socialism

today i decided i wanted to know the reason why so many americans have such bad feelings and connotations toward socialism. thanks to wikipedia, i have discovered why:

1. english atheists in the 19th century denoted themselves socialists because communism seemed too closely related to communion in the catholic church.
2. the German Social Democratic Party.
3. stalin corrupted the ideas of socialism, implemented authoritarian and bureaucratic communism. democratic socialists were not happy with him.
4. no distinction was made between communists, socialists, and anarchists.
5. meanwhile back at the ranch, socialists were pretty much anti war.
6. hence, our entry into WWI yeilded all socialists as anti-patriotic and anti-American.
7. the espionage act, signed by woodrow wilson, provided for imprisonment of “Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty… or willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment of service of the United States."
8. Eugene V. Debs, a leader in the socialist movement, announced publicly that "Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder… The master class has always declared the war and the subject class has always fought the battles." and was imprisoned for ten years.
9. the russian revolution of 1917 scared our panties off and made the majority of americans entirely anti-immigrant and anti-communist.
10. thus, the first red scare was born.
11. americans were so afraid that communist immigrants (germans and russians) would take their jobs and were unabashedly eager to end the labor unrest by blaming it on germans/russians/communists/socialists/anarchists that after the war, the fear of germans transformed into a fear of all of the above.
12. WWII
13. joseph mccarthy

and we have yet to recover.