system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I am a liberal, but I would like to consider the positions of socialists that I'm most likely to believe. What big authors in political philosophy should I be looking at?

I believe in things like private property and a regulated free market,  not in an absolute way, but just because I think they're the best we can do right now. If something better comes along, great. What I'd like to do is tell you some of what I believe, so you can pair me with some good socialist authors who have some ideas about something better that I might like.

I don't intend to rush right into any reading right now. I mainly want to get some authors in my head. Then they'll sit there, and I'll have a Baader–Meinhoff experience of seeing these authors everywhere, and I'll eventually want to look into it some more. All that really has to be done now is to whet my appetite for the author. Just tell me some context on the author so that can happen. Rushing into books makes me interested for a little while, but turning me on to an author is almost permanent, even if I never get around to reading them.

This is a list of my take on political matters:

* I am aware that the global economic system is not fair for everybody. However, I don't believe in manual political revolution. I believe in technological and social progress that evolves society into better ways of being. Some matters need drastic action, like the environment. Bogging that down with systemic revolution is not the answer for me. I believe in topical political activism, while social and technological evolutions take care of long term problems.

* Part of the above is I've never been satisfied with the idea of progressing toward even a fuzzy end goal without accounting for how we're supposed to get there. Political revolution is situated on too many favorable conditional outcomes and "what ifs". I'd rather build on "right now" than start at a vision for the world and work both ends to meet it at the middle. The political goals of the future should be taken care of by those who live in future systems.

* I am fairly democratic and anti-authoritarian. However, I think much academic and scientific knowledge is objective, and literacy in these issues is important for democracy. I believe there should be at least as much authority in society to give people a foundation of how to think about academic issues and how to critically think. People aren't stupid, and even low-IQ people can rely on the bare bones of good reasoning to at least determine the ideas they need to take seriously and be intellectually humble. I think even anarchists are in favor of justified authority.

* Even though I said I'm a liberal, one thing I'm aware of is the perverted nature of capitalism's effect on media and culture. I don't believe the media is dictated by corporations, but they skew the agenda. This is pretty controversial among people in daily life, but when I hear about terrorists attacks when so many more people die from other systemic issues, all I think is "corporate media narrative". Less controversial is my take on art and culture being perverted by corporate power skewing and in some cases determining the agenda for music. I think pop country music on the radio is largely capitalism run amok, for example. It's extremely set by corporate agenda.

Without knowing more about the options, I'd say the best bet for me would be democratic socialism. However, the logic I put against corporate news media and pop country could be extended to other things to leave me with something more radical. And I do know Adorno has a problem with popular music in capitalism, for example.

Edit: Shout out to the guy who was able to read this all in less than a minute and downvoted me. You're my hero.

Edit: This is all great, and I want to express appreciation, but it'd be pretty silly if I just kept thanking everyone individually, so thanks!
gpt
You'd probably enjoy GA Cohen's *Why Not Socialism?*, which is a very good philosophical introduction to socialism.

As for the media narrative stuff, if you haven't read *Manufacturing Consent*, you probably should. It's the most important touchstone text on that topic.