>...Leninism isn't Marxism, never has been, never will be. Actual Marxists
have always been pretty thin on the ground of course, I don't see much
evidence that there's any less now than there was 20 years ago.
"Actual Marxists"? What determines an "actual Marxist" in response to the world and its situations other than claiming to have read and understood [or intrepret] Marx, Lenin or Mao through their works and others? As far as I know-actual nations that have struggled to bring socialism into existence-relies on actual conditions and actual demands in response to actual forces-it just so happens that in any case it started with Marx, Lenin and Mao [Russia, China, Albania, Vietnam, Cuba etc]
> There's always been lots of weeds - Leninism, Maoism and the like. The
weeds have choked the garden. Though this also can be explained in terms of
Marxist theory.
For those who defend bourgeios politics [deceitful and violent means] the path to conscience is always blocked when it comes to finding out the truth-in this case calling the various strands of Marxism known as Leninism, Maoism, etc as weeds that have choked the garden [in this would anyone like to explain what the "garden" is?] is just a superficial excuse as to disregard Marxism all-together. [The mentality that says "Marx-was-right-but-Lenin-[Stalin]-Mao-fucked-it-up-for-the-rest-of-us"] The problem doesn't lay with Lenin, Mao or Stalin. It is so easy to just "blame" one single person for the problems and then use it as an excuse as to not build socialism. Lenin, Mao were not perfect, nor do they need to be, and for any country in in transition to socialism, the point is how to fix and solve the problems of society-by consciously engaging in solving those problems. For any problem that arises in a [socialist] society, does one really sit back and intrepret the situation saying "We have so many problems and it is because so-and-so misintrepreted from long ago so-and-so and therefore there's no point to this. Socialism doesn't work." No. The "actual Marxist" in this situation would take a look at the situation and assess what needs to be done, what can be done, what must be done. A society that actually looks out for its own. Marx et al only serve as guides, not idols, in the tradition of Marxism.