Why does communism get a pass that fascism never does?

Dr. Mackubin Thomas Owens writes at Dissident,

It is a fact that communism has killed far more people than fascism—in the Soviet Union, Communist China, Vietnam, Cambodia, North Korea, and Cuba. And yet, although we are never hesitant (rightly!) to describe fascism and Nazism as evil, we often refuse to do likewise with regard to communist regimes. The exception was Ronald Reagan when he described the Soviet Union as the “evil empire,” but I well remember the almost universal horror that greeted his pronouncement.

What explains this phenomenon? Why does communism get a pass that fascism never does? What accounts for the popularity of socialism among young people, who have flocked to the banner of Bernie Sanders during the primaries?

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