I'm missing a link here how we got from something along the lines of "this author clearly aligns with communism" to why most normies agree with that stance as your title suggests.

I agree in general that most people don't define capitalism correctly, but neither do they socialism or communism for that matter. So in a sense everyone in "Normie-ville" (love that name btw) has strong opinions with very little substance backing those up.
I'm sure I'm just as guilty albeit not with regards to these specific terms.