Socialism has and continues to be one of the most misunderstood political terms of all-time…
Okay Ms. Frankel-Popell were to begin…
First, I want to say I can understand the misunderstanding. Countries like the Soviet Union, China or Cuba haven’t exactly brought Socialism into the best light considering their past histories and in some cases current records when it comes to human rights. However, Socialism in its absolute purest form is the means of production, distribution, and exchange being owned exclusively by the workers. That’s something that has never happened in the Soviet Union and China. It’s also something that certainly isn’t going on in present day Cuba.
Now I know people aren’t going to like to hear this but the past Soviet Union or present day China have much more in common with State Capitalism than it does with Socialism.
But that’s not to say that either one of those aforementioned Countries originally intended for a society based on Socialism.
Aside from the purity of Socialism of ultimate outcome of Communism, China, the Soviet Union and Cuba certainly started out in a revolutionary nature, which is something all forms of Communism and Socialism have in common, however where they go from revolution is where the big differences begin. In short there’s a huge difference between Authoritarian Socialism and Libertarian Socialism. Likewise there’s a huge difference between these movements as advocated by someone like Vladimir Lenin and Pyotr Kropotkin who have vastly different takes on Socialism and Communism.
As far as Bernie Sanders goes, he’s a Democratic Socialist which again people see “socialist” attached to the title and begin to draw all of these crazy conclusions. Democratic Socialists though are in essence progressive reformers aren’t looking to abolish the free market but work alongside it. This is why it’s comical that people were actually trying to label Bernie a hypocrite for making a shit ton of money off his book that put him over the edge of being a millionaire.