By how you write, I guess you are writing from the US.

I've lived in a socialist state, so I know a thing or two about socialism first-hand: both its good and bad sides.

Saying that socialism is bad because totalitarian regimes used it for their political agenda is like saying all white men are racists because some white men are. It is a misuse of square of opposition in logics. Concrete politics has nothing to do with the noble idea that all people deserve a decent life.