What's in an epithet?

For as long as I've been aware, the American right has accused those who disagree with them of being "socialists" or "communists." This was certainly the strategy of Sen. Joe McCarthy, who used it reflexively.

I've spent a lot of time reading about "socialism" and "communism," having read histories of Russia, the Soviet Union, the Russian Revolution and the Chinese Revolution, as well as biographies of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mao and Castro.

Once you educate yourself, you learn that the governments of the USSR and Red China and their satellites weren't socialist or communist, they are autocratic dictatorships. They used "socialism" and "communism" as branding to disguise their totalitarianism. And the West was complicit, by using "socialist" and "communist" as synonyms for totalitarianism, even while embracing dictators who were allies.

Look, if you actually read and understand Marx, what Mao and Lenin et al. did was anathema to Marxism, which taught that socialism only emerges from an industrialized society, which neither Boshevik Russian nor Mao's China was. The first step to understanding history is to discard phony labels and call things what they are.

Today, the GOP continues the grand tradition of using "socialist," "communist" and "Marxist" as epithets to smear their political opponents, regardless of their actual philosophy. The idea that Joe Biden is a Marxist would make a dog laugh. Biden is what we used to call a "Rockefeller Republican." Yet here is Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) in a text message to Mark Meadows:

"Mark, When we lose Trump we lose our Republic. Fight like hell and find a way. We’re with you down here in Texas and refuse to live under a corrupt Marxist dictatorship. Liberty! Babin"

For an alcoholic, the first step to a cure is admitting you have a problem you can't control. The GOP is addicted to Trumpism and the bleating of "Marxist" at anything they disagree with. Babin, Meadows and their fellow Trump supporters nearly succeeded in a violent coup to overturn their country's government. That's not Marxism, but it is Bolshevism or Maoism.