It is true that authoritarian leaders who impose an ideology to maintain power for themselves often end up resembling each other - whether the ideology is explicitly right-wing (Fascism), religious (Christianity or Islam) or supposedly left-wing (Communism). However, the commonality is between the authoritarianism of the leaders, not between the ideologies. Once a leader is prepared to oppress his (or more rarely her) people and allow the strong to trample on the weak in the name of their ideology, then their government is fundamentally right-wing, even if it is imposed in the name of a left-wing ideology.

In any case, most people who are described as 'far left' in the American context are anything but. They are centre-left or even centrist by the standards of many other countries. Universal publicly-funded healthcare; a social safety net; opposition to the death penalty - these are not far left; they are policies shared by all mainstream Europaean governments, including those of the centre-right. A Europaean government that does not share these values is considered *far right*.

There is a huge difference between the far left and the far right in terms of ideologies. And that is even when we are considering the two just in terms of general economic and social policies. When the far right's xenophobia, racism, sexism and general intolerance of minorities is put ino the equation - the gap becomes enormous.

However, it is not just anti-leftists who have been pushing this meme on DU. I have on several occasions seen people argue that sometimes far right-wingers are telling 'truths' that others are hiding, or that progressives should join hands with the likes of Ron Paul supporters or even 'teabaggers' to form an anti-elite, anti-establishment movement. This if ever put into practice could be EXTREMELY dangerous, enabling the far right to use a populist image as a bait for encouraging racism and oppression - as happened in the 1930s. Opposing the status quo because you want something better does NOT mean that you have anything in common with those who oppose the status quo because they want something worse!

The far right everywhere are the ultimate enemy of all that is good in the world; and we should NEVER enable them!