>>720064706
I think this was mostly just a 2000s American thing, and it's mostly because information about what Communism in the United States in that era was mostly just bad propaganda.

I think the idea was that they were "communists" because they believe in the Greater Good and have some concept of them all being equals. It might have come from the influence of people like Ayn Rand who tried to paint atruism and movements for the greater good as some kind of socialism or communism (even though she herself believed in serving a greater good... just that the greater good was best served by letting entrepreneurs and "Captains of Industry" do whatever the fuck they wanted without restriction or the consideration of others).

She and her ideological compatriots legit had people believing that you're supposed to be a big selfish asshole sociopath and if you aren't, that's communism.