The meaning of words shifts over time. Fascism and authoritarianism are colloquially conflated so often that if you make a stink about somebody calling the GDR fascist, people are going to assume you are either an apologist for the communist flavor of authoritarianism, or an autistic pedant.

Really, you're just pissing into the wind.

Alright, then what do you think I should call what used to be called “fascism” ? Since it is really quite a different thing from Soviet Block-style communism (even if both are bad!) and so could use a different word to describe it.

Authoritarianism seems to be the correct word.

I agree that the term fascist is wildly over-used, to the point where actual fascist behaviours are getting normalised.

Authoritarian encompasses both Soviet Bloc-style communism as well as what I used to think was called fascism. However the other poster is claiming fascism now means both. So I need another word to describe the specific thing that I used to think was called fascism.

Yeah, I'm with your original definition. I think it's important to distinguish between left wing and right wing authoritarianism as they tend to be quite different.