"open market laissez-faire capitalism" was the explicit policy goal for maybe 50 years.

The idea that if it was only somehow more pure in some ideological virtue, then it would have worked, you'll need really hard historical material empirical evidence to defend such a claim

Not that it wasn't white and pure enough but that if it was the shade whiter you advocate for, it would have somehow been a complete 180°, like some magical threshold

Yes, your "pure" capitalism tends to do that.

Kinda similar to the people who say of the SU "but it was not true communism".

The people that founded the SU openly declared that it wasn't communism, just a managed phase on the way to actual communism (that never happened).

Either way, we're talking here about small in groups treating a larger out group as sheep to be manipulated and harvested.

It's almost like the road didn't go where they said it would.

Pretty much, I'm naturally cynical about any waving about of either "Capitalism" or "Communism" as neither has really existed in any pure form and the devil is always in the details.

That, and the propensity of those who seek power to dangle whatever shiny utopia best suits their end of fooling the masses.