Historical Fascism and Communism both rely on Utopian fantasies, of building a world which has never been but which may be. The locus of power is the government, the locus of power in the government is a Party, and the locus of power in the Party is either one person, or a very small oligarchy.
True Liberalism accepts the world as it is. It understands growth is possible, but is skeptical of all projects which require the surrender of individual freedom. The locus of power is, in theory and in ideal, if not always in reality, the individual, as expressed in a representative government, and legal protections both against governmental abuse, and the abuse of his or her fellow citizens.
True Liberalism is capable of expressing itself in the abstract, but it depends in practice on countless concrete relations among sovereign individuals, each pursuing their own interest, and who collectively create and protect freedom, wealth, social harmony, and peace.
True Rightism, or Reactionism, is typically–I would actually argue paradigmatically–some form of Monarchism or Theism. Power rests in tradition and religious belief, which invest the monarch and the nobility with one class of rights, typically the priests with another, and other citizens with varying grades of rights, depending on their birth status, and to some extent their talent and ability.
This pattern is based on custom, on what has always been done, and depends upon few questions being asked, and is thus typically authoritarian to the extent needed to protect the privileges of the elites.
It is an astonishing fact of the modern world that decent human beings have been seduced in large numbers to Fascist beliefs, all in the name of “progress”. There are important parallels between Monarchism and Fascism: both are intolerant, both reject freedom, both empower elites, both use police as political weapons.
The meliorating grace of Monarchism or Theism is that both grant to the suffering poor some redemption in the afterlife (typically). Fascists refuse to do even that. Their power is absolute, and exists solely to be exercised. Again: Cultural Sadeism.
I dream of a day when people in large numbers start waking from this Collectivist delusion, start seeing the stars again, start caring about actual human beings, and realize what fools they have been.