@Cotton In that case they are just idiots that larp as some ideal of a romanticised revolutionary rather than a real thing.

the real thing*

The fact that someone proudly proclaims themselves to be Napoleon Bonaparte does not mean that they ARE the (in)famous Emperor of the French

Is that so, are you gonna call the Maoist revolution a hoax? That people like that didn't exist?

They DID exist

Yep

and, thank God, they don't really any more

And ideas don't die within a generation, this is literally what it means to be an ideology

Oh sure

but they are irrelevant in terms of influence

As u mentionned the people that might identify as Maoist

See, the most retarded ideology in the history so called national socialism still have supporters up to this day

Don't even think you should kill people that know traditional archery techniques on sight

They are not Maoists

They just leared a "cool" word and want to be it

learned*

That doesn't make them any less maoists or any less "x"ist

They might be weak in practice

Yes it DOES make them less maoist

If I am a practicing Catholic

it does not matter how much I believe that I am actually a Shia Muslim

And how much I proclaim it to the world

I'm not one

Not in any true sense

Otherwise proper nouns loose all meaning

Alright so I can't identify myself freely, if I'm not going to fight for it or shoot people in regards to my ideology?

You are free to call yourself a giraffe. It simply won't make you one - you will be wrong. Modern colleage campus "Maoists" are free to call themselves that but they are wrong. Maoism REQUIRES you to shoot people that stand in the way of the revolution. There is no such thing as moderate Maoism. Not to mention Chinese Communism was always distinctly Nationalistic as it was seen as a tool to overthrow the Western de facto colonisers first and foremost. Modern US "Maoists" have no coloniser to fight against - even if they wanted to be Maoist AND started killing they still wouldn't be true Maoists. They'd be simmilar but not quite there still...

Not to mention modern Western Communists believe in a ridiculously romanticised version of Communism that simply does not compare to the real thing in action

They are useful indoctrinated idiots

(for the most part)

They are tools of the ideology

Not actual ideologues

Somewhat somilarily to your average Russian peasant in the 1920s

They are not communists

they are simply being used by Communists for their Communist goals

You're confusing the means and actions taken by any community to proclaim their goals and their actual belief

If I say that I am an "x"ist, it's not because I want a massacre in the name of x, it's because I think x is the ideal form of a society

How we reach there is irrelevant

See, most of the commies you will see online, except from the edgy teens who make "1 mil years of gulag ehehe" jokes constantly believe education will bring communism, this means they don't want to repeat the bloodbath that happened with soviets

Sure, you're right

They are Communists