Journalists, editors, politicians, and just about everyone in this country are confusing socialism with fascism. This country is not socialist and is not moving toward socialism but is presently in the midst of fascism.
Fascism is the marriage of corporate power and governmental power. In fascism the government doesn't exist to benefit the people, as in socialism, but exists to benefit corporate and financial powers. The goal of governmental policy, under fascism, is to serve corporate and financial interests.
Although we do have some remnants of socialism that have mainly been handed down from the New Deal. Our government for decades has been implementing economic policies (such as globalization) and foreign policies (such as wars for resources) that directly benefit corporate interests above those of the people.
For instance, did the killing and maiming of tens of thousands of Americans in the war in Iraq benefit the American people? The answer is clearly no. Instead, the control of oil and the oil monopoly benefited the likes of EXXON which made record profits from record high in gas prices.
Another example can be found in the recent multi-trillion dollar bailout of banks. In a fascist state, such as ours, the government enacts a policy of corporate welfare. That is rules, regulations, laws, and money are used to benefit the corporation and ensure corporate control of the country. Our government has acted over and over again to bail out massive financial interests with little of that money directly benefiting people. Even the recent Obama stimulus package is a smokescreen to save financial and corporate interests and maintain global fascism (globalism) by giving crumbs to the people.
In a true socialist system the banks would be nationalized and the corporate interests would not control the economy and foreign policy. In a true socialist system, the resources and wealth of a nation would go to benefit the people of that nation. In a true socialist system, the people would not be considered human resources to be exploited for the highest profit and gain by those few at the top of the global empire.
So one of the first steps toward a better society is better understanding. We can't have better understanding when propaganda and misinformation is sold as fair and balanced. We can't have better understanding unless people begin to question what they are being fed by the managed media and our military industrial complex. We certainly can't have better understanding when fascism is being sold as socialism.