When the wall fell I recall thinking how nice it will be now people can stop trying to create a panic around communism and 'communist' as a slur against others

When the wall fell I recall thinking how nice it will be now people can stop trying to create a panic around communism and 'communist' as a slur against others in democratic countries. I had hoped we could go back to using the word with its actual, political definition. So it's disappointing to see people falling back into red-baiting and lazy epithets because others in their group are doing the same.