What's really the difference between a Communist/Socialist country and an Arabic/Muslim country? Why do they have so much in common 🤔

@PiecingBabyFaceTogether Hmm, yes, all those countries you've mentioned are authoritarian.

Socialism and authoritarianism aren't synonyms or antonym; the opposite of a (pure/) socialist system is a (pure/) capitalist or even if we want to go beyond the extremes a "feudal" one; the opposite of an authoritarian one would be a permissive/functional democracy. The first two determine the economic model, whereas the latter determines the (de/)centralization of power. You can combine the first two with the last two, and definitely have (mostly-)capitalist authoritarian dictatorships, (mostly-)socialist authoritarian dictatorships, but also (mostly-)capitalist democracies and (mostly-)socialist democracies.

That said, yes, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, as well as contemporary China, North Korea, Iran, and maybe to a slightly lesser degree(*1) also Turkey are *all* authoritarian states. Of those, only the USSR is socialist. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy had their own implementation of regimented capitalism (https://www.britannica.com/story/were-the-nazis-socialists); I wouldn't define China socialist either, private property (and even more so, billionaires) are definitely a thing there, their system is more like a modern rendition of what is known as "state capitalism". Iran is definitely capitalist, and so is Turkey. North Korea started as socialist but is de facto more like a quasi-feudal isolationist system where the Jong-Un control the state and by proxy own everything (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Principles_for_the_Establishment_of_a_Monolithic_Ideological_System).

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*1) However I'm not expert in Turkish politics, I'm under the impression Erdogan isn't locked in power as firmly as, say, the Chinese CCP; but I might be misinformed here.

@PiecingBabyFaceTogether Eh, yeah. I know he's taken power via coup and his govt is at the center of some tensions and isn't perceived well by the general public here especially after to the murder of Giulio Regeni and the detention of Patrick Zaki in more recent times.

That's the problem with authoritarians unfortunately, once they hook themselves into power it gets very difficult to remove them, even when the majority of the population oppose them (as evidently in Iran, Belarus, to some degree also in Russia)

@revenant Said branches were symbology of the Roman era, which Mussolini was apt to use in manufacturing nationalist propaganda.

Totalitarianism is just the extremization of authoritarianism, to the point of eliminating any form of opposition. Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin were all three totalitarians, the first two were far-right totalitarians.

@Elessar I think the symbology might be on tarot cards...will have to check.

@revenant Here is the original thing:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasces

@MalteseFalconPunch The whole dictatorship idea.

@bijouxbroussard To a certain degree.