I didn’t say Tom equates communism with fascism 😉 but the theory of the “authoritarian mindset” drives to that conclusion. It’s ludicrous to think both are the same and Tom’s presentation which, as you said, was completely uncritical, ultimately leads to that conclusion whether he intended it or not.

The theory is also completely discredited because it’s just ludicrous post-war drivel during the gold rush to try and “explain” fascism lol. Hitler did not seize power because he had some “authoritarian” people around him.

The best analysis of fascism I know was, believe it or not, from Trotsky. You can read his pamphlet here: https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1944/1944-fas.htm. Beware it remains trotskyism lmao. But he worked on his theory starting in 1922 and I can see some evolutions between this pamphlet and what the common marxist analysis is today, so I’m guessing his analysis was picked up in the Soviet Union and expanded upon, but I don’t know by whom.

You can also read Aimé Césaire’s Discourse on Colonialism: http://cult320withallison.onmason.com/files/2015/01/Aime_Cesaire_Discourse_On_Colonialism_pt_1.pdf, though I think its strength lies in exposing just how much colonial powers paved the road for fascism to exist later, prompting Césaire to write “fascism is colonialism inflicted upon the coloniser” (writing from the perspective of a colonized nation himself).

We expand on fascism through a marxist framework here on prolewiki too: https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Fascism. But I’m not entirely satisfied with that article and might revisit it eventually.