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Notes -
@crushedoranges has the right of it. I anticipate that the majority of responses from both good-faith and bad-faith commun/left/marx/etc.-ists will center on this definitional argument.
However, I am not concerned with how various flavors of communists define themselves because I intend to offer a definition, based upon specified beliefs and behaviors, which is generally applicable. By analogy, if I were to make an argument about the religiosity of Christians, I would not give much credence to Pope Innocent III's insistence that my claims can't apply to Cathars because Cathars aren't Christian.
I intend to argue that the practical differences between communism/marxism/etc. are illusory and that their commonality as shades of a shared religion is their defining feature.
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