Socialism is not totalitarianism.
Every developed nation on Earth except the US is, by US standards, socialist. They’re also all democracies. The socialism = totalitarianism line is bullshit. Get over it.
I thought it was a scary story when I read it but not for the socialism aspect. I grew up when political correctness was developing and in junior high, it didn’t seem that far of a stretch to envision a world where people were penalized for being better than someone else.