Notably, for much of the Cold War, Soviet propaganda was such that many in the West were either unsure whether the Soviet communist experiment was working, or genuinely believed it was—including those on the political right.

The excesses and failures of the system (and the degree to which its "communism" was nothing but authoritarianism draped in a red flag) were not always clear until well after the fact.

Contrast that with today, where we may not have a perfect window into China, but we can certainly see a lot of what's going on there, including reprehensible things like the Uighur genocide, and the degree to which China's "communism" is heavily colored by capitalism on the one hand, and authoritarianism on the other.