ndrosen

The key word in your last sentence was "beneficent."

Communism killed more people than any other "-ism" in history, yet even in it's heyday and immediately afterwards, there were apologists for it throughout the West.

Come to think of it, even saying "after Communism" is a very Euro-centric; Communism collapsed in Europe, but still going strong in Asia. Although, on a related note, I don't see a functional difference between Tsarist Russia, Communist Russia, and Whatevertheyhavenow Russia, other than that the Communists were better at repression and massacre, but that's a difference of degree, not type.