They were brutal fascists, but they called themselves "National Socialists". About the only only thing they had in common with socialism was the requirement to subordinate personal interests to the state.
North Korea calls itself "Democratic Republic".
I think trying to communicate anything to a general audience simply by using terms such as "capitalist" or "socialist" or "democracy" or "libertarian" is just about useless these days.
So many people have
adopted the technique of twisting the meaning of the language in order to try to gain some kind of political advantage rather than actually discuss the substantive aspects of issues to try to form opinions.
If you ever find yourself arguing about the meaning of
ideological labels just pick up a 20 or 30 year old dictionary from a reputable publisher.
