Grr.
This has always bothered me, but for obvious reasons it's become more prominent in recent weeks. And after my dad fell for the crap and I finally had to say this out loud to him, I thought I'd just FYI. (This is a general you, by the way.)
Because you're an American and probably don't know better, you think socialism ---> Soviet communism (Stalinism). You are, however, missing a lot of steps in there.
It looks something more like this:
Socialism ---> Karl Marx ---> Communism ---> Marxism-Leninism ---> Soviet communism (Stalinism).
I know it's hard, but learn about all these terms and retrain the way your brain thinks about economic systems outside of capitalism. You don't have to agree with them -- as for me, I'm not sure I do, but I think we could all do a little more sharing in general -- but being able to tell the difference is a good thing. I promise.
Because you're an American and probably don't know better, you think socialism ---> Soviet communism (Stalinism). You are, however, missing a lot of steps in there.
It looks something more like this:
Socialism ---> Karl Marx ---> Communism ---> Marxism-Leninism ---> Soviet communism (Stalinism).
I know it's hard, but learn about all these terms and retrain the way your brain thinks about economic systems outside of capitalism. You don't have to agree with them -- as for me, I'm not sure I do, but I think we could all do a little more sharing in general -- but being able to tell the difference is a good thing. I promise.