Adorno’s theory equated fascism with communism, suiting Cold War needs

Evidence

As a statement of its time, Adorno’s concept of the authoritarian personality had the advantage of rendering fascism and communism into equivalent instances in a way that simply effaced the ideological differences (not to mention the world war that had just been waged) between them. This certainly suited the emergent Cold War mentality of the USA. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1333

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the totalitarianism thesis and how scholarly concepts can be shaped by geopolitical framing — parallels the earlier reading on how knowledge itself is political. — connects to: Cold War pressures drove Horkheimer and Adorno apart from Marcuse’s leftism — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 864; Adorno’s earlier anti-fascist position demanded denunciation of Communist policy remain purely theoretical — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1674
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1333