it is informative. As you make decisions like whether to forgive student debt and........

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