Actually, you did quite well. I think you’ve presented an actual distinction.
But I don’t think it’s enough to be an ultimate distinction. It might just be the difference between a bear and an angry bear. Here’s why.
The progressive doesn’t refrain from killing you out of moral restraint. He sees you as an object without intrinsic value in the same way a communist sees you that way.
The communist is simply more impatient, or angry.
I am glad it resonated. I appreciate the questions and being challenged, it forces me to think things through and remember things I have in the past written about.
As for an ultimate distinction you requested, that is probably impossible.
There can only be so many distinctions among/between the forces of pro-big-government. That's why to us, a big government Nazi doesn't really look all that different than a big government communist. But to them - a Nazi couldn't look any more different than a communist. They see a bigger difference there than one might find if a comparison were done between a preying mantis and the moon.
This isn't the reason, I suspect, why the progressives first found themselves after a while morphing into socialists(and again, later, communists), it's actually a limitation on our end. A statist is a statist is a statist is a statist to us and we don't want anything to do with any of them, no matter how loudly each may scream that their utopian master plan is different from the others' utopian master plan. (And is the correct master plan btw!)
I do hope you will not stop asking questions - not of me, per se. Though to be clear, you can ask me as many as you want. Just ask questions. When we stop asking questions, I think that strengthens progressivism. That's why they indoctrinate. They need us all checking the exact same checkboxes without any deviation whatsoever.
If anything, that's one of my biggest goals, is to get new questions on the table because you cannot get the correct answer until you ask the correct question.