True, but also as a tactic (IE voting in socialism) its a complete historical failure that should be relegated to the history books. There has not been a single case of a country acheiving socialism through the ballot box.
All the attempts in the late 1800s until now showed that capitalists will not give up state power without violence, and even explicitly socialist parties who acheived some electoral success, end up quickly capitulating to the demands of the capitalists who run the country’s economy, and make a hard turn to the right. Look at the state of the European “socialist” or “labour” parties.
Not to mention all the coups the US carried out even on countries who attempted to tread a “non-violent” socialist path: like Chile in 1970. While the countries who took control of the military and went through a civil war to disempower and nationalize capital are still standing on their own two feet: Cuba, China, Vietnam, DPRK.
“Democratic socialism” is also sometimes used (incorrectly) to refer to capitalist-run states in the imperial core (like the nordic states) with some welfare band-aids, funded on the backs of the world’s workers in the global south.
Scientific socialism is a science. We build on foundations and knowledge gained through years of experience, and we’ve learned that acheiving socialism through voting and electoralism in capitalist dictatorships is not only impossible, inneffective, and a dead end, but a drain on people’s energy. If people keep treading the wrong roads, and through historical ignorance keep making the same mistakes people have made hundreds of times, then we aren’t doing our duty.
No, as the post stated, its a western-chauvinist / supremacist dogwhistle to agree with CIA talking points and demonize existing socialist states as being “not democratic”. Western supremacy is the root cause of many of these issues that should be tackled at the root instead of being allowed to fester and grow.
Both sides are equally important: showing what doesn’t work, and showing what does work.