What they are saying is that "Authoritarian" is not a precise term that distinguishes anything and was just made up as a way to try to accuse AES states of being just as bad as fascist ones. It's a horseshoe theory term because any actually accurate term you would use to describe Hitler's or Mussolini's ideology would exclude the ideology of socialist states.

[–] mitram2@lemmy.pt 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Pardon my ignorance but I don't know the term "AES state"

If I see it through that perspective I get it, still sounds odd to me to label authoritarianism only as a western tool to criticise communists

[–] Maturin@hexbear.net 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

"AES" meaning "actually existing socialism." The debate over this word goes all the way back to Engels at least.

Someone else may help me find a link, because I remember reading a different article about this specifically, but these three definitely touch on it:

https://redsails.org/tankies/

https://redsails.org/brainwashing/

https://redsails.org/losurdo-on-totalitarianism/ (this one is about "totalitarianism" and the "horseshoe" theory I referenced above)

[–] mitram2@lemmy.pt 2 points 3 days ago

Thank you for the references