The [[Second World War]] was a life and death struggle between two ideologies, fascism and their democratic opponents. The [[United States]] assisted the [[communist]] victory over [[National Socialism]] (see [[Popular Front liberalism]]), but with the [[Cold War]] attempted to suppress the spread of global communism. Socialists consider all forms of [[capitalism]] as "[[fascist]]" (see [[Antifa]]).
==Background==
Socialism traces its roots largely to the [[French Revolution]] and [[Paris Commune]], in visions of imaginary (often unrealistic) ideal societies, from thinkers who drew up elaborated designs and concepts for creating what they considered a more equal society, along collectivist lines or abolished [[private property]]; the primary ideas came from Jewish, British, and French thinkers like [[Karl Marx]], [[Henri de Saint-Simon|Saint-Simon]], [[Charles Fourier]], Louis Blanc, and [[Robert Owen]] preceded by [[Thomas More]], Tommaso Campanella, and Jean Meslier
The word "socialism" is, confusingly used to refer to different political ideologies. This includes [[communism]] (which itself varies, considerably), democratic socialism, which is found in many nontotalitarian societies<ref>See OED definition.</ref> (see for example the British [[Labour Party]], and Adolf Hitler’s far-right anti-commmenist [[National Socialist German Workers’ Party]]. Russia used to be know as the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]].<ref>[< https://www.thoughtco.com/difference-between-communism-and-socialism-195448]</ref> [[Adolph Hitler]] included the word socialist into his far-right party’s name to “to convert German workers away from Marxist Socialism.”<ref>< [https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-party-1]> </ref>
==Background==
Socialism traces its roots largely to the [[French Revolution]] and [[Paris Commune]], in visions of imaginary (often unrealistic) ideal societies, from thinkers who drew up elaborated designs and concepts for creating what they considered a more equal society, along collectivist lines or abolished [[private property]]; the primary ideas came from Jewish, British, and French thinkers like [[Karl Marx]], [[Henri de Saint-Simon|Saint-Simon]], [[Charles Fourier]], Louis Blanc, and [[Robert Owen]] preceded by [[Thomas More]], Tommaso Campanella, and Jean Meslier.