re: #381 Creeping Diversity

OK, but you wrote that they “called themselves socialist and not communist precisely to distinguish themselves from communists”. So they called themselves socialists because they were socialists and were never commies in the first place, not because they wanted to distinguish themselves from communists.

No, because the concepts are similar, and get confused by other people. It’s not even necessarily to distinguish themselves from bad deeds of the communists; they might have perfectly good opinions of communists.

The question is: What should people who used to refer to themselves as ‘conservative’ back when it meant ‘being slow to change’ do? Come up with a new name? Redeem the old?

Comparisons to people who never called themselves by a term in the first place are completely besides the point.