International Socialist Organization

In 10th grade I never thought of the word "socialist" as taboo, naughty, or something I should not be. In fact, I was part of a group called 'PVPA (my high school) Anti-War Act Coalition' (PAAC). The group was run by students, who were my age, and considered themselves to be socialists. Although, at the time, I wasn't quite sure what the term meant. I knew that they were very aware of what was going on politically at the time (with the war in Iraq) and would state their opinion in a very textbook manner whenever they could. In my short time at PAAC I attended one anti-war protest that took place at an army recruiting station, and actually forced them to shut down forth night. I also went to an International Socialist Organization (ISO) meeting. At this meeting people mainly talked about how the troops shouldn't be in Iraq, and they talked about their newspaper, which members have to sell in order to be a member. I'm being very general here but there's this http://www.internationalsocialist.org/what_we_stand_for.html .

So, I really don't understand why the term 'socialist' is so bad.