But "socialism" is a scary word

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"It's socialism when the goverment does things"

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It sounds like you're describing a free market, not capitalism.

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You know there is a lot of great points in this comment, some of which I will now argue against:

You should read the theory, clearly you haven't read enough theory.

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Nepal: Installed by force in the armed uprising against Rana rule in 1951

India: Neverseized the means of production (or really got very powerful IMO)

San Marino: Attemped a coup and never seized the means of production.

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"Nuance is for Communists!!" /s

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One hurdle we have to deal with is the assumption by the general public that markets = capitalism.

You tell people capitalism has failed them and they worry that you mean to take away their ability to buy a latte.

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Greedy people vote for greedy leaders. Money mattered more than morals in at least the last federal elections since 2000.

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I don't think it's the theory most people disagree with.

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Patriarchy appears to have been solved in Rojava/Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. Though I'm afraid not for much longer.

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While I welcome some developments in NE Syria, this is propaganda.

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Kerala: As you mention, not a country. Also didn't really seize the means of production. But when I think of Communism working well, it's at a local level like this rather than at the level of a country. There are communes and kibbutzes that lasted decades. Generally a tough life but at a small level you can have a government controlling everything without hopefully making as many huge mistakes. Worst case you can more easily just leave if they do (hopefully they let you).

Chile: Also didn't fully seize the means of production, it's more or less a perfect example of a government that's run by a socialist majority for a small amout of time and which enacts socialist measures during that time, but never reaching full communism. This is the kind of thing I would hold up as the ideal case. Socialism for long enough to strengthen the situation of the people, but not long enough to wreck the economy and grow into full blown authoritarianism.

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I don't mind being corrected. Would you care to explain?

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This might be a better system.

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Well, you cannot just declare the dissolution of Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition and expect everything to follow along. We need centuries of conditions of antipatriarchial policy to be able to claim eradication of patriarchy.

I would not even be saying we eradicated classist aristocracy in European republics, because the ideology is still relevant.

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Good point. I've read that the Kurdish leadership is trying hard to integrate Arabs into government, making everything available to read in Arabic, etc. I just hope they can hang on and continue to improve. I don't trust HTS at all, and the Turkish government are doing their damnedest to eradicate Rojava.

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Oh so now we're moving the goalpost?

We started with "socialist theory is the problem!" but when pressured, suddenly it's "well the theory is not really the problem".

Go figures

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Thanks for the detailed responses.

Sounds like, to me, that you have a bigger issue with government than Socialism or Communism themselves. Are you much of an anarchist?

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No, I'm more of a social democrat. I'm a believer that the best we've come up with is to have a government who's job is to fill in the holes (economic externalities) of capitalism, while curbing it's worst instincts (monopolies, tragedy of the commons issues like global warming).

Indeed this is the system the most successful and happy countries use. Go too far to the capitalist side or too far to the socialist side and things deteriorate quickly.

Right now, especially in the USA, we are experiencing what happens when things go too far to the capitalist side.

Unfortunately it seems that this combined with misinformation leads to fascism which will destroy even capitalism and likely leave us only with war.

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More Anarchist, I think that we should try to disengage from states and their power structures and treat people with respect and autonomy. Try to bring thee principles into daily life and interactions and live as much of a better alternative as I can.

Devolution of powers is a fine first step to work towards if engaging electorily, but that's a long way from the be all and end all of political ideology.

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Where funny?