Editing Fascism (section)

===''Fascist'' as a pejorative===
{{Main|Fascist (insult)}}
The term ''fascist'' has been used as a [[pejorative]],{{sfnp|Gregor|2005|p=4}} regarding varying movements across the far right of the political spectrum. [[George Orwell]] noted in 1944 that the term had been used to denigrate diverse positions "in internal politics". Orwell said that while fascism is "a political and economic system" that was inconvenient to define, "''as used'', the word 'Fascism' is almost entirely meaningless. ... almost any English person would accept 'bully' as a synonym for 'Fascist{{'"}},{{sfnp|Orwell|2019}} and in 1946 wrote that {{"'}}Fascism' has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies something not desirable."{{sfnp|Orwell|1946}} Richard Griffiths of the [[University of Wales]] wrote in 2000 that "fascism" is the "most misused, and over-used word, of our times".{{sfnp|Griffiths|2000}}{{rp|1}} ''Fascist'' is sometimes applied to post-World War II organizations and ways of thinking that academics more commonly term ''[[neo-fascist]]''.{{sfnp|Woolf|1981|p=18}}

Despite fascist movements' history of [[anti-communism]], [[Communist state]]s have sometimes been referred to as ''fascist'', typically as an insult. It has been applied to [[Marxist–Leninist]] regimes in [[Cuba]] under [[Fidel Castro]] and [[Vietnam]] under [[Ho Chi Minh]].{{sfnp|Griffin|Feldman|2004a|p=231}} Chinese Marxists used the term to denounce the [[Soviet Union]] during the [[Sino-Soviet split]], and the Soviets used the term to denounce Chinese Marxists,{{sfnp|Quarantotto|1976}} in addition to [[social democracy]], coining a new term in ''[[social fascism]]''. In the United States, Herbert Matthews of ''[[The New York Times]]'' asked in 1946: "Should we now place Stalinist Russia in the same category as Hitlerite Germany? Should we say that she is Fascist?"{{sfnp|Matthews|1946}} [[J. Edgar Hoover]], longtime [[FBI]] director and ardent anti-communist, wrote extensively of [[red fascism]].{{sfnp|Hoover|1947}} The [[Ku Klux Klan]] in the 1920s was sometimes called ''fascist''. Historian Peter Amann states that, "Undeniably, the Klan had some traits in common with European fascism—chauvinism, racism, a mystique of violence, an affirmation of a certain kind of archaic traditionalism—yet their differences were fundamental ... [the KKK] never envisioned a change of political or economic system."{{sfnp|Amann|1986|p=562}}