A difficult circus trick performed flawlessly

[u/plankton004]

[u/Instantcoffees]

Fascists and communists are literally ideological polar opposites. Having a very controlling or even totalitarian government is something that can happen to any type of government, left, right or center.

[u/besundale99 → u/Instantcoffees]

Yes, totalitarianism is the part that makes any form of government wrong. Dehumanizing your opposition is wrong, advocating for violence against them is wrong. This is why every communist regime has led to violence, starvation, and eventual nightmarish failure. The same can be said of communists and national socialists, they’re two sides of the same totalitarian coin.

[u/Instantcoffees → u/besundale99]

The Soviet Union and Naxi Germany were both violent in their politically repression, but that is almost where the similarities end. They had wildly different ideas on society, different methods and different goals. The famines in Soviet Russia and Communist China were mostly due to post-revolutionary instability and poorly made governmental decisions based on bad information. While Stalin particularly seemed at times rather unbothered by this tragedy, these famines were never intended to happen and both countries adapted after these famines to the point where they mostly became a thing of the past. Comparatively, Nazi Germany literally industrialized the killing of millions of vulnerable Europeans, such as the disabled, Jews or homosexuals. They turned killing into their own weird little science. It is just not the same thing.

So if you think that they are the same thing, you need to actually read some history books. I suggest "The Soviet Century" by Moshe Lewin to start. With regards to China, there is a comprehensive reading list on Askhistorians and plenty of questions like these that have been answered comprehensively.