Social democracy? What social democracy? First things first, there is no social democracy in the west, the last vestiges are in the process of being swept away. You can expect more austerity from here on. It’s a moot point anyway, because almost all of the social democracies were (and are, to the extent that social democracy still exists) in the imperialist bloc and complicit in the exploitation and domination of the third world.

Once again, I didn’t say that China was definitively socialist, I said that they were closer to it than the west. The question is whether the Dengist liberalization was an NEP-style strategic retreat with the aim of developing and eventually progressing to socialism, or if they’re just developmentalist social democrats. Either way, they’re better than any given western country (of which even the most social democratic are imperialist running dogs).

So, in terms of the scoreboard, marxism-leninism has achieved multiple socialist states that bettered the lives of hundreds of millions of people, and then either collapsed or liberalized into a kind of developmentalist quasi social democracy (which is nevertheless better than liberal democracy), and then you also have Cuba which still manages to hold on, barely, under overwhelming pressure, and has been forced to liberalize by circumstance. Not great, but it could be a lot worse, and there were some real triumphs.

Anarchism, or libertarian socialism, or what have you, has managed a few temporary statelets and has never been able to seriously oppose capitalist imperialism. The biggest difference is in mentality - the Anarchist aversion to authority and centralization means that they aren’t capable of acting effectively in a wartime enviroment. You have to realize that any revolutionary movment that succeeds will be an immediate target for every reactionary power, and that survival will require authoritarian measures to be taken. It’s a simple fact, in wartime you do not have the luxury of absolute freedom. Anyone who makes concrete gains for the working class will have to defend them.

As an aside, I think the real test will come once American hegemony has fully collapsed, which thankfully seems to be coming sooner than later. China’s treatment of the rest of the world once they’re the premier world power will be the best metric to judge them by.