In before HURR DURR - North Korea is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea but they’re not Democratic.
It wasn’t until I was out of college and got interested in history on my own that I made the realization (Thanks to Winston Churchill’s - A History of the English Speaking Peoples) that the NAZIS were effectively communists. But Hitler didn’t want to work with the world communist leaders as he, rightfully, realized they were just after a power grab. Hitler was a true believer.
I firmly believe it’s why the communists went full tilt to distance themselves from him - because what he did is and was the natural outcome of totalitarian oppression.
See Cuba. See China. See Venezuela.
Socialism does not work.
Ah, but it does work. For those in charge. And only for a while.
They were quite happy with him, until he invaded Russia.
Had a social-studies teacher in high-school who provided a unique (at the time, for me) view of fascism/communism/right/left.
He drew a circle on the board. Then small arrows around the edge that directed the flow up around the circle from the bottom to the top around the left and the right sides, where the arrows met from opposite directions at the top.
On the left side of the circle, he wrote “Left”, and on the right side, “Right”.
At the bottom, he wrote “Moderates”
At the top he wrote “Fascism/Communism”
That simple circular delineation of how totalitarians merged into a single group has always stuck with me.