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by majewsky 2646 days ago
This is entirely orthogonal to socialism vs non-socialism. Socialism is about economic systems where the means of production are owned by the workers.
2 comments

No no no. Socialist now means anything that helps anyone without direct payment. Except for US interstate highways. That’s totally not socialist.
That's not how that word is used in practice in Europe now. There are many parties with "socialist" in their names which don't promote giving the means of production to the workers.
Correction, it's not just that word, it's any word, and it's not used in practice anywhere in the world. North Korea is not "democratic", the US PATRIOT act is not "patriotic", etc. Still that doesn't mean we should call N. Korea democratic because they "devalued" the name. It still means what it means even though some might appropriate the name for purposes of propaganda.
Still the distinction between socialism as a centralized authoritarian country and socialism as mean of social welfare is important. various "socialist" parties in europe usually (IMO) tend to favour a view of society where the individual is assured many essential services and a stronger social safety net. this is the modern equivalent of owning the means of production.

Then and now one focus of socialist policy is to make so that the "Bourgeoisie" cannot ruin the life of those near the bottom of society. In the last many decades the economy, the "workers", the bottom of society all changed a lot.