Communism Vs Fascism. One of These Words Still Means Something

Fascism has meant roughly the same thing for a hundred years. Communism has meant a dozen different things and now mostly means “a person I dislike.” That asymmetry is not an accident.

Start with an experiment you can run yourself.

Ask a room of Americans to define fascism. You will get a rough but recognizable consensus: a dictator, extreme nationalism, a scapegoated minority, political violence, the crushing of the press, the state and the corporation fused, everyone marching. It will be imprecise, but it will point at the same object.

Now ask the same room to define communism. You will get everything. State ownership of industry. No private property at all. The Soviet Union. China, which currently hosts more billionaires than any country except the United States. A commune in Vermont. Universal healthcare. Sweden, which is a market economy with high taxes. Bread lines. Sharing. Whatever the Democratic Party proposed last week.

One of these words survived the twentieth century with its meaning intact. The other did not. And understanding why is the most useful thing you can do before attempting to answer which of the two systems, in the end, has been better for human beings.