Because some of the worst dictators of all time said they were communist and socialist, despite dictatorship being fundamentally antithetical to both.

Then a bunch of idiots watched a dictatorship, the USSR, burn up their economy with a space and arms race, so now they think socialism kills economic progress. It wasn't that the USSR didn't invest properly in the populace, or infrastructure, or that they were fundamentally a kleptocracy with a massive military, it's that they called themselves socialist. That's what killed them.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 days ago

Note that the reason they called themselves socialists and communists is because a lot of people at the time considered this good, it's like how many countries these days have "democratic republic" in their name, despite obviously being neither of those things.

Evil people can't call themselves evil, they have to lie about what they are for people to get tricked into accepting them.