That is probably because American isn't the opposite to socialist. The USA has many socialist aspects, it just doesn't like to think of them as socialist. Free education is socialist. Medicare for the elderly is socialist. The NFL has many aspects of socialism. The laws on state funded research being made available to the public are socialist. NASA is socialist.
This is true but the USA is still, of all first world countries, the one which takes the least socialist approach on many issues and this is the sense in which I use it as an example.
This risks being brutal, but you didn't have an email in your account details, and I left it a week so the forum would clear. I have tough but fond memories of being called out on things like this when I in my 20s. I think I'm well-intentioned.
Something that ribs me about the political culture in Australia: the intelligentsia will never miss an opportunity to claim their identity as being distinct, yet they judge themselves from a very American world-view. In this sense, the Australian identity is like a rebellious teenager - desperate to be making a break from mum and dad, but unaware how its rebellion is defined entirely by mum and dad's world-view.
You are welded to the (American) popular culture myth that American is an antonym for socialism. This is more important to you than the fact that it isn't. Even after we've discussed that there are better ways to express the idea, after you've gone through the pain of admitting you could have done this differently. You've then recanted, pulled back into your shell and defended your original expression. You won't grow if you do this.
It's not just you. But you can fix it. Turn off the television, blank your mind, read, travel, think, build your ideas on this foundation.
