How should authoritarian regimes be classified?

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So true...
I have decided to use the term "Left Wing Nazis..." to exhibit my distaste at the far left wing movement these days...

Back in the days I was still a puppy, the left wingers were tree huggers and warm and fuzzy idealists...
These days there are a lot of left wing thugs a la neo-nazis...

I was so disgusted at the behaviour of the fanatical left wingers during the Gay marriage debate here in Oz recently I abstained from voting...
I would never have voted against the right for gays to marry, but I was so incensed by the actions of these intellectual neanderthals I made a protest vote by not voting...
Yes, I know, I am a little more than a little twisted...

May I say to the far left and far right winged emotional children out there: Play nice...

Edit:


I have always found the term/concept "National Socialist" contradictory, btw...
I believe disambiguation is in order...
The Pepe has spoken...

The two extremes are often more alike than either are like the middle.

The original post is right for the wrong reasons. As someone said above its all just "no true scotsman ism".

But the OP is right that the two labels never really meant anything except in a very relative way. You had to define left and right separately for each country and time you're talking about.

And now in 2018 the labels are even less meaningful than ever.

Putin is very much in the tradition of the Soviet dictators in ruling with an iron fist, and also with aiding factions in other countries in overturning the status quo of other countries. But the factions Putin aids are, not the commies (pinkos and Marxists) in other countries that his Soviet predecessors would aid and abett, but the Alt right neofascists in American, and in Europe.

China was posing as a "workers paradise", but now has successfully replicated Britain in Dicken's time of the early Industrial Revolution as being the biggest exploiter of workers for profit in the world today (including child labor). The very situation that inspired Marx to become Marx is now replicated in modern china by its one time Marxist regime. Though still a dictatorship China is arguably more capitalist than the US, and more "right wing" than the US.

If you go back to the roots of the term "right vs left" in late 18th century France- right meant for monarchy, and left meant anti monarchy and pro revolution.

By that definition the Shah of Iran would be like the Sun King Louis 14th, and would be "right wing" (makes sense). And the Iranian Revolutionaires would be leftists. Except that the Revolution got hijacked by the Mullahs who turned Iran into an Islamic theocracy. So now the ruling regime (that we just now decided to call "leftist") in Iran would be the extreme version of the equivalent of the US's "religious Right". On the other hand the north Korean dictator is often labeled a "Stalinist". But he inherited his office from his Dad, and from his Granddad, making North Korea technically speaking a "monarchy". And an ancient style absolute monarchy at that. None of this modern Japan/UK style "constitutional monarchy" mickey mouse, but the real thing. So that would make Kim Un the ultimate "right winger" if you go by the original 18th century French right-left dichotomy.