I don't think socialist countries can protect themselves without seeming scary and authoritarian, because the capitalist countries assailing them simply have better PR. Every state takes on "authoritarian" traits to protect itself when there's a perceived threat, but capitalist countries have a broader and more established media empire to run defense for them, and to frame socialist defensive efforts in a negative light.

The only thing that might change that is stuff like climate change and the continuation of the pandemic (and the wider collapse of society it will produce) forcing people to accept ideas and solutions they wouldn't have been willing to entertain before.

The propaganda war matters less there than I think most people think it does. We experience that level of analysis much more critically as western leftists because we have little to no political action we take part in and instead consume politics on an aesthetic level. Or maybe I’m just posting my own brainworms as a PMC dsa Karen