You know why, Steven. Communists imagined that these states, which had got rid of most private capitalism and were ruled by communist parties, were on the way to ever more developed forms of socialism and ultimately to 'communism' - a state of affairs more or less the same as the 'socialism' of your political tradition. That was the communists' belief at the time, although it proved harder to sustain as time went on. But you have not answered my question to you: does your political tradition have any notion of 'progress'? Are there any measures, innovations or social guarantees which you would consider 'progressive'? Free health care, pensions, education, sickness benefits, health and safety at work laws, whatever? Would you consider their removal or erosion regressive? Or is it really 'half a loaf is not only no better than no loaf at all but we are going to pretend it isn't there or doesn't matter anyway because - socialism!'?