"It’s amazing—and horrifying—what can happen when people have mushy-headed, vague beliefs in their heads, lacking what I refer to as “clarity of thought.” Most people have general feelings, and nebulous ideas and ideals, but they’re not even clear about the specifics, and the real-world applications, of their own belief systems."

Exactly. I find this to be spot-on and perfectly expressed.

"When someone says that the wealthy “should” help the less fortunate, I totally agree, as long as the giver is the one who gets to make that choice."

Right, otherwise what they're saying is that there needs to be this "entity" (this person or group of persons) who has the power to decide that and somehow force it to happen.

And even if it's true that it's good in this case, now there's still the issue of these people having a mechanism to force whatever other things they want to happen.

Which should ring a bell that this doesn't seem quite right, to anyone who doesn't want a power disparity.

Respecting people and accepting that you can't coerce your will on them -- for any reason at all -- is actually the way to get the egalitarian society that communists want anyways.

They just need the "clarity of thought" that you refer to, and to think more about the specifics of what they're actually advocating.