I managed to get myself embroiled in an argument w/ some right-wing idiots that

[TwilightZone]

22. Agreed. Socialism isn't the problem in Venezuela.

Venezuela is the problem in Venezuela, more accurately the political leadership in recent times, the type of socialism in use, and the way it was deployed.

I do get what you mean, and I agree. The problem with labels and the stereotypes they're based on is that they're never universal and they oversimplify everything. For example, what's a liberal? What's a moderate? How does a moderate differ from a moderate Democrat, and what is the latter? We can't even get a consensus on terms we're sure we understand.

That's the challenge we face with socialism, the term, and socialism, the concept. A couple of generations of Americans think of socialism as one of the S's in USSR (or the Nazis, even worse), and that's where their understanding stops because that's the only explanation they think they need. That's an extraordinary hurdle to try to cross. Plus, there's a significant generation gap, which is probably why it's easier to sell to younger voters. Venezuela only makes it worse because it puts a present-day stamp on the negativity of socialism as a concept. With a real-world example so readily available, it's a similarly huge hurdle.

At the risk of repeating myself, a lot of this could have been avoided if Sanders had rebranded himself at some point (the early/mid 1980s would have been great) with a more accurate label. He tried Democratic Socialist, but Socialist is still the noun and I don't think that convinces anyone. Plus, the DSA's policies are on the extreme side (though, he's not a member). He's quite recently tried to rebrand as a social democrat, which has a zillion different meanings, some of them much closer to what he represents, and the most appropriate would be: like Denmark. Market economy, regulated capitalism, societal responsibility, safety nets. That's a lot easier than trying to explain why you're not like the Nazis or Venezuela. (ha)

That's why I (only half-jokingly) said that we could try the truth, and explain that he's really a regulated capitalist. The problem is that damn label.