Here's a quick quiz. For the entire set considered together, which government is being referred to, the USSR or the Third Reich?
1. They set up a network of forced labor camps.
2. They discriminated against Jews, justifying this by claiming that as rich capitalists they were enemies of socialism.
3. They claimed to represent the working class.
4. They invaded and captured other countries.
5. They were a dictatorship.
6. They were famous for their high levels of propaganda.
7. In their printed materials they stated explicitly "We are socialists", demanded a program of nationalization and stated that all citizens were equal.
8. They imprisoned, exiled or killed their political opponents.
9. Most importantly for this thread, they aggressively censored their opponents and directly controlled the media.
You can't tell what the answer is, because every point is correct for both of them. The differences were much smaller than their similarities.
This matters because it leads to people using NSDAP/USSR ideological tactics like censorship of their political opponents, whilst claiming to be fighting the very same.
This obvious comparison has been suppressed by systematic and vicious attacks on anyone who points it out for a very long time, so I doubt this post will get good reactions and unfortunately HN isn't a good forum for pointing this out because it tends to blame people for the reactions of others regardless of how polite or intellectually curious they may actually be, giving a kind of hecklers veto to discussions. But the confusion here leads to people repeating the mistakes of the past and trying to fight fire with fire, so it's really important to point out. That's why Germany is now punishing an American author for using a swastika in his criticism of politicians: the whole point of studying history is to be able to say "wait, that behaviour looks like something we've seen before" and yet the people doing that are now being attacked as Nazis themselves. This upside-down sort of behaviour is inevitable for as long as people keep insisting on upside-down interpretations of history. You can't claim to be fighting Nazi-ism whilst simultaneously using their tactics!