Nice explanation. I would maybe add/discuss some details:
The communist believed their system was not authoritarian because "the working class rules" according to their leaders. They use the word democracy as well but with a different meaning.
Also fascism often gets associated with hierarchies that is why to some communists "everything to the right of Marx is fascism", that is also why we rather see Anarcho-Communists instead of Anarcho-Fascists, even tho I believe i found those as well on Steemit :D
Agree. And probably the part of communism that relies on that magical societal "unobtainium" is the idea that representatives of the working class given the reins of power won't themselves become elites. The "Some animals are more equal than others" thing. Just doesn't fit human nature, which is why it doesn't work. It's a great idea as long as you didn't try to get it to work with humans. Would work great for bees or the Borg, though.
It's funny -- you read the constitutions of these repressive totalitarian collectivist systems and they sound wonderful -- very much like our own. It's not like their constitutions say "we will scare the crap out of you with secret police and make your lives a living hell if you dare to resist our power." They make it sound like utopia. All of the bad stuff happens with respect to how they interpret the words, which is why the words don't actually mean a thing -- only the interpretation counts. Scary, actually.