Why do people think a "mixed economy" is socialism?

[Eagle_Syr]

I'm so sick and tired of people saying that because we have things like public education and firemen, we have a "mix of socialism in some areas and capitalism in others" that "works quite well"

Either the workers are in control or they aren't. You can't kinda have it both ways.

The misconception that reform capitalism is socialism is incredibly dangerous to any legitimate socialist movement, in my opinion.

[LeftAbove]

That's because people don't know what socialism is. Anything that's tax paid is considered "socialism."

[Blake's Baby]

Like, the US Army?

[TheAltruist]

That's because people don't know what socialism is
Exactly. I remember from a middle school geography textbook socialism was defined as the government owning some industries and using profits for public interest. Communism was the state owning all parts of industry.

It's actually kind of nice that they had these incorrect definitions, because that's kind of what sparked my interest in socialism.

[Desperado]

Because capital effectively co-opted labour movements at the turn of the last century.

[Martin Blank]

I'm so sick and tired of people saying that because we have things like public education and firemen, we have a "mix of socialism in some areas and capitalism in others" that "works quite well"

Either the workers are in control or they aren't. You can't kinda have it both ways.

The misconception that reform capitalism is socialism is incredibly dangerous to any legitimate socialist movement, in my opinion.

This kind of statified, reform capitalism is a type of socialism: bourgeois socialism. Marx and Engels talked at length about bourgeois socialism in the Manifesto in order to explain how it is meant to deceive workers into supporting liberal-bourgeois political regimes that use certain types of nationalizations as a means of squelching the class struggle.