There’s a trend I’ve noticed among many of the people on the Far Left, especially those who claim to be Socialists or Communists, that I think bears noting here.

I love how the Lefties and Far Lefties are seemingly without a clue (or perhaps they just don’t want to admit it), as to why Communism's cradle collapsed like the fragile house of cards it was, in the face of real, pro-active, honest Capitalist opposition.
The fact that it took the most conservative US president in over a century to finally recognize their weaknesses and put a pin to their castle of balloons must ache especially badly.

Left with a vacuum and no way to explain its existence other than to admit the absolute failure of their faith, they, for some time, had nothing really to say. No way to return the jabs and prods of their opponents.
So, in the past 15 years, they slowly, eventually, changed tack. The rhetoric changed completely.

Nowadays, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro.....the very same people the Liberal Left held on giant, ornate golden pedestals all through the 20th century, from the 20s and 30s on up to the fall of the USSR in '91 (thank you Ronald Reagan---oh, and more on that in a second), were suddenly no longer Socialists OR Communists.
At least, not REAL Socialists or Communists.
No, they were just pretenders, see, aaaaannnd.....since they weren't true to the faaaaaaiiiiith.....weeeeeelllll.....(toss in an "I dunno" shrug, shake the head sadly ) things just didn't work out as they should.

BUT!

If they haaaaa-aaaad......... Yeah. Okay.

Their political forebears spent decades---knowing EXACTLY what and who these men were---worshipping them and their misguided vision. Holding them up as paragons of Socialist ideals.
Now, though, since Socialism/Communism has pretty much bottomed out (and don't try that old, stale "what about China" gag; Mao wouldn't recognize modern China, and would hate much of what they'd done in the way of necessary reforms. But no fear....his mark is still visible in the repression and brutality of their regime) they weren’t REALLY Socialists/Communists at all. Geez, but that explains EVERYTHING!

They sure seemed like Communists, though.....they took money from people who earned it and gave it to people who didn't.
Mainly themselves, yes (Castro's personal fortune is estimated at somewhere around half a billion dollars American, and that, in one of the most egregiously poverty-stricken Third World countries---Communism did wonders there!), but the principle remains the very same.
Along the way, they (and just about anyone else who ever took power as a Commie or Socie) also became murderous tyrants and homicidal dictators, their governments becoming repressive and suspicious to the point of paranoia.
Every one of them. And Communism's appeal and inner workings had nothing to do with it. Right. Yeah, okay.

You know, if the argument now goes that they weren’t really TRUE Communists at all, that they strayed from the faith and lost their ideals, doing things they shouldn’t have done, then I have to wonder if the Left would be willing to use that argument in other places.
What say we save the Catholic Church some stress and harassment, shall we? Could we please use that argument in the case of the Pedophile Priest scandals?
I mean….hey….well, y’know….they strayed from the faith…..lost their ideals. Did things they shouldn’t have done. Therefore, they weren’t REAL priests at all, right? Right? Right? Therefore, the Church isn’t at fault at all and it still works fine, just the same as it always did.

Would that work for anyone?

And another thing:
They also like to say that Ronald Reagan had nothing to do with the collapse of Soviet Communism. It was all due to the bungling/evil/pathetic machinations of Mikhail Gorbachev. Or something.

Yeah. Okay.

All those missles Reagan ordered up and had placed in Europe (bankrupting the Soviet economy because it couldn't take the strain of a serious military competition while supporting every other Commie state on the continent at the same time) had absolutely nothing to do with it.

That's the new party line, folks.

Yeah, okay.