I realized what I hate about the Tau in 40K, Veeky Forums.
The Imperium of Man are depicted as fascist imperialist religious fundamentalists. Their technology is retarded and innovation bogged down by dogma, their civil rights are next to nill on almost every hive world, their societies are rife with crime and power disparities and ultraviolence, where the life, worth and dreams of individuals are but meat for the grinder.
They are an extreme caricature of every imperialist, authoritarian, theocratic, autocrative regime with personality cults and culture wars and colonialism, manifest. Every single possible negative trait that Europe has ever manifested on itself and its neighbors.
.. But then you look at the closest allegory to communism.. the Tau.
A mere 6,000 year old race that has technologically progressed up to and beyond The Imperium of Man in the span of the blink of an eye by comparison, with a casted system and adopted civilizations under their rule. A classless structure where everyone works for the betterment of everybody else for the "greater good."
Their technology is in many ways superior to the Empires, their tactics of war are not steeped in bravado and tradition, their doctrine treats the ethereals as leaders but not gods, and while their Greater Good as seen as totalitarian, it's also seen as benevolent in many ways.
They are not the Mirror Darkly look at communism they should be. They are not a gritty grimdark look at the horrors and failures of bureaucracy and economy. The Tau are like some shiny juche propaganda by comparison to the Imperium of Man and its blemishes and failings.
So. Any historians or socialist/communist state afficianados here? How could we remedy the way the Tau are written and depicted to be to communism what The Empire is to fascist theocracy? How would it look like if we mashed Maoism, Stalinism, Leninism, Trotskyism and Latin American socialism in a big fucking pot and hit frappe?