It works rhetorically but...
That’s the one part of Bernie’s schtick that annoys me, because it validates the simplistic and wrong notion that socialism is when the government gives you money.
It's silly but also so rhetorically good for your short term goals. Like advocating for free healthcare and stronger unions. It also normalises the word socialist as not scary so lowers people's defensiveness over it.
Parenti used that on his students too when they pulled "when did socialism ever work?" card. "You're sitting on it. This is a public university your chair is socialist. Your teacher is socialist". Which again, i know is technically wrong but it gets people's curiosity and opens them up to possibly accepting it.
Are you not afraid the term will be so diluted and co-opted that the revolutionary potential of actual socialism is subverted?
I'm very afraid of that actually. But when i try to teach kids or convince an adult of a new idea, it always worked best when i paraphrased it in a way they relate to OR subverted a strong belief of theirs to support it. Like with religion, the "Jesus was a socialist" angle.
I don't see a good alternative to this tactic despite the risk. After all a person newly interested in socialism will find tons of theory books online written by actual revolutionary socialists, so the true meaning won't disappear.
"Socialism is redistribution of wealth" will always be the worst. It's based in the idea that capitalism (along with wage labour and the race to be the first trillionaire) is just natural, and socialism is when you use the government to forcibly add equality by taking money from some and giving it to others.