The distancing and aggressiveness towards them and the grabs standings of denouncement that characterize most of the American left regarding socialist projects rejects anything like that from the get go
I don't think leftists who are overly-critical of leftist states necessarily reject that those states were genuine attempts to build something good. I think you can find honest leftists who:
Buy into propaganda like "Castro was a murderous dictator" uncritically because they've never put in the effort to research the reality of the situation, because the reality of the situation has functionally zero impact on their lives. So they write off those states because they're not relevant to, say, trying to pass Medicare for All.
Have dug into the non-propagandized reality of leftist states and still think some of the actions of those states were bad (see the death penalty example). So they write off those states because (a) they have some genuine issues with them anyway and (b) they genuinely have a much more utopian vision of a leftist future.
Have dug into the non-propagandized reality of leftist states and are making a tactical choice to write them off on the theory that re-litigating the reality of the USSR will do more harm than good to existing leftist projects.
To me, all three of these come off as ceding way too much ground to reactionaries right off the bat, but I can at least see where these leftists are coming from. And depending on what their position is that approach might be justifiable.
I don't think leftists who are overly-critical of leftist states necessarily reject that those states were genuine attempts to build something good. I think you can find honest leftists who:
To me, all three of these come off as ceding way too much ground to reactionaries right off the bat, but I can at least see where these leftists are coming from. And depending on what their position is that approach might be justifiable.