The contention of course derives from Scandinavia broadly being the sole positive argument that modern Socialists have to rest upon as an example. If you take that bogus example out from under them by pointing out that Sweden is nowhere near being a Socialist nation (quite the opposite in fact, they're a booming private market economy with vast private wealth), their world-view implodes.
Here's the thing, though. In the US, things like universal healthcare, maternity leave, decent disability and unemployment benefits, consumer protection, all sorts of regulation, and many, many other good ideas, often get attacked with cries of "Socialism!". These are things that all of Europe has, and they work.
So either they are socialism and socialism works, or they're not socialism and socialism cannot be used as a reason to deny these to the US. You don't get to dismiss these as socialism and then claim Sweden is not socialist.
But this is the problem with labels like socialism and capitalism. They can be used with varying definitions to prop up bad arguments.
