I identify differently depending on the context.
When around comrades, I will identify as a Marxist-Leninist, as this is the most precise definition of what I hold to. I generally don’t use this other than around comrades because no one else has any idea of what it means.
If I’m around people who at least sort of know what Marxism is, I’ll call myself a Marxist. But in my experience this is pretty rare. Or this is what I will default to around people who I know are leftist broadly. I feel like “Marxist” is accurate enough where getting into the details of M-L isn’t really necessary.
But when I’m around most normies, I will identify as a socialist. I think it’s accurate enough to convey to people who do not have a very developed political understanding what I hold to. “Socialist” at the same time conveys a commitment to radical change well beyond the current Republican/Democrat paradigm, while not, for example, putting my job in jeopardy if I call myself a socialist to co-workers.
So the obvious question is why I don’t call myself a communist very often IRL, even though I am one. I have before and used it a bit interchangably with M-L among comrades, but I don’t use it around people I don’t know well and know they are down with it. What I have found with the people in my broader social circle is such a huge lack of political understanding that calling myself a communist only shuts people down. When it comes to Americans, I think it’s easy to overestimate their political understanding. I used to think most Americans just think communism is when “everyone is equal”. What I’ve found is worse than that: it’s more like people just have this vague notion that “communism = evil”. They have no idea what it’s about other than decades of propaganda that just equates communism as the ideology of our enemies and those who want to destroy America. So to most Americans, a communist is just someone who is “very bad person” who wants to destroy America (I mean, death to Amerikkka of course, but it’s so much more than that). My own parents just think that communism means atheism and can’t explain it more than that.
I totally understand the idea that we shouldn’t shy away from calling ourselves communists. We need to normalize the idea because communism specifically is what’s needed to save the planet. But idk, at this time and place in the US it feels like trying to do this just closes more doors than it opens, at least with the politically ignorant (most people).
I just call myself a communist but beyond that I don’t think it matters right now. Leftists of all types in the US are so scattered and powerless I don’t find it useful to nitpick at theoretical differences. Identifying oneself more concretely would perhaps matter in a situation like pre-revolution Russia, where a bunch of different organized struggles were occuring with concrete differences in tactics.
But right now there are so few of us do we really have the time to make distinction between ourselves based on tactics that we may have in some hypothetical future? We have to start doing stuff right now and work with whoever we can. And I’ll emphasize that we cannot work with organizations with explicitly bigoted views. Other than that I don’t see a lot of daylight between American leftist orgs. Some swing more anarchist or some more Marxist but from organizing experience with both, it doesn’t really matter much. It only says what kind of books they might read, or how many cops might try infiltrating.
But like even among apolitical people I refer to myself as a communist. I’ll explain if they’re curious but otherwise don’t push it that much. I’m not ashamed and I don’t really try to hide it. I already look super queer and alt so why try to put up any kind of Overton window respectability on top of that? I already look like a cultural enemy to respectable types. Among other leftists I don’t put any labels on myself, just a communist and I’ll try to help