[onethought]

It sucked in Russia, Cuba, China (until Deng made it capitalism).

Australia, Sweden, Norway have been much better examples. Though their secret has been to not call it Communism/Socialism but instead something like "liberal democracy" or "democratic socialism".

Agree there is propaganda war that has been waged to ensure communism looks bad... which is why it's potentially a good parallel for crypto, as I think (potentially even literally not just metaphorically) the same vested interests are against it.