Why is "Fascist" the worst political insult instead of "Communist?"?

Question

Weren't Communists worse than Fascists? Sure, Hitler killed 6 million Jews, but Communists have killed billions. Why is it that Fascism (National Socialism) is seen as the worst ideology instead of Communism (International Socialism)? Isn't Communism the far worse of the 2 versions of Socialism?

Answer 1

Communists killed over 100 million people. Over 50 million of the dead were purposely starved to death. The others were beaten to death or executed.

Museum of Communism FAQ
George Mason University
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/museum/cook.htm

There are several good answers about communism here.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=?qid=20070919020003AASE18l

"Liberals don't realize communism has killed more people than Hitler. They don't know pictures of the revolutionaries Che or Mao are just as bad as swastikas.

1) 100 Million dead and counting because of communism.
2) Chinese leaders still pray to the mass murder that killed 70 million people.(newest figure is 70 million dead)
3) Each year that goes by, China points more missiles at the U.S. and at U.S. soldiers stationed in Asia.
4) China is trying to bankrupt the U.S. by devaluing its currency while pegging the dollar.
5) A communist general in China has threatened to nuke the U.S..(2005)
6) A leader of China talked of nuclear bombing Japan. (2006).
7) China still arrests priests for praying. Most of the priests have permanently disappeared. "

Answer 2

The word fascist is derived from a Latin root, fac (fec) meaning "to make". This root is also the root of such interesting words as feces and fact.

Fascism is a political movement that believes people cannot manage themselves and need strong leaders to to tell them, or compel, force, them, to do what is "right" or "required".

Calling someone a fascist means that you are saying the person advocates a political system which minimizes the individuals rights and ability to make their own choices.

Essentially, anyone who believes that people need to be told what to do is a fascist.

Socialism is not a political ideology, it is an economic ideology. Communism is a political ideology which is based on a Socialist economic system.

A group can be fascist socialists (USSR, Cuba and China) or they can be Democratic Socialists (Salvador Allende's Chile or Chavez in Venezuela).

Most nations have a combination of economic systems with both socialist and capitalist systems. Some nations, like China, are primarily socialist and some, like the United States, are primarily capitalist.

PS: Did someone really say:
"Fascism is worse, it is controlled by a small group of thugs. Communism is government by committee." Now how do we know that committee is not a small group of thugs?

After reading these answers I am once again reminded how much I love the public education system in the United States.

Answer 3

Fascism is by pure ideology rather dictatorial. Communism by Marxist views was not meant to be. Instead it was the empowerment of the common people. If you are referring to Russian Communism, you are certainly correct by saying that Stalin killed many more people than Hitler. However Hitler is remembered more because of the impact that WWII had. The cold war was more of a technological arms race that included places like Vietnam, which divided the country. Against fascist regimes, American history has shown as a country we have been united while against some communist countries, our stances have not been as united.

Answer 4

Actually, communists didn't kill anyone -- at least, not because they were communist.

Communism is an economic model -- one that promotes community (govt) control and ownership of all property. This has not been done on the national scale in modern history -- USSR was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics -- and was not just socialist, but also an authoritarian state.

That's the key issue -- USSR and Nazi Germany and China and Iraq (under Saddam) all killed people based on their authoritarian practices -- with fascism being one example of an authoritarian dictatorial regime.

So, fascism is about control and taking away personal liberties -- and often includes violent suppression of dissent.

Communism has never existed on the national scale (any time in the past few centuries), and even countries that were called communist didn't justify the killings in the name of collective property ownership.

Also, with only 7 billion people on the planet -- and maybe 10 billion having lived at all during the past several hundred years -- it's hard to see how any govt could have killed "billions" -- that's 20% to 50% of the entire world population.

Answer 5

You're confusing Communism with Stalinism.

In classical Marxist theory, communism is the final stage of history where the state has withered away and a return to Jeffersonian democracy has occurred.

In Marxist theory, socialism is the stage after capitalism, but before communism, where the state tries to manage economic affairs through democratic, collective principles.

The world is currently at the stage of differing degrees of socialism everywhere (including the U.S.) because capitalism failed during the Great Depression, but democracy survived. If Democracy hadn't survived, you'd have fascism in the U.S. (we're holding it back by resisting President Bush). I

So far, the path of Marxian history seems to be on track; from primitive communism (American Indians, early Christian communism), to capitalism, to socialism.

Unfortunately, all the terms have been misused for political purposes as conservative use of "socialism" and "communism" daily demonstrates. But, the reality is Lenin corrupted Marxism into Marxist Leninism (a vanguard party is the political force, not democracy) which was followed by Stalin corrupting Marxist Leninism with his despotism (dictatorship).

Conservatives have never understood the difference because their leaders don't want them to KNOW the difference.

Answer 6

The Allman Brothers?! they're probable the least emo band EVER. besides, emo has change into an insult because in most circumstances all emo song sucks, even the unique "hardcore" emo or inspite of. Rites of Spring... **** those adult men, who reported they could call their shitty band after between the properly proper products of twentieth century song? also, the youngsters who hearken to this stuff are regularly the most pathetic slime of this era, so it replaced into inevitable that this time period might want to finally end up an insult. besides, do not get me all started, emo presented this upon itself for sucking so badly.

Answer 7

It would appear that in the US " Communist " is the worst political insult, since the amount of times I have heard (and seen it on this political forum) thrown at someone by a paticularly rabid right-winger, which then sets off others of a similar persuasion dancing around like headless chickens in mouth-foaming agreement.

A spill over from the 1950's perhaps?

Answer 8

Both systems have the government ruling with total power over there people.Communism has the believe everyone is equal and must work for the benefit of the state.Fascism has the believe that they superior than anyone who is different.

Answer 9

I think the use of "fascist" is kind of funny because most people who throw it around have no freaking clue what it really means.

Answer 10

Communists believe in sharing all the revenues equally between every citizen.

Behind Fascism is unbridled racism. Not everyone is equal.

I think that makes Fascism more dangerous.