You shouldn't directly be discussing "soviet" "socialist" "communist" anything. Those words and topics are forbidden until they show a real interest in learning more about socialism and challenging their preconceptions.

An example of what I mean by that is when they say something like like how "rent control fucks up the housing market" or whatever, instead of arguing directly against that, just passively agree and move on to your better point: "Yeah I guess you have a point that rent control is an insufficient solution that has its own baggage, but I'd say that we could do a lot more by actually decommodifying housing entirely by doing [these things]". Hopefully that'll lead to a much more productive discussion that can challenge capitalism in their minds but you still sound "cool and pragmatic" which libs love.