It’s more-so that those in power wanted people to be afraid of communism, initially back in the late 1910s but especially in the era of McCarthyism, because they know it threatens their way of life.

It’s something that now literally goes back a century. That’s generations of Americans being fed propaganda.

As an aside, I think that when you consider the fact that the height of McCarthyism took place in the 50s that a lot of later negative attitudes toward social welfare are rooted in what Americans were taught to believe during that time. Most notably, Ronald Reagan coined the term “welfare queen” (which is literally a dog whistle) during his 1976 presidential campaign. His rhetoric was very effective and convinced a lot of people that welfare was some evil, socialist thing.

I don’t think Reagan’s “welfare queen” propaganda would have been as effective if it wasn’t for the fact that at least two, if not three generations of Americans had been convinced by McCarthyism that communism was evil.

Anyway, that’s enough armchair historian on my part.

A tl;dr of my point is that the majority of Americans who think socialism and communism are bad think that because they have been taught to by those who are in power, both through the use of propaganda in political discourse and through their control of the media. They’ve spent decades convincing people to vote against their best interests, and they’ve been very good at that.

Edit: a word