So now we are trying to justify them by saying that communist regimes were not really communist? I get that ideally Marx had good ideas, but the way they turn out seems to me it’s always the same. Someone has to have control and actually make a plan and people are greedy and have lust for power, that’s the reality. Also it’s not like I’m inventing anything, that’s the shoe horse theory.

Dude yes, don’t be a tankie. Soviet Union for instance was not kind to Jews, Poles, homosexuals, or people with a faith exactly the same way as Nazi Germany, just replace labour camp with gulag. They literally kept countries under Russian thumb with tanks and the second they could get freedom everyone choose independence.

Leftists are normally anti-imperialism.

Extreme left is the same as extreme right. Soviet Union was also left wing but they were very imperialist as well and oppressing. Basically like the Nazis but in denial.