re: #366 iossarian

Come on. That’s exactly why people in the US stopped calling themselves “socialist” - because of its association with what was going on in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The word “socialism” was used quite a lot. In fact, one of the S’s in USSR stands for “socialist”.

No, it’s because there was a sustained propaganda effort to tar the word ‘socialist’. For fuck’s sake, many US socialists called themselves socialist and not communist precisely to distinguish themselves from communists.

So it doesn’t at all fit what you’re saying.

The word “socialism” was used quite a lot. In fact, one of the S’s in USSR stands for “socialist”

Oh for Crissake, you think I don’t know that? They were still know, in the US, as Communists, not as Socialists.