[adventured]

The term Socialist is widely thrown about, directed at Democrats. It very, very rarely applies. Even Bernie Sanders isn't a Socialist, even though he pretends to be one in name because it bolsters his attempt to appear radical vs the status quo. There is so little actual understanding of what Socialism is these days, people widely believe the Scandinavian nations are Socialist (they're all mixed economy welfare states, not even remotely Socialist, with most of the economy privately owned, vast private wealth very common, and functioning on free market principles with hefty doses of regulation).

[emodendroket]

It's somewhat understandable that people can't keep democratic socialists and social democrats straight. But most Democratic figures they call socialist are just so far from any of that that it's unbelievable.