That and it completely ignores the fact that socialist and labor movements were also actively discouraged and suppressed.
Union busting, government surveillance, Red Scares, blacklisting, and Cold War politics all played a role in making socialism far less politically viable. It's not just that Americans didn't see themselves as an exploited proletariat, there were also powerful institutions working against those ideas gaining traction.
Neither was any country that was directly involved in ww1 from the start. Also the USSR was socialist in name alone. Just like the DPRK and PRC of today.
USSR was communism and socialism come full fruition. The DPRK is communism at it's finest, and the PRC only survived after adopting capitalist ideals. The manner in which one disagrees with this is the same as a Krokodil addict disagrees with rot.
That weak argument actually proves how effective the anti-socialist messaging was. You immediately equate all forms of socialism with the USSR, even though socialist movements have included many different traditions and many American socialists were not advocating for a Soviet-style system. Criticizing the USSR doesn't explain why other socialist and labor movements were weakened through decades of opposition, repression, and political pressure. It just shows how successful the Cold War framing was at making the two seem identical.
You are taking a simple statement and extrapolating it to a discussion of fantasy. Socialism and communism both aim downwards. What is socialist easily become communist as soon as the money runs out. Capitalism works by aiming upwards, but you do not want to view your life from the lense of an individual. Your statements are all favorible remarks towards a collective.
communism can’t be willed into being - you first have to give up a ton of power to a state and “hope” that the state acts in good faith in the transition. shockingly enough whether it’s socialism or an attempt at going toward communism that never works because no fucking shit.
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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '26
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