Why do so many Americans confuse Socialism with Communism?

Question

Would a name change be the only true way to completely rid individuals of the negative connotations of word?

Is this like Americans not understanding the word

football and instead of actually changing the name of their sport they force other countries to differentiate it by referring to it as AMERICAN FOOTBALL.

Are there true or hybrid Marxist in the senate and or congress?

What is a better name then the Parallel Peoples Party?

Answer 1

The ones that say that are the same ones that call Hitler a leftist and consider the republican party a liberal party.

Answer 2

Don't think you can have a go at them for calling american football football. They can call it what they like even if the rest of the world knows football to be what it realy is....if that makes any sense at all. They do seem a bit hung up on Communism tho. Theres nothing wrong with Marxist thinking in my oppinion

Answer 3

it is all liberal hippy c**p.

Answer 4

i didnt know that there was a difference untill i took a civics and economics class. it was a common miss conception about the two. you know like after both the VP and the president die most people think the secertary of state or something becomes the president when it is the president protemp. i think if americans were more educated in civics and economics than this wouldnt happen. sadly most americans cant even pass the immigration test that foreigners are meant to take.

Answer 5

Because from liberalism on down, all of these systems are corrupt, and they're similar or just a matter of degrees.

FYI, SOME DICTIONARIES LIST SOCIALISM AS A SYNONYM FOR COMMUNISM, and vice versa. So, stop acting like you're the sum total of all knowledge and come down from your high horse. I also don't like the anti-American tone of you and some of the other responders, so get rid of your contempt also, or kindly get off the board. Thanks.

Answer 6

We Americans unfortunately treat civics and political science as among the most boring topics possible while in school, and therefore rarely learn what is involved in ANY form of government or political philosophy.  Ask your average American college graduate the difference between fascism and communism and you'll get little more than a blank stare.  When you get an answer at all, it will be a jumble of confused blather signifying nothing.  We also treat history that way...to our severe detriment, including financial!

Answer 7

The USA public is not use to either.  They don't really understand the meanings.

Answer 8

Most of us do not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism

Answer 9

I have no doubt that there are fellow travelers in the House and Senate but the American culture is so completely centered on liberal democracy that publicly announcing oneself as Marxist of any form would be an automatic ticket out of office (except maybe in a few places).

By the way, I doubt few people ANYWHERE understand the true meaning of both words.  If you want to get technical, there has NEVER been a communist government anywhere.

Answer 10

Socialism is just a different name for Communism! It was tried in this country when the first pilgrims came here to this country and failed miserably! It has failed in every country that has tried it. Yes even Russia and China and now N. Korea. If it had not been for America and the other Allies Digging them out of the quagmire they continue to getting themselves into. They would have done themselves in a long time ago! Even now! With the Olympics upon them they are trying to clean up the public restrooms and to stock them with toilet paper. Something they have ignored until now! Their economies are not even capable of sustaining themselves without theft of how to build something from other countries! Is this the world that you want your children to grow up in? Not me! OH! By the way! Where would the rest of the world be if it had not been for the United States during the first and second World Wars?

Answer 11

Far-right Conservatives choose ignorance as a lifestyle. They are anti-education and intellectually lazy. Their modern-day philosophical guru, Rush, is a college flunky, as is the little wannabe, Hannity.

All of them, including their political leader, George Bush, use the oxymoron ‘Islamo-fascist’ as if it has real-world meaning.

They are certain in their opinion of the Iraq War even though they were warned from the start by every non-partisan Middle East expert in the world that it was a stupid idea doomed to fail. Instead, they blame its failure on liberals having a ‘bad attitude’.

Cheney and the petroleum industry are responsible for America’s energy policy, but somehow the price of gas is the fault of an imaginary Democratic dominance in Congress.

They reject the scientific theory of evolution, but believe in Bigfoot, space aliens, and the mythological folktales of illiterate Bronze and Iron Age goat herders.

Communism and socialism fall in their “for us or against us” worldview (which is whatever Rush and the gang of Village Idiots at FOX tell them it is).

Answer 12

Because the USSR was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  Communists favor socialist economics so the two are related.  

There are dozens of types of socialism which have little in common with communism: Christian Socialism, Utopian Socialism, Social Democracy etc. etc.  But the educational system never taught students to distinguish these because for most of the past century, the United States was in competition with the USSR.  So it was easier to teach students that "isms" are bad.  Socialism was bad because it was the economic system practiced by the enemy.  Fascism (which is a polar opposite of socialism) is also bad.

I do not believe there are currently any congressmen claiming to be Marxists at this time.  There have been some socialist mayors and governors, notably in Wisconsin and Minnesota.  There have been many "populists" who were socialists in all but name.  Norman Thomas and Eugene Debbs were immensely popular socialist candidates whose ideas were picked up by mainstream Democrats such as Franklin Roosevelt.  But Roosevelt never said his ideas were Socialist.

Answer 13

I like that name the Parallel Peoples Party = unity between all the classes towards a similar goal. The problem is this country has no goals, we are even more fractured now during our deepest darkest past.

Look into the Socialist Party of America they have some good ideas or thoughts but again your point rings true. It looks like non-iconized website for a communist party which they are not.

http://www.sp-usa.org/

This country is run by the rich for the rich and the middle class has been lied to stuff the pockets of the wealthy. No way no how will the people ever have a true voice in this country. Why would a multi-millionaire or billionaire ever allow for his power to be given to those that actually need it.

Answer 14

People would rather despise what they cannot understand on the basis of the little they ahve heard rather than actually try to understand it.  That's the way Americans especially have been conditioned.  Socialism and Communism have always been thrown out as the opposing ideas to the American way of life, and in saying that so many people aren't even willing to consider the ideas behind them.

Answer 15

Whats the difference neither is wanted in America if  you want communism go to china and if you want socialism go to Canada

Answer 16

It is probably because those are terms that are linked to World History, which is such a boring subject most American  students just sleep through the class. We use to call it "Dead History" in my high school group.

Looking it up in the dictionary isn't the same as actually knowing what you are talking about, therefore, most individuals use the terms so loosely they have little impact and considered.  Since the McCarthy era, and the Red scare, these words have been seldom used in the US, where we make an effort to avoid labels or labeling individuals for obvious reasons. It is out dated and doesn't work well in a free society.

Answer 17

There actually is no confusion, communism is revolutionary socialism. Thus Socialism is not revolutionary but yet based upon the same ideology as communism.

Where Communism is quick and violent and forceful Socialism moves slowly and grows slowly. The term is Fabian which could be defined as “A slow steady infiltration”. Ultimately socialism and communism have the same goals, total control of every aspect of the lives of citizens by a powerful central government.

Where Socialism and communism differ is in their execution.  Communism moves in in one fell swoop and enforces the law at the end of a gun. Socialism moves in slowly changing laws perhaps even democratically until the ultimate control is achieved. Once the laws are in place there is no difference between communism and socialism. Examples are Elian Gonzales, the little boy who was sent back Cuba or when the army moved on the compound at Waco, TX or when the feds stormed the compound at Ruby Ridge. These examples may seem extreme in this explanation, but every one of them stinks of the tactics of the Soviet Union. These people may have been lawbreakers of a serious nature, but imagine if the Government sent in storm troops to arrest you for not driving a hybrid car or for using a charcoal grill or for watering your lawn too much. Sounds far fetched, but if freedom is eroded slowly and surely in an ever socialist leaning government the ultimate end is no different from a communist state.

As for hybrid Marxists yes there are some. Recently in the US congress one congress woman suggested that congress may in the future nationalize the oil industry. This would be a Marxist movement if it ever took.