Are you on any medication ? <| sep |> Am I Australian if it cheers me up ? <| sep |> That is the true question . <| sep |> A s a C a n a d i a n o r E u r o p e a n h o w w o u l d y o u e x p l a i n t h e d i f f e r e n c e s b e t w e e n c o m m u n i s m a n d s o c i a l i s m t o s o m e o n e w h o b a s i callythinkstheyarethesame The stuff you ' re currently learning about is a frame of reference so you understand the proper terms to categorize political thoughts into . If your knowledge of politics is still where you think countries have ever achieved a perfect state of democracy , socialism or communism to apply any label to then you still misunderstand the subject . There ' s never been a perfect example of feudalism either . There are no perfectly free markets . China or Russia have never been perfectly communist . You ' ve just been given perfect examples to illustrate what they ' re trying to teach you , which is the ideological difference between communism , socialism and capitalism . No country is any one thing . America gets to keep calling itself capitalist even when it bails banks out and funds social programs and sets up foreign trade deals through its government .