One of my vain attempts to defend socialism from the marauding of ignorant criticism

Following upon my defense of social democracy and its validity, despite numerous instances of uninformed and crude criticism of its tenets, I found my relative and a determined Hindu nationalist, not much softened or wizened by it.

Despite the courtesy of acknowledging my view, he still maintained that:

"In spite of your good response and interpretation on the concept of Communism/Maxism, which I expected, the  Truth/Fact is that the Communism/ Marxism failed everywhere including in India.
               
The only exception is China. The intelligent and patriotic Chinese leadership continued Communism/Proletarian Dictatorship to control the masses/ people & systematically introduced Capitalism to generate Wealth for the real inclusive Growth for the Benefits of all the people. "
 


This led to my following clarification and response:
 

My response was not about Marxism and/or communism. 

It was about social democracy and a liberal and progressive variation of capitalist system, where we must learn to accept some restrictions and control on private initiative and corporate expansionism, to reform and humanize it, to the extent practicable and not to look down upon government and institutional controls as socialistic evils and a perversion of free enterprise and capitalist incentives.

Socialism or Social democracy is not equal to Marxism/Communism. We must not get confused by these labels and mistake one for the other. 

Countries like Canada, Germany, Sweden and Norway are very good examples of Social democracy and a mixed pattern of economic systems which avoid the extremes of free-for-all market system and a totalitarian communist system.



China is a dictatorship and no amount of economic progress is a compensation for loss of civil liberties and freedom of expression. If we value freedom, liberty and individual expression, China can never be anybody's role model

This article link  tries to  provide a balanced perspective of the apparently opposing ideologies of capitalism and socialism using examples from recent history


But I really wonder and doubt whether any of this can or will make a dent in the attitude of Hindu Nationalists on their readiness to embrace right wing paranoia about social democracy and role of government and public agencies in economic and social life