Marx viewed capitalism as an essential step towards communism, and that we needed the abundance that capitalism provided in order to transition to the next stag

Marx viewed capitalism as an essential step towards communism, and that we needed the abundance that capitalism provided in order to transition to the next stage. The biggest refutation of historial materialism is that it was Russia and China, nearly feudal societies, that tried to adopt his ideas and skip the capitalist stage, or at least have the capitalist stage be managed by committed Marxists that would shepherd the transformation. Of course the USSR faltered, and China has adopted more and more capitalism as of late, and it's hard to classify as Marxist other than it is authoritarian and oppressive, a natural consequence of any society build on Marxist ideals. And perhaps all these capitalist societies in the West will eventually become what Marx envisioned, once there is adequate abundance, but I personally doubt it heavily. Marx's conception of the labor theory of value, in addition to historical Materialism, are pretty well shot down as terrible theory, IMHO. And I say that as someone who aspires to a socialist society. Marx had some good ideas and some really terrible ones, but I think Marxists of today are some of the biggest obstacles towards advancing to more socialism, just as much an obstacle as Libertarians or all stripes of conservatives. I would also note that opposition to Marx has been a consistent thread throughout socialist history, so I'm not alone on this.