at least in the sense that most people hear it and just assume that it's something "bad" or foreign. Most people aren't knowledgeable enough to know that we have a somewhat "socialist" country already and that many of the public services we enjoy (a decreasing amount, however) are government-ran and managed and paid for by our taxes. I wonder how many people would be outraged and upset if more of them knew exactly how nice things are for most people in countries like Canada and most European countries in terms of health care, education, childcare, etc. Instead, unfortunately, we just get Fox News and other corporate media pundits smearing Europeans as a bunch of evil socialists and, in particular, their horrific free/low-cost health care system (even smart people I know have a raft of misconceptions and perceptions about health care in other countries). Heck, in terms of health care alone, if you listen to Rick Santorum, you'd think that European countries were literally sentencing people to die via real-life "Death Panels" if they happened to have certain diseases/genetic conditions or that you have to wait years for life-saving operations (or dying before getting them). Of course, most of it isn't true but we're Americans and a lot of us just seem to prefer getting constantly screwed over rather than wanting something more/better for ourselves and our children. 
Sometimes I wonder if we have our own "Max" somewhere holding back social progress yet ensuring that we are none the wiser while they do it (Doctor Who fans should know what I'm talking about 
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