Memes

All the while depending on a system based on obfuscation of the fact that a large portion of the time a worker labors for is unpaid.

In fact you could do one better - it doesn't need to make a profit, just break even, so you could either have lower prices, helping the community save money, or higher wages, helping the community spend money. But since it helps most people instead of a few people, it's bad according to capitalism.

Yes but if it‘s city owned, the profits won‘t go towards exploitation of (mostly) non-white laborers and dismantling the social system. Just think of how many humanitarian aid programs could be defunded and how much the environment could be stripped of its resources if we let the private sector maximize their profits!

/s

If you're inclined to be charitable, I believe the capitalist-brained reasoning goes something like:

These grocery stores will inevitably run at a loss and/or need to be subsidised - costing the taxpayers money - because the state couldn't possibly run them as efficiently as a private enterprise competing in the free market.

(Not saying I agree.)

"Won't somebody think off the job creators?" they'll unironically tell you after laying off thousands of people.

I think that the problem is you’re looking at this from a reasonable perspective.

You could make them and capitalism the hell out of it.

I think it's a bit confusing, but in my view almost all socialists (including democratic socialists) are communists since the end goal they are trying to achieve is communism. Socialism (which can be described as welfare state, majority-publicly owned capital, and planned or market-socialist economy) is almost always seen as a stepping stone towards communism (stateless, classless, moneyless society), even though it is would also be an improvement on its own.

(to confuse matters even further, Lenin's party was initially called Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, even though today's understanding of social-democracy would only apply to the Menshevik wing).

To be clear, all socialism, communism included, is democratic. "Democratic Socialism" just refers to reformist socialism, in most cases, or is used to make social democracy seem more appealing. Mamdani has expressed support for more radical groups online, though, so it's clear that he isn't just your typical social democrat at minimum.

Why? Maybe if people understand that what they are scared with to be "communism" is affordable housing, public transport and education and not being harassed by police, they will break out of the propaganda alltogether.