Fascist Libertines?

Pasolini renounced communism very late in life, if some of his private letters, personal accounts, and the film Salo are anything to go by.

At the very least, he renounced and deeply regretted communist activism, even if he still agreed with the basic ideals of communism.

He was originally a Marxist, and then later an Anarcho-Communist and he walked away from both movements when he saw them to be every bit as authoritarian in practice as the fascists were despite their rhetoric.

The Duke pretty much confirms Pasolini's thoughts on this when he says "We fascists are the only true anarchists!"

The time when Salo was released was during the infamous "Years of Lead" in the 1970's, in which both Neo-Fascist and communist groups committed acts of violent terrorism across Italy in an attempt to overthrow the Italian government, both Marxist groups backed by the Soviet Union and rogue Anarcho-Communist gangs committed heinous acts alongside the Neo-Fascists as well.

It mainly had to do with Neo-Nazi gangs and the remnants of the KKK joining forces with the more extreme elements of the Religious Right in the 1980's and 1990's in an attempt to regain any sense of past legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

Also, since the historic fascists opposed communism, a lot of Americans think that fascism is an extreme right-wing ideology (since communism is an extreme left-wing ideology) even if the fascists were largely left-leaning in an economic sense of the term. They just weren't as far to the economic left as the commies were.

Really, the historic regimes of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany can't really fit into American views of left-wing and right-wing. Fascism is an extreme ideology outside of the usual split between conservatives and liberals. There's a reason why modern Neo-Nazi groups refer to themselves as "Third Position"