Maybe in places like Russia and China, but in the west? Come on!
We and America have always been staunchly anti Communist and not shy to advertise that. People used to be blacklisted from jobs for being communists. The BBC had a symbol they put on employee records they suspected of being communists so they could keep an eye on them. The security services kept a very watchful eye on known or suspected communists. The likes of Stalin and Mao were definitely seen as bad/evil and that they were responsible for the deaths of tens of millions and were oppressive, executing or disappearing those who dissented.
I don't know what you think the definition of a whitewash is but it sure isn't the same as mine.
By the same criteria there is a whitewashing of the failures of capitalist ideology. It constantly talks up those few that have got rich while ignoring the millions that struggle to get by. It glamorises wealth and oppulence under the pretence that you can have this to if you try hard enough when that is just not true. Many of the richest cities have the highest levels of deprivation. Even the common metric of economic growth deliberately hides the massive discrepancies of a tiny few getting much richer while most get poorer by lumping it all into a single figure.
And for what it's worth, I'm hugely anti-Communist. I think even in its purest form it can't succeed as it's absolutely impossible for everyone to be equal in terms of power, influence and wealth especially when you take human nature and greed into account. And even if you could give everyone exactly the same then you just get a race to the bottom cos if people can't get more by doing more the only way they can 'win' is to get that equal share doing less.
Socialism on the other hand can be done with an equitable, but not equal, share and while there will be an almost infinite number of ways that could occur, and you can reasonably argue about whether it is possible to overcome things like the potential corruption, it does have the possibility of creating a society with a fairer distribution of wealth and power. Not perfect, but better.
Capitalism on the other hand we can see does not do that. It deliberately chooses to value and reward a very small set of circumstances that do not necessarily have any correlation to effort or ability so that a tiny number of people get a lot in perpetuity while most of the people get little. It is an inherently unfair system.
Right, there's a huge amount to unpack here.
First point. Yes, in the West. As I've already stated communism societies are popping up in campuses across the UK. On the cesspit of social media the amount of Gen Z or Gen A which are self-proclaimed commie's due to anti-capitalism sentiment seemingly being on the rise.
The use of the USSR flag in communist marches such as those hosted by the RCP is bizarre and inappropriate given the history and what it's grown to represent, yes albeit the same argument could be used national flags such as the Union Jack, but regardless, the former is still tied directly to an unachievable ideology and a regime responsible for immense suffering. Many on the left are anti-flag seeing them as symbols of division. So for me it feels pretty inconsistent, or at the very least selective, when the USSR flag seems to be not just tolerated but actually embraced by a certain section of the movement.
The BBC point is utterly irrelevant and about 70 years out of date during a time when anti-communist paranoia was basically ingrained everywhere. During that time in the US the FBI were actively encouraging American citizens to report neighbours, colleagues, and family members for communist activity and there was a whole media campaign about it urging people to basically stay vigilant at all times.
That paranoia has waned massively since the USSR was dissolved and isn't really deemed a threat anymore. That paranoia however has though, among certain groups, been replaced by either apathy or even romanticisation among the younger generation. There are countless examples in the media and on socials of young (Western) people romanticising Communist leaders such as Che, Stalin or even Lenin, all of which committed awful atrocities and were ruthless when it came to oppressing their 'enemies'. I saw one recently which called the Soviet Union a 'vibe'.
This is a pretty good article in the WSJ although it's behind a paywall but it highlights my point about how a lot of this is down to a lack of proper education - most notably in the US - and general awareness of the atrocities communist leaders committed over the 20th Century:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/teach-crimes-communism-stalin-hitler-school-43f76f4f
I'm well aware of what whitewashing means. I categorically don't need you to tell me when you clearly can't particularly understand the term yourself.
Not at all interested in a socialist vs capitalist debate, it's irrelevant to the discussion.
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