Bernie calls himself a socialist because he is too stupid and ignorant to know what the term means. To deny he calls himself a socialist is, well, entertaining.
I've noted before, the term in Europe would be "Social Democrat", not socialist, though they obviously have socialist parties.
If Bernie called himself an SD, I would abide by his characterization. He doesn't. Meanwhile, he praises Castro for doing good things.
If somehow Bernie were able to achieve all his goals, we'd end up being totalitarian communist with central planning, in my view. He clearly would love to be able to get to a centrally planned economy overall but has been told not to go there. Yet.
So, he promises free stuff paid for with OPM even though his "math" is so out of whack no one can touch it without going into technical detail. The very vagueness of his proposals saves him in debates because there is not the time nor the focus to surface the details.
My personal focus is on assessing his odds of winning, how that might impact me personally, and what I should do in response. I know the "robber barons" will rise this out just fine, but I don't have their resources.