Ultimately bad. It's not good for words like "socialism" and "communism" to be popular boogeymen, because then whenever you suggest even the most milquetoast social program -- no matter how good of an idea it is -- some yahoo can derail it with "bUt ThAt'S sOcIaLiSm!!1!!"
Note also how by destroying any real understanding of what these words mean it makes it harder for people to educate themselves. If they go looking for information on socialism or communism there's a good chance they'll run across some right-wing fever dream version of it instead of some actual history, theory, or analysis.
I agree with what you wrote but I just want to add that liberals play into this too, by handwringing every time even the mildest socdem policies come up, which reinforces people's fear of socialism.
Is that good or bad for us
Ultimately bad. It's not good for words like "socialism" and "communism" to be popular boogeymen, because then whenever you suggest even the most milquetoast social program -- no matter how good of an idea it is -- some yahoo can derail it with "bUt ThAt'S sOcIaLiSm!!1!!"
Note also how by destroying any real understanding of what these words mean it makes it harder for people to educate themselves. If they go looking for information on socialism or communism there's a good chance they'll run across some right-wing fever dream version of it instead of some actual history, theory, or analysis.
I agree with what you wrote but I just want to add that liberals play into this too, by handwringing every time even the mildest socdem policies come up, which reinforces people's fear of socialism.