The “[historical figure] would’ve supported [modern candidate/movement/policy]” is the most brain dead argument. Obviously, they’re not here to tell us otherwise. But more importantly, despite the iconography being fun, figures like Lenin, Mao, etc were not prophets delivering holy truths from on high. They were just people making the best of their situations and figuring out what worked in the moment. Which is the best we can do, and often that means taking a different tactic than leftists of old. Ironically, playing games of “What would Lenin do?” is the exact opposite of conceptualizing theory in the modern context because it ties leftist politics to people who had decades of evolving context since their deaths.