That was precisely my point: socialism doesn't necessarily mean centralised statism, wage controls or limited speech.
Yes it does. Socialists may not always intend that outcome, but that is the outcome they are necessarily going to get, want it or not.
Not entirely true. Many socialist pursue a socialist economical party while adhering to democratic elective notions, I.E. Democratic Socialist (used to be referred to as Troskietes)
And the reaction of Western socialists to real life repressive governments shows that most western socialists do indeed want exactly that. Their love of Castro turned to hate only when Castro liberalized Cuba. They blandly overlooked the crimes of Khmer Rouge until the Soviet Union and its sattelites quarreled with them.
Again not true. The capitalist countries blandly overlooked the crimes of the Khmer Rouge and would have continued to do so if not for education and protest by human rights activists (you would find a significant amount of socialist among activists).
They worshipped the Sandinistas, while fiercely condemning Latin American governments that were vastly less repressive.
Not true You sure use a sweeping amount of those socialist blah blah blah statements. You hang out with a lot of socialist? -Ian Drug War The root password to the Bill of Rights...