I think this is that one survey from 2016. If I remember right it only asked for reactions to certain words, positive or negative. Whenever I see similar polls it makes me consider the average American doesn't see the terms capitalism and socialism like we do. The average person sees these as character traits, not movements or distinct economic structures. Capitalist simply means greedy businessman, nothing structural. Socialism is high taxes and government doing stuff.

There's not a lot of coherent public discourse about this.

[–] tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Language is fucking us all up. I've thought a lot about this, I've talked about socialism to all sorts of people, and I think the things we are striving for are much more popular than we think but people just don't communicate well. Especially when we have been so misinformed by imperialist propaganda.