Western marxism - while in many cases being overrepresented on the english internet - is globally a small minority, and it’s praxis is not really taken seriously by anyone on the outside.
It has almost completely diverged into more abstract analysis and historical materialism (it has to be said that many cases it produces rather good analysis), but it mostly stops there. Marxism in the west has never exercised political power and consequently a lot of the western critique against the east is based on the inexperience of using the tool of dialectal materialism in revolutionary practice. However, this is also known in many western marxist circles, and I would personally say that in the latest decades, most of the literary and politically active western marxists more and more are aligning their praxis with the east (at least the ones producing anything worth reading). But it is very much a work in progress, and as western marxists we have to stay active and come with good arguments to continue cementing this merging of thoughts.
In any case, checking whether someone understands this rift between west/eastern marxism is still a good way to test how well they have understood modern marxism.
Edit: For any lurkers who have yet to bridge this gap in their education, there are many comrades who have written about this. For beginners we have https://blackagendareport.com/western-marxism-loves-purity-and-martyrdom-not-real-revolution or https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:On_revolutionary_morality, and if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of modern eastern marxism please see https://roland-theodore-boer.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/roland-boer-socialism-with-chinese-characteristics-a-concise-guide-2021.pdf.
Edit2: Also my dear Cuba please know that we are not grouping your revolutionary accomplishments with western marxism.
Agreed, and this was clumsely written. I meant to convey that western marxists in some cases still produce good analysis, but admittedly the ones who do usually do not adhere to the “praxis” of western marxism, which we are discussing. So it was both incorrectly stated and not that related to the rest of my comment. I guess I wanted to provide a little counter to the defeatism so common when discussing the lack of proper practice within the western society, which I feel isn’t that constructive.
In any case I shall let it stand since your comment pointed it out and corrected me well.