I am a 62 year old Democratic Socialist. Still, I agree with you. We were raised learning that communism and socialism were the same thing, and that the Soviet Union and "Red China" were examples of it. We were fed horror stories about the gulags in the USSR and Chairman Mao's "Great Leap Forward." Most older people have never taken a history or political science class since they were in their 20's or before. It is no wonder that they do no understand.