system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why was/is Communism considered so bad, and why were people so afraid of it in the 50s?

I hear that people were afraid that Communism would spread over the world back in the 1950s. I don't see how that would affect anyone, other than just being a different economic system. Can someone tell me what caused the fear of Communism?
gpt
From a communist's point of view the reason that people were afraid was that communism threatened the position of the ruling class (the bourgeoisie), and they used their influence to pass on this fear to the working class (the proletariat). 

One of communism's main aims is to remove the class system. In a capitalist structure, the bourgeoisie own the means of production (factories etc.), and the proletariat who don't own the means of production have to work on the factory owner's land. This means that the factory owner is free to exploit his workers, and that the factory owner will become richer and richer.

If you were used to being a rich member of the upper class, would you want to share with the proletariat? This is what made people afraid.