Memes

However, without confirming in reality, some took it to mean that the peasantry would oppose socialism if they weren't already proletarianized. It isn't quite as stupid as it sounds.

I can see how someone unfamiliar with the countryside could make the assumption. However, as a person who's lived and worked on a farm it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Farming communities are extremely interdependent on the local community to get just about anything done. No one person or family can work the land by themselves, it really does take a community if you're not a wealthy land holder.

Trots take it to mean that all socialist countries are generally highly flawed to outright bad

Yeah.... He was a messy bitch about a lot of things. Really a mixed bag of conflicting ideas in that little dude.