Euro-baked Democratic Socialism has as much to do with socialism as Moon Pies has to do with the moon or pies It was coined during the 19th century and was appropriated in the 20th by a handful of people who grasped the distinctions. They've sucked at explaining both ever since.
What we need is a well-funded group of people who can properly explain that what most "Democratic Socialists" want is just a better regulated form of capitalism, which we were learning to enjoy before before Ronald Reagan kicked America in the balls with Milton Freidman's foot.
The 19th century edition of Dem Socialism was fixated on the state owning (as opposed to regulating) production. That distinction was lost in early 1900s when Debs & others refused to sell it as a political movement more than an economic one. Sanders made mostly the same mistake
I've explained the modern concept of Dem socialism again and again to kids & adults. It's not hard. But you have to spend the first half of the lecture undoing their preconceptions about an f-ing word. The DSA crowd simply refused to let go of the 1850s.
The irony for me is that have been a Democratic Socialist (in the modern Euro-sense) since I was in college. But people the revered Debs & his Sanders lineages have made such a mess of the rhetoric, I have to sound like I'm opposed to it. I'm anything but.
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