@vicfroh@mastodon.social I feel the word "socialism" has long being used as a bogeyman, especially in the US. The easy association was with all their countries that declared themselves as being "socialist", and that failed usually, falling in some authoritorian regime - which can't be of any social utility.
Socialism is hard to apply with success to large communities, from what I've seen up to now. Maybe there's some connection with social groups theory, and the limited number of individuals involved.