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Well, when it comes to practice there are a few things:
People should not be scared to call themselves socialists and still lay claim to liberal democratic bona fides. That combination is not a ruse and a fraud as the Right would like to insist but a real current in socialist thought since the beginning. The newly elected leader of the NDP here in Canada actually came out and called it recently.
I would actually also argue that honest social democrats, can in practice be more radical than self proclaimed socialists, if in practical politics they propose and achieve deeper reforms. I'll trade an effective Mamdani for a high falutin big mouth talking European self proclaimed socialist that does fuck all (looking at Tsipras) any day of the week. It's easy to talk a big game and do nothing and we shouldn't underestimate the transformative power of promising modest reform and delivering.
It's also important to keep reminding so called moderates eg in the Democratic Party that DSs and SDs can very much coexist in a left of centre party and that cosplaying the red scare all the time is extremely self defeating. Common ground exists.
Finally, I would say it is also important to not cede the socialist vision to the MLs as if they are the sole and rightful owners of it. They are not, never have been, and liberal democracy is not as alien a concept to socialist thought as they pretend it to be. Political liberalism is not only reconcilable with socialism but there are very legitimate currents of Marxist thought that assert it. Nicos Poulantzas famously argued that "socialism will be democratic or it will not be at all", asserting that institutions of representative democracy are essential for a socialist transition to avoid authoritarian state-socialism.
Given that, so far, precisely none of the Marxist-Leninist states have successfully transitioned into a classless system (or even tried to), I'd say that the last bullet point is especially relevant.
It's awfully tempting to retain that total power over others, once given it. There's only been a handful of people throughout history that have willingly handed the reins of power back after the crisis was resolved.
I think you're missing the point I was making.
There isn't a "real" socialist or a "fake" socialist. Socialism has a definition: public ownership of the means of production. That's the defining characteristic. Everything else, whether it's democratic socialism, Marxism-Leninism, libertarian socialism, or anything else, is a modifier that describes how someone thinks that goal should be achieved or what political system should accompany it.
My point wasn't about which branch of socialism is better or more democratic. It was that people routinely use the terms socialist, social democrat, and democratic socialist interchangeably when they are not the same thing.
So how does your comment address that? My original point was about people misusing basic political terminology, not about whether one type of socialist is preferable to another.
There's also a recurring pattern on this platform where people simply don't know what these terms mean. "Socialism," "social democracy," "democratic socialism," and even "capitalism" all get thrown around as interchangeable labels, when they describe different concepts. That's the misconception I'm pushing back against, and it's one I run into constantly. You and I seem to be the exception here, we at least understand the terminology well enough to have a discussion about the ideas instead of arguing over incorrect definitions.
I guess I'm helping by articulating my understanding?
Otherwise, yes we seem to not be disagreeing.