So every once in a while an article will float around or someone at a talk will say something along the lines of "hey, turns out that the communist leaders actually believe in communism."

(I wouldn't reccomend reading/watching the first two links here. The last one is fine)

There's this article by Jacobin:https://jacobin.com/2025/02/xi-jinping-ideology-china-rivalry/

"Importantly, Rudd argues that CPC ideology is not an elite parlor game, a rhetorical weapon, a pragmatic means of control, or an analytical framework. Or rather, it isn’t just all those things. It is also, Rudd argues, genuinely believed."

There's this bit from Sarah Paine:https://youtu.be/KSCH6svGRFM

"Don't ever kid yourself that the communist party of china [hey look she said the name correctly] doesn't believe in communism"

And part of this lecture by Stephan Kotkin: https://youtu.be/sXutg47BwEU

"It turns out the communists, were communists" (this is at the very end of the video)

I find it funny that either the vast majority who claim to know so much about china/ussr etc. Who claim that the communists weren't communists show themselves to have no investigative capabilities, or that in the liberal world it's just expected that people will constantly betray their ideology for personal gain