The packaging of an idea matters a great deal. You can get people to agree with all sorts of socialist principles, but if you start talking about socialism a lot are going to punch out.
This isn't to say we should never utter the word "socialism," and your point about the futility of completely catering to mainstream media is a good one. It's really about picking the right battles, and figuring out where the benefit of talking about socialism as socialism is worth the flak you'll inevitably catch from it. I don't think Bernie really picked anything up from his Cuba comments, and he got a ton of overtly-negative coverage over it. It's difficult to underestimate how rabid U.S. anticommunism is.
Mainstream media will never say anything nice about socialists anyways, it doesn't matter how you package it.
The packaging of an idea matters a great deal. You can get people to agree with all sorts of socialist principles, but if you start talking about socialism a lot are going to punch out.
This isn't to say we should never utter the word "socialism," and your point about the futility of completely catering to mainstream media is a good one. It's really about picking the right battles, and figuring out where the benefit of talking about socialism as socialism is worth the flak you'll inevitably catch from it. I don't think Bernie really picked anything up from his Cuba comments, and he got a ton of overtly-negative coverage over it. It's difficult to underestimate how rabid U.S. anticommunism is.