Socialism is used as a "scare word"

[milestogo]

but capitalism has a lot more ill effects on society.

[leftstreet]

1. Half the population was born after the Berlin Wall fell

This cold war shit just won't scare people anymore

[Ocelot II]

2. I don't think many people even know what socialism actually is.

It's a scare word left over from the cold war; I think a lot of people still equate it with the bad old USSR. Other people who don't know what it is think it's an almost utopian system like the perception of the governments of Scandinavia, which are actually regulated capitalist constitutional monarchies. The fact that the government builds roads and airports and other public works and maintains military forces is not socialism.

[sop]

3. "Socialism" isn't strong enough any longer, enough Americans now see its benefits; only "communism" will do.

[Wicked Blue]

5. "Socialism" and "communism" are traditional right-wing propaganda mantras

Last fall a woman in my neighborhood told me she was voting for the Orange Slimeball because:

1) The price of eggs
2) Socialism
3) Communism

Several months after the election I asked her how the price of eggs was doing.

No answer.

[milestogo]

6. Yeah they were saying Kamala Harris was a Marxist.

You can't fix stupid.

[Ping Tung]

4. "Socialism never took root in America because

“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” John Steinbeck

[thought crime]

7. It's called Red Scare and is the foundation of the Right.

Socialism has been "branded" by the Right as a scary thing, with even many on the left-of-center become so afraid of being branded so they become defensive and effectively ban the term from open use.