Since I'm vague on the differences between 'socialists', 'democratic socialists' and 'social democrats'.

I'm somewhere on the spectrum, but apart from my advocacy for things like booting the private sector entirely out of all aspects of public life like utilities, education, justice and incarceration, and allowing the government to run its own for-profit businesses in competition with private sector companies, I'm not sure how how I live is much different from other non-socialists. I set aside money to help less fortunate folks whenever I can, but so do plenty of pure capitalists. I try to guide my shopping so as to buy from employee-owned outfits whenever I can, but so do many progressive democrats.

What examples from your own life can you give to answer your own question? Maybe I'm just blanking on things that I do instinctively, without even realizing they're informed by a socialist-leaning outlook.

Sometimes I identify as a democratic socialist, but it doesn't really change anything about how I live or vote. I guess I was looking for more pragmatic meaning in the words.

I think I'd generally be doing most of the same things even if I'd never heard of the terms or philosophies. I didn't arrive at my current positions by reading socialist authors. I arrived at them simply by seeing injustices around me perpetuated by the profit motive, seeing laws passed to benefit shareholders rather than citizens. So I could just as easily have the same feelings, beliefs, and actions if I'd arrived via religion, for instance. The Bible has a nice variety of passages about helping the poor and scorning wealth. Or simply by *really* believing in what I was taught in kindergarten about sharing

I suppose simply valuing material possessions more, as I did when I was younger, while I was still coming around to socialistic beliefs. The stronger my socialist leanings have become, the more I've been less interested in personal ownership, rather than simply the ability to use things when I need them. The argument for private ownership seems largely to be one of convenience. It's a lot more convenient to simply pick up tools or books or whatever you want to use where you live, than to have to travel to a central area to borrow them, then make a second trip to return them when you finish with them. But ownership is also a chain. When you own property, you're tied to it, and moving or selling it becomes a major hassle and may even limit opportunities that require greater mobility.

(As to voting, I vote for socialist candidates whenever I'm given the opportunity, but it's rare outside of a few national races.)

I suspect it doesn't really matter anyway as I didn't choose my anarcho-socialist leanings, they're just there.

I guess people think I ought to sound like Boris Badinoff.

I've known folks that identify as socialists that contribute some money to good causes, vote once or twice a year for a progressive candidate, and maybe write a letter to the editor once in a while criticizing conservative policies. How does it affect their daily life? Not very much. But I have also known people, perhaps classified as "activists", who "do" socialism all day every day. They are the union organizers, the often unpaid staff of community or national progressive campaigns for the environment, for peace and social justice, for immigration rights, for human rights and civil liberties, etc. etc. There are many thousands of socialists who belong to organized socialist groups or parties that do activist work and also work to build their group or party by writing for and/or selling their newspapers, books and other periodically and encouraging others to join. How does activism affect their daily life? A lot. It can determine where they live, where they work and even whether they become parents.

Most socialists I have known are somewhere in the middle ground. I'd add that it can depend on externalities such as age. It's hard for old codgers like be to as active as we were in our youth.

is that in Tennessee, it's difficult to do much on a purely socialist basis in politics and life. As others have stated, most of the things I do (activism, personal charitable giving, etc.) can be and are being done by left reformists and liberals in this same area. Being a Marxist variety of socialist, I'm probably more focused on labor issues than social issues, but, once again, there's a lot of liberals that have that focus too. It's not that social issues are less important on a personal basis, it's just that any serious change in the overall system must come from the working class. Hence my focus.

The biggest thing that makes me different is that, as a Marxist revolutionary socialist, my worldview is colored by Marxist analyses of every situation. IOW, I attempt to "connect the dots" as it were from the personal exploitation I see on a daily basis to the reason the SYSTEM benefits from said exploitation. And then I try to explain that to people who don't really see it. At this point to me, it's a matter of the raising of the consciousness of the working class to what's going on and to WHY it's going on. And then explaining that it will only be changed WHEN the working class takes on it's historic mission of replacing capitalism with socialism.

is daunting in many parts of this country. People have such demonized views of these words. I will explain growing up in a poor, rural, working class environment with my parents belonging to unions. "So, you're a liberal?" they will inevitably ask. I explain that no although we are forced into 2 major parties in this particular country I really just feel that my concerns are with labor and that we don't really have our own party.

I will take part in voting and those types of activities if I see that a candidate can make a concrete difference to a worker - ie a candidate who will support not cutting off employment insurance for example - clearly that vote may help people survive on a daily basis so it's important. But I don't view voting as the ultimate solution as liberals do. It is just a few days a year at most that the voting happens. I consider it even more important to advocate every day in any way I can for systemic change - whether it's an online discussion or a discussion with someone in my neighborhood.

Also, being a socialist guides my political action, as I focus my energy on issues that affect class, race, sex, and the other oppressions.

There are liberals/social democrats who work in these areas too, but the larger mass of liberal thought I find a little unfocused. It's easy to get caught up by fads like biodegradable detergent in a bid to improve the world.

When you start from a point of view which works to strengthen the working class, and weaken the reactionary forces of capitalism, that narrows down the work to specific areas.