Yes its a cult that believes in universal collective material end goals, and power over administration, regulation and public funds is just a mean to an end. The biggest mistake after 1945 was cooperating with Stalin and not understanding that the difference between a fascist, a nat socialist, a social democrat, a communist... were just gradual in what the concrete material end goal was. The US and the world missed a chance after 1945, again in 1954 and finally in 1990 to not go full genocide on the cult as a whole.
The reasoning might have been pragmatic, in a sense of General Washington that killing double digit percentage of a population is not going to fly with the general population - but the result of that pragmatism far over 100 M dead people in 100 years that died because they were not 100% in line with the particular teleological end goals at the time in a territory where the left was in power.
What shouldnt be forgotten though, these cults have opportunists, people that dont believe, but adapt to profit. They might be even worse than the cultist themselves, and cant be forgotten. Especially the rats that try to leave a particular sinking left ship