I think we should stop calling expanding our welfare state "socialist" because I don't think that branding has ever been especially accurate and I definitely don't think it's effective.

I mean, maybe it's effective for 20 year olds who are either already on board w/ vast welfare state expansion or those who want an excuse to performatively act out guillotining someone, but beyond that I fail to see how anyone else is persuaded by this whole genre of dialogue.

I say this as someone who wants to vastly expand the welfare state by regulating & taxing capital. I share the same goals and I actually think they are achievable if you do not sell them as "socialism"--which, again, is not even that accurate of a label in the first place.

I mean, I feel like we've tried the whole "let's call social democracy 'socialism'" thing over the past four years and I really do not see how it has produced anything good. Better to maybe drop that label, especially given people have vastly different definitions of it.

And if your average voter googles "socialism," they'll come up w/ "state owned means of production" or "Venezuela," not "Denmark" or "Norway." So if you want them to think of the latter two things maybe, again, stop labeling them as "socialism."