What compels non-Americans to deny the obvious truth? I guess they are just idiots who don't study history. You need to read some more. The way Socialist ideas played out in the American and European context are widely different. For Europe socialist ideas more directly influenced government policies and parties. In the US the effect was most directly seen in the labor union movement. Many people credit the labor unions as a reason there was no large communist party in the US. Saying Socialist ideas had/have greater influence in Europe is just obvious.
The Red scare left a lasting cultural imprint. Ask any socalist what they think socialism is and compare it to what an American[1] thinks socialism is. Note the differences.
Also, Glenn Beck had a lot to do with it. He gave a bizarre version of 20c history that stuck, to a lot of angry people who don't read. It used to be that right-wingers would target the New Deal as socialism, now they think the banks and consumer rights are socialism.
If you can convince people the banks are socialist, you've created a Schrödinger's Premise where the banks primarily exist to destroy the banks; any premise that is both true and not true at the same time can be used to prove anything.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communists_in_the_United_State...