i'm not an atheist, but i always figured socialism is a theoretical mode of production which is posited as a historical alternative to capitalism and differentiated from it in that the means of production are controlled socially rather than privately
seems to me lots of people conflate a liberal welfare state with socialism, so much so that the overwhelming majority of folks have no idea what a mode of production even is, or even that there has been different modes in the past, or that there could be different modes in the future
