You're pretty close to what Roderic Day asserts in Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of "Brainwashing." People believe what they license themselves to, and reject that which shakes that frame due to the absolute cacophany of information available on the internet. Everyone says everything, so it's easy to find information pointing to whatever you want it to, so this charade keeps going.

I think over time terms like "Socialism" and "Communism" are less scary in the West, but what those words mean is what's at stake, as Socialism gets taken over by the Social Democrats and other apologists for Imperialism. Agitation should be tied to real experiences of the working class and speak to simple logical truths about why we should collectively plan the economy, rather than leaving it up to a decreasing number of powerful individuals. Combatting the overwhelming negativity of the modern era with revolutionary optimism seems quite potent.