@VeroniqueB99@mastodon.social Calling the socialist moniker a "smokescreen" is, IMHO, still too abstract. It was marketing blather, like "New and Improved!" or "Advanced Formula!" or, "As Seen on TV!" -- insincere to the extent it wasn't utterly meaningless. Indeed, I feel the word "conservative" is itself marketing blather, lending respectability to politics and ideas that have none. There is nothing "conservative" about white supremacy, or racism, or misogyny, or any of that. It's just disgusting.