The recent posts on the Mayoral election in New York reminded me of one of my bugbears – how both the mainstream and social media often use the terms Communist, Socialist (along with its Social Democrat/Democratic Socialist variants) and Liberal as interchangeable.
They’re really not!
However, I do find it difficult to come with a short, easily digestable one liner to sum each of them up. Any suggestions?
Definitions
There are the “You Have Two Cows” definitions – that’s a pretty neat way of looking at things.
If I’d have read that Wiki article before I posted below, I wouldn’t have bothered.
Thanks, Salwarpe. Hilarious.
I may be wrong here, but it feels as if socialist has a slightly different meaning today than it did.
Marx used socialist and communist interchangeably. The socialist state was a step towards the communist state.
Today’s social democrats believe in a mixed economy with state control of many sectors in society such a healthcare, pubic transport, education etc. Their goal is not the creation of a one-party, communist state. That anyway, is how I see the Swedish Social Democrats.
Communist – state owns everything
Socialist – state provides everything
Liberal – individual freedom, mixed economy
Right wing – market driven, smallest state possible
Very difficult to reduce to one liner!
Depends where you live. A radical left communist lunatic in New York is basically a centrist in the rest of the West.
So true @MC Escher.
This Guardian article was excellent on this.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/06/europe-zohran-mamdani-policies-normal
Critics of New York City’s mayor-elect have said his pledges of free bus service and universal childcare are unrealistic, but in Europe it’s a given
His critics and opponents painted pledges such as free bus service, universal childcare and rent freezes as unworkable, unrealistic and exorbitantly expensive.
But some have hit back, highlighting the quirk of geography that underpins some of this view. “He promised things that Europeans take for granted, but Americans are told are impossible,” said the Dutch environmentalist and former government adviser Alexander Verbeek in the wake of Tuesday’s election.
Verbeek backed this with a comment he had overheard in an Oslo cafe, in which Mamdani was described as an American politician who “finally” sounded normal.
“Normal. That’s the word,” Verbeek wrote in his newsletter, The Planet. “Here, taking care of one another through public programs isn’t radical socialism. It’s Tuesday.”
That vile man, Vice President Vance, has warned Americans not to go to Europe because it is dangerous,
Very dangerous indeed. They will experience all those things that are pie in the sky for Americans and come home with some new ideas.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/06/europe-zohran-mamdani-policies-normal
Swivel-eyed loon seems to have become anyone in disagreement with the views of the commentator.
Swivel-Eyed Loon is a relatively new term and is pretty much reserved for criticism of the far right.
For critism of the far left, the term Loony-Left has been around and in use for several decades.
(mutters…. swivel-eyed loon….pshaw)
It seem that the term was first used by one of David Cameron’s entourage back in 2013 to describe certain Tory party members.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-22607108
The phrase was an instant hit WITH COMEDIANS
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2013/may/22/how-to-spot-swivel-eyed-loone
US Democrats are in general considerably to the right of UK or Canadian liberals, but are described by Trump as “left wing extremists”.