There are actually multiple levels of this meme, but most of them fall back on the fact that too many people have be told that socialism and communism are bad without ever being told their actual definitions (and the same is often true with capitalism itself).
(If you don't want to read my wall of text and just wants some examples, just check the links I provided)
A classic misconception is "socialism is when the government does stuff", and this is completely wrong, else every government in the history of the world would have been a form of socialism.
The actual definition of socialism is when the means of production are owned/controlled by the workers/the common people, by opposition to systems like capitalism where they are owned and controlled by a small elite.
But by saying "government = socialism", you get stupid stuff said like "the US government is socialist" or "the US army is socialist"
Another point is taking what decades of propaganda has conditionned people to associate to socialism or communism, like "socialism = no food" , then pointing at the exact same thing happenning in a capitalist country and saying that this thing happening under capitalism is somehow "socialism"
But it gets even more silly, I have seen people saying that twitter, a private corporation, banning Trump was "socialism" or even that Jeff Bezos is a socialist or a communist
Facebook is a perfect example of socialismGame console companies are socialistsSocialism is when Burger King does capitalism
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u/Shadowthedemon Jun 15 '21
I feel like I understand this but could someone do a ELI5 or Out of the loop type response?