“Communism bad”
“Why?”
200 year old tropes so ancient they were debunked by Marx himself
Of course, you go through the motions of explaining the most basic political concepts that could be grasped by skimming the cliff notes for literally any Marxist works
“Friedrich Engels? Is he like the president of Germany or something?”
It’s like a kindergartener trying to teach you calculus.
I think about if the liberals had the same problems in the 1700s. Of course, capitalist modes of production have already been emerging across the world in form of dual power in places like the Netherlands or England, while feudal government was still prevalent.
In the 19th century, the Reign of Terror was treated much in the same way that “communism killed 100 million people” is used today. It was supposed to be the cautionary tale of what happens if you actually give the people any power. This was used to stop any sort of radical movements but also against liberals getting any more concessions out of the old order. Most narratives of the French Revolution spoke negatively of the Terror, Robespierre, et al until liberals started pushing back on that in the run up to 1848.