We are so inured to thinking about 'commies' that people take things like 'socialism' and try to align it with communism of the Soviet kind. - and use it to scare people.
In a broader sense than the political, every collective public human effort is socialist, including the very first gatherings together that resulted in hunting parties and farming and towns.
@redenigma This speaks to the phenomenon of siloed echo chambers which existed far before social media, and their AI-driven algorithms, but which the new technologies have radically accelerated.
Capitalism doesn't doesn't seem less eager to engage in conflict, incarceration, exploitation or repression.
Everything that has happened on the watch of the global West (or North) is a result of capitalism.
Indeed, to me it seems at least as worthy of being a buzzword-boogeyman as communism.