I think the point about identifying as a communist, or socialist, or a catholic, for example, is you accept a tradition with its warts. If you wanted to just af

I think the point about identifying as a communist, or socialist, or a catholic, for example, is you accept a tradition with its warts. If you wanted to just affiliate with the values, you could say you were an anarchist, or a non-denominational christian, or indeed, just explain what you believe in. As I see it, the latter is a cowardly choice. To affirm you're a catholic, or a communist, despite the often barbaric history of really-existing-X, is to accept that politics is hard, and that even beliefs that are gentle to the point of being asinine have their dark shadows, and that the only way to counter this is to be aware of them. To say you're a believer in the values, but not to identify yourself with those values as a tradition or history, is to ignore the danger of those values - and to risk re-enacting their failures.