In the sociological sense, recuperation is the process by which politically radical ideas and images are twisted, co-opted, absorbed, defused, incorporated, annexed or commodified within media culture and bourgeois society, and thus become interpreted through a neutralized, innocuous or more socially conventional perspective.

TLDR: People some times say "hey I'm a socialist" for profit, they then use the works of actual socialists to reinforce this idea. Historically this has had negative ramifications for the left because it misdirects energy, finances, etc. that could be better used for anything else.