If Communism is as bad as we on this forum believe it to be, there’s no need to exaggerate, distort, or misrepresent its tenets.
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But the question remains who is doing the exaggerating, distorting and misrepresenting? The Communist or the Former communist?
In my experience the ‘former communists’ are the ones telling the truth, while the ‘communists’ are the ones lying about or are ignorant of what ‘Communism’ teaches.
I was told when I was preparing to go on an LDS mission to specifically NOT TEACH or outright LIE about certain doctrines because if people knew the truth, they wouldn’t join the LDS church. That was one of the big red flags that got me out of it.
I can provide documentation to teachings of the LDS that directly contradict those LDS who say ‘we don’t believe that’.
1) I've caught both at it.
2) Unless you're God, YOU DO NOT KNOW what the other guy is thinking.
I was told when I was preparing to go on a [Group X] mission to specifically NOT TEACH or outright LIE about certain doctrines
OK, fine. What you were told to do is part of your witness. That's part of this forum, and IMO perfectly reasonable. Unless you're God, or you were there, YOU DO NOT KNOW what the other guy was told to do.
I can provide documentation to teachings of the
I can provide quotes from Ronald Reagan's speeches where he says "I am ... a ... Communist". Note the clever elipses. It's very easy, and very wrong, to twist the other guy's foundational documents so they appear to say something that nobody who actually follows that belief system actually believes. Whether one has actually been a member of "Group X" or not, one should always be careful to present "Group X's" beliefs the way "Group X" actually understands them. Failing to do so simply makes one look ignorant and ridiculous, particularly so to members of "Group X".