Patriotism is a tool Communists can use to bring the backwards masses forward.

Mao Zedong was speaking from a colonized country where nationalism and patriotism took the form of a national liberation struggle against colonial forces like the Japanese, British, French, etc.. In the United States, nationalism and patriotism (footnote) is of the same chauvinist settler-colonial variety that we see in Israel, but on a larger scale.

footnote: not grouping this with the internal national liberation struggles of American BIPOC which is separate from US nationalism

You don't have to like the ACP, but it's undialectical to ignore what they actually do

What they actually do is reheat LaRouchite fascism in the microwave and try to sell it to a new generation.