I was in a texas highschool until few years ago. The coach was also teaching the finance class due to teacher shortage.

At least biweekly he would freeze the class to talk about North Korea and say things like "Communists are more dangereous than Nazis."

So it still goes on, but more aggressive now.

There are teens here (I'm one) so maybe we're at least some of the people that "never made it last that angsty adolescent phase". Although I'd bet that there are quite a few adults falling in to that category here too

That's nice thanks. I'm nowhere near an authority on these subjects so I am quite afraid of talking out my behind.

All stalinists and maoists I met (very few) were contrarians like you describe, and enjoyed being provocative regarding sensitive questions like dekulakization or the Uyghurs. However I think there must be some kind of current trend in their favor, as maoism seems to be on a slight ascend. Perhaps this is due to a rise in Chinese soft power, as Xi Jinping presents himself as a kind of neo-maoist and reformers have been de-emphasized in Chinese media. Or maybe I just spend too much time on Lemmy lol

Now might be a good time for anarchism. It seems to me we live in a time where people refuse to believe in grand visions of a future society, where people are quite individualistic, and where leninist-inspired leftism has been discredited. But anarchism can offer local-scale and immediate improvement, respects the individual, and doesn't have much of a record of human rights violations. All is needed is to avoid the term "anarchism" in favor of the phrase "what if there was no leader and we just took decisions collectively?" haha