there's another foundational difference underlying the gap between how the americanized spectrum views these terms through colloquial language and what the terms actual mean, in the context of the theories they exist within, and that's this dichotomy around the individual v the collective.

what the americanized spectrum wants to do is set individualism (which it speciously associates strictly with hyper-capitalism) off against collectivism (which it equally speciously associates strictly with communism). so, in the americanized spectrum, you have individualists on one side and collectivists on the other and they're just always in struggle.

but, any european politico would acknowledge the centrality of hegel in the development of the politics of the left, and realize that the entire point of the left for the last 200 years has been about finding a way to synthesize the individual and collective into a dialectic, not set them off against each other in a fight. on the left, we fight about class, not about this individualist/collectivist canard.

the individual is more free when the collective takes control of private property; socialism maximizes personal freedom, it doesn't struggle against it. there is no contradiction, at all.

as an aside, one of the fun ways that left-libertarians like to piss off right-libertarians is to remind them that market theory is inherently collectivist in nature, and that the great ricardo was a total pinko. it's also fun to remind them that one of the defining traits of contemporary capitalism is the trivialization of individuality into market choice.