Rhetoric:The poor reputation of Marxism and socialism (WIP)

Socialism and Marxism are at odds with the established capitalist order, which traditionally has the majority of force in the world. Unlike fascism or other economic systems, which tend to preserve the old private property relations of influential individuals, Marxists and socialists seek whether immediately or ultimately to completely demolish the basis and existence of such, thus meriting themselves the primary scorn of the bourgeoisie, and making themselves pretty much target number one in their eyes.

In the United States, many of the ruling class noticed that policies such as increased taxes on the rich got passed largely because of socialist and Marxist pressure for such onto Franklin Roosevelt, who was himself a rather un-radical individual. In order to prevent such measures from being taken again (after subsequently gradually dismantling them in the following decades), the ruling class decided to purge these groups of radicals from positions of influence through campaigns such as McCarthyism, increasing their efforts to develop the red scare. Communists were attacked first and foremost, who were labeled as having foreign allegiances. Socialists were attacked next under the premise of them being basically identical with communists, with Marxism being caught up amidst all of this and demonized as well, as were many other segments of the left such as the notion of universal healthcare, which in the United States often gets labeled as a “socialist” policy because of how distorted the American view of socialism became. In fact, it has become a new (though weaker) definition to socialism that it may merely be an extensive set of welfare policies, despite welfare being fundamentally separate from socialism. Pretty much anything that hampers profit maximization for the bourgeoisie is attempted to be linked to communism and other taboo words.