Historically, the definition of people who feel empowered to do whatever the fuck they like to whoever they feel like doing it to, if they mouth false pieties from time to time about “The People”, is pretty accurate.
But I would submit that at root, in theory, all forms of Leftist ideology have as their conceit that they are working to ameliorate human suffering. That they are the good guys. That they are working to right wrongs.
Practically, so much evil happens so fast in the process of getting and consolidating power anyone who retains this notion of the thing will get flagged as an “enemy of the people” and eliminated in one way or another.
Put another way, historical Communism ALWAYS murders “real” Communism. That’s why “real” Communism doesn’t exist and hasn’t existed, outside of perhaps church cloisters and Israeli kibbutzes. It is an idealistic creed which, to actually come into existence, has to be SOLD, not imposed. Prophets of a better world need to learn to convince people to be kinder, more generous and less selfish. This is a fundamentally spiritual task, and one that is made exponentially more difficult when the prospective proselytizers are hard core materialists and atheists.
There are many roadblocks inherent in these ideas, many contradictions, and I would argue many factual errors, both historical and scientific.
But I think it is safe to say any person in a “Communist” system who labels themselves a “Communist” made severe concessions long ago with respect to either their ideals, or their capacity to be honest.