What is the reason for Socialism being such a dirty dirty word in America?

[NuclearEnergy]

Seems there are some aspects of it when applied properly would work. But maybe I'm just a clueless "Libtard". Oh and my favorite, a clueless Libtard that's been brainwashed. Just because someone advocates for some socialism doesn't make them anti-American. Hell, I read Forbes on occasion.

[The Industrial Atheist]

Single payer Healthcare, reduced cost or free higher education. better unionization, mandatory paid vacation, these things would work. The right wants you to think this would make us socialist. They would just make us more normal compared to other nations. Socialism advocates for the means of production and distribution to be socially owned,

I think part of it, is, the corporations profit from our status qho. The politicians are funded by the corporations. So we have incremental change at best

[Jackalope]

My experience would seem to suggest that a great many people use "socialism" as a proxy for "something I don't like".

But but God, they know it's unamurrican, fuck yeah.

In all seriousness, all it took was to conflate democratic socialism with Soviet-style communism and propogandize the fuck out of it. The cold war provided plenty of fodder for the latter.

Also, it's total dumbfuckery.

[Chad32]

Because it's not capitalism. Now we do have socialism for some things, and a mix of socialism and capitalism seems to work better than most everything else, but it's not in the oligarch's best interest to socialize any more than they absolutely have to. welfare and socialism for the rich, but not for the poor. That's why they get tax cuts and subsidies, despite being billionaires, or multinational corporations.

[Rev. Rye]

American voters tend to have bugger-all in the way of understanding of political science, especially the ones that they don't have first-hand experience with. And, of course, since the most prominent memory Americans have of socialism involves the big Red Scare (particularly of the 1950s) where the people who stoked the fires against Communism seemed to have no interest in informing them what, exactly Communism was or how it was distinct from socialism or even atheism. See this infamous comic about the Red Scare written to tell Catholic schoolkids about the dangers of communism. In its sixty pages, it gives only the barest explanation about what Communism even is, and, as you might have guessed from its title, it focuses largely on the anti-religious angle (never mind that, ironically, one of the most famous and most extreme cheerleaders for capitalism at the time, Ayn Rand, was an atheist herself.)

[The Grand Nudger]

welfare and socialism for the rich, but not for the poor. That's why they get tax cuts and subsidies, despite being billionaires, or multinational corporations.

They get the coalmine, we get the shaft? 

[NuclearEnergy]

American voters tend to have bugger-all in the way of understanding of political science, especially the ones that they don't have first-hand experience with. And, of course, since the most prominent memory Americans have of socialism involves the big Red Scare (particularly of the 1950s) where the people who stoked the fires against Communism seemed to have no interest in informing them what, exactly Communism was or how it was distinct from socialism or even atheism. See this infamous comic about the Red Scare written to tell Catholic schoolkids about the dangers of communism. In its sixty pages, it gives only the barest explanation about what Communism even is, and, as you might have guessed from its title, it focuses largely on the anti-religious angle (never mind that, ironically, one of the most famous and most extreme cheerleaders for capitalism at the time, Ayn Rand, was an atheist herself.)

What in the world? I don't even understand that comic. Like I understand it's that Russian hammer and sickle with the statue of liberty, but what in the world? Also, wasn't there a movie made on this Red Scare? I think it stars Jim Carey? Like where people were being accused of being a communist and would get deported or sent to jail. Something like that. I remember my mother telling me about that time. She was born in the late 50s, but still people were scared as hell of anyone who labeled themselves a communist.

[The Grand Nudger]

McCarthyism.

[Chad32]

welfare and socialism for the rich, but not for the poor. That's why they get tax cuts and subsidies, despite being billionaires, or multinational corporations.

They get the coalmine, we get the shaft? 

Lelz, purdy much.

[Aegon]

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”