Evidence admitted: Some people calling themselves "communists" killed a lot of people.Assertions that aren't proven merely on the basis of such evidence:
Atrocities committed by self-labeled "communists" have no parallel in human history (i.e. genocide hadn't happened before "communism").
All self-labeled "communists" are killers.
People who label themselves "communists" are actually communists.
International "communism" is a monolith.
Principles kill people.
Communist principles are bad principles.
All people killed by self-labeled "communists" are innocent of any wrongdoing.
All societies that call themselves "communist" were and are bad societies.
Communism is a bad thing.
Self-labeled "communists" kill others without good reason.
People who kill self-labeled "communists" are good people.
The US was justified in supporting dictatorships around the world merely by pointing to "communism," or out of anti-"communist" paranoia.
The US government was justified in not talking to Ho Chi Minh in the 1950s, and in supporting Diem and Thieu later on.
The US government was justified in creating a National Security State (in 1950 and thereafter) that destroyed governments around the world with no provable connection to "national security", and in defiance of the US Constitution, and which still exists, merely by virtue of the anti-"communist" paranoia of those doing the dirty deeds.
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In conclusion: It's amazing what people will justify to themselves and to others, based on the most inadequate substantiation...
