This is idiotic and possibly true. It’s not Mao and Stalin that have turned the term ‘socialism’ into a curse, but rather the ordure that has been heaped successfully upon the term in the US, and to some extent the European right wing as well. In the US and the UK plenty of right-wing commentators respond to the slightest suggestion of redistribution or public ownership with “YES BUT GULAGS” which demonstrated the level of hysteria that has been carefully cultivated around the terminology of the Left. So while I think it’s pretty stupid to have bought into those clearly self-serving definitions, I also think that you’ve identified a real problem in how the ideology of the people under neoliberalism has been manipulated. Could socialism be successful in the US? Perhaps if it was branded in terms of founding American virtues - Christian charity, freedom from oppression, equality, rejection of privilege, kindness, humility, down-to-earth values, mutual aid and support, local community involvement and grass-roots organisation. But the moment that you address national or even more so international solidarity, I think the fnords will take hold.
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