Well, it certainly can be if we’re calling nonsense like the USSR and China “communist,” which is apparently what we’ve been doing for 70+ years. Those regimes are authoritarian, and they’re labeled “communist,” so by the “words mean whatever the common use is” metric, communism absolutely can be authoritarian.
What if they forgot that communism can’t be authoritarian nor a regime
Well, it certainly can be if we’re calling nonsense like the USSR and China “communist,” which is apparently what we’ve been doing for 70+ years. Those regimes are authoritarian, and they’re labeled “communist,” so by the “words mean whatever the common use is” metric, communism absolutely can be authoritarian.