Marx defines communism as essentially being 'post-capitalism'. He insists communism can only arise from a mega-industrial capitalist society.

There is no reason why humanity had to go through capitalism at all. At the very least it could arise from a market of worker owned cooperatives without all the hierarchy of capitalism. That would have been possible before things become post scarcity. And egalitarian agrarian societies could have come before that.

The idea that society has to progress through destructive capitalism (so ultimately fascism) before attaining socialism was a big ideological argument used to prop up the entirely unnecessary hierarchy and brutality of the state capitalism of the USSR / China / etc.

The thing about fascism is that it fulfills the desire for people to have something to be proud of. Rather than having their own work to be proud of, many in the alienated working class get drawn to the idea of fascism because it allows them to feel like they're a part of some bigger creation that other people accomplished. So, they feel proud of their nation and race in order to feel like they're contributing and not just stuck doing mindless uncreative labor. Fascism arises from capitalism and it seems like a big mistake to deliberately court capitalism in order to theoretically stoke communism... When it's always always always ended in fascism and not communism.