Here is an important example of the disconnect between liberal and conservative interpretation of the word "socialist". Economists would not label Scandinavian countries as socialist. Meanwhile conservatives point to Cuba and Venezuela as examples of socialist failure when that's not entirely true either. We're talking past each other in these debates.

[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 1 points 34 minutes ago

That's because Conservatives have no argument other than pedantry when it comes to their villifying of "socialism".

"They aren't socialist, they're Democratic Socialism or Social Democrats, which are totally different from each other and not socialism at all!" (Is their pedantry, in case anyone was wondering)

It's ALL socialism, just with a few different policies at play. But that would destroy the conservative argument that you can't have a successful capital economy under socialism. So they play the "They aren't real socialists" bullshit game.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 3 hours ago

Economists would not label Scandinavian countries as socialist.

Economists would say that's a matter for political scientists. And aren't all conservative.

But yes, in the English-speaking world, conservatives and the far left use the traditional definition, while the mainstream left has recently gravitated towards something like "when the government does things".

[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 hours ago

In the same vein you could argue that US is not true Capitalism because trickle down doesn't happen and many means of production are still owned by the government.

And yet we call them a Capitalist country, no?