There is some logic to what you say, but the problem is that the entire Deprogram trio already get labeled as “tankies”, even with the non-committal position they take on some of these issues. The fact that they speak positively of the former USSR, the fact that they frequently, if not as often or as forcefully as i would like, praise certain parts of what China is doing and speak out against anti-China narratives, the fact that they criticize NATO and the US first and foremost, this is enough for the liberals who are pretending to be leftists to call them “apologists for authoritarian regimes”. So then why not go all the way?

I think we have here another one of those disagreements about tactics where it is impossible to say who is right and who is wrong until we see how things turn out and we have the benefit of hindsight. It may very well be that their calculation that they will attract more people this way and ultimately turn them into principled communists turns out to be right. It may be that i am just too impatient and they are thinking more strategically and more long-term than me. I am willing to be proved wrong on this. But to me it just seems too opportunistic at this time to still keep up this veneer of neutrality given the degree to which the confrontation between the imperialist camp and the anti-hegemonic coalition (Russia, China, Iran) has escalated.