The same has also started to be done with Bernie’s “successor’s” like AOC and Jamaal Bowman

Don't know too much about Jamaal Bowman, but AOC also seems like a genuine leftist activist that happened, mostly because of a glitch in the system and pure luck, to slide into somewhat of a political position.

And of course, there will always be severe limits to what that path can bring. Which is why they mostly focus on rhetoric and making their ideas more mainstream viable and popular. I think at the moment, that's probably the best they can do. They cannot solve our problems for us, and even if they could, that shouldn't be the goal. The goal should be that we get into a position where we can solve our own problems.

The oddest part to me is the people who downplay Bernie’s radicallness. I’ve only ever heard it done by left wingers who think he’s not actually left wing enough

In my view, it's mostly done by "radical online Marxists" and edgy radicals, who I suspect aren't actually doing much except for complaining about it on twitter, which is probably why they get uncomfortable with people actually doing real world stuff? And not gonna lie, sometimes I get my tinfoil hat on and start to question if those are actual misinformation bots.

I also have seen it a lot on the right and with other anti-socialists, who just want to paint Bernie as a hypocrite. Same people who say "But Bernie is a millionaire, what a hypocrite"..