Horseshoe

Socialist authoritarianism can come from the Left or Right

Many people seem incapable of grasping that there is more than one variety of authoritarianism. They're not all extremes of the Left. Some are extremes of the Right.

But, the extremes of both end up coinciding in their two key facets of authoritarianism: they each end up authoritarian in both economic and personal respects. And that's at the BOTTOM in the Nolan diagram.

That doesn't mean they're the same. There are many other dimensions they differ in, and so -- in the diagram below -- they would actually be at different positions in the third (and other dimensions) coming out of the page that isn't represented.

So, yes, fascism and Communism -- in spite of not being identical -- do become in practice similar, massively violating both economic and personal liberties. They both end up socialist. ...which is at the bottom, not the left side.

They're each extremes of pathways that begin -- near "moderate" -- in the left and right directions as we're familiar with in typical debates (see center region of diagram). The moderate Left historically is big on personal freedom, not on economic freedom. The moderate Right historically more free market, but less jazzed about flouting cultural traditions.

As one continues in each direction, however, they in practice never end up at the respective left and right corners of the diagram. Instead, each begins justifying the violation of the other category of freedom as well.

For the extreme Left, the state increasingly restricts personal liberties in order to enforce its extreme ideological and economic goals.

For the extreme Right, the state increasingly restricts economic liberties in order to maintain power and enforce its strict social conformity, often favoring national businesses or industries, tariffs, subsidies, trade restrictions.

In sum, there's more than one way to become a tyrant, and this is why the growth of the Woke Right is troubling.