Motte and bailey.

People talking shit about communism are obviously referring to the several countries which were allegedly headed that direction, and - for some reason! - super didn't get there.

Defending the apparently-nonexistant utopian ideal is not a meaningful response to even the shittiest and least-informed criticism of those very real countries and their very real problems. It's like if conservative dipshits tried arguing that capitalism is only when perfectly rational consumers have unlimited information, so "capitalism has never been tried." It's a stupid dodge. You know what words are used to mean.