Any critic of communism has come across the standard left wing answer, which is:

"But real communism has never been implemented anywhere!"

It's true, communist China, Russia, Cuba, Cambodia etc., none of these actually ever reached the utopian state of true communism where everyone is equal, no one cares about money or possessions.

It never happened. Much in the same way as Thomas More's Utopia never happened.

What did happen was anywhere between 85 to 100 million people have been killed as a direct or indirect result of communism, or in the name of it.

Follow up:

Those are mind boggling numbers.

The Black Book of Communism, gives a thorough account of all the atrocities carried out in the name of communism, whether it Stalinist purges, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, various famines caused by collectivisation in Russia and China, the list goes on and on ...

In the same way it is eye opening to read how Mao Zedong was not much of a workers' or peasnts' hero himself, he wasn't much of a worker or peasant at all.

Communism just happened to be a convenient tool building his dictatorial power base. And if it hadn't been for Moscow, even that wouldn't have happened.

In the Black Book, Communism is equated to Naziism in terms of the atroctities committed.

On moral ground Communism is often seen as having the upper hand because it ultimately strives for equality, whereas Naziism openly supported hierarchies and inequality.

Striving for equality does not absolve Communist murder and repression. And even as a school of thought it has to be evaluated in the light of its historical manifestations because ultimately that is what determines its success or failure.

So the argument that Communism just hasn't been implemented the right way, simply does not hold. One should really ask if Communism can be implemented at all.

Just like with More's Utopia, I don't think so, because that's what is, a Utopia.