system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: mocking or distorting academic meaning of important terms is heavily contributing to post truth world we live in

I see all the time people completely disregarding what important concepts actually mean and putting popular understanding (many times shaped as propaganda) as a more valid definition.

Good example is happening in CMV right now in discussing USSR where word communism is used a lot. Popular mocking phrase in USA/internet/reddit is - "not real communism" (usually with weird caps) when people try to say that USSR doesn't represent it.

The thing is... Even the county itself was called Socialist. By definition of Government type/Economic system it was Totalitarian/ central planning socialism or even central planning state capitalism. By no definition of communism was Soviet Union even close to it or try to claim to be. Communist Russia was literally invented as a propaganda name and yet people still seem to mock anyone who points out the flaw of directly linking the two.

There are many more examples like this, like US definitely not being a free market economy or whataboutism being frequently confused with precedent (one is an unrelated point to deflect blame, other is a related/equivalent action brought as an example). Or my favorite "just a theory" said by people who clearly try to mean hypothesis from context.

Using incorrect or pop understanding of words instead of academic meaning on important subjects is detrimental to discussions.
gpt
On the issue of the USSR "not being communism" because they called themselves socialist... you have to be very careful about taking a country at its own word about what it says it is, versus how it actually functions in practise. For example; North Korea calls itself "The People's Republic of Korea". So, taken at face value we must assume that N.Korea is a wonderfully democratic republic system, yes? Well, obviously not, it's an authoritarian hereditary dictatorship. Another example; Germany in the 1940's was run by the "National Socialist Party", but was far from truly socialist and in fact persecuted and hated socialists particularly Marxists and Leninists, they hated and rejected the idea of social welfare instead believing in social darwinism (e.g. life unworthy of life), banned trade unions...; so in reality Nazi Germany was just another form of Fascist Dictatorship.   


Examining the USSR under Stalin in particular, it was certainly a corrupt communist dictatorship. Wealth and property was owned and dictated by the State not the People, wealth was seized and redistributed (often in a corrupt manner), and the the economy (particularly manufacturing sectors) were nationalised in pushes for industrial revolution to compete with the West during the Cold War.   


*Also, if we are going to take them at face value- the ruling political party of Russia from the early 1900's through to the dissolution of the USSR in the 90's was the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union).*