[lbo-talk] Just 53% Say Capitalism Better Than Socialism

[Sheldon]

On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 4:02 PM, Politicus E. <epoliticus at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi.  For the geeks, below I report what is to me some interesting data
> about Google's relative search volumes (i.e., for the web search as
> opposed to the news search ) for the term "socialism."  When I began
> this, I had hoped that I would perhaps come a quantum closer to
> understanding what the population of U.S. internet users consider to
> be socialism.
>

I often wonder what the effects that the rantings of the likes of
Rush, Hannity and Beck's use and abuse or the worrd have on peoples
understanding and perception of "socialism".  Does or will their use
of the word serve to de-stigmatize the word among a segment of the
population? Will they start being more open to an alternative to
capitalism? If Obama succeeds at some progressive reforms, however
weak, will they credit it to "socialism".  Does it even matter for the
cause of socialism?