"permission" is Drumpf's most nefarious, insidious corrupting of our way of life.

[UTUSN]

It's been long said, since 2015 when Drumpf crashed our political life, that he gave "permission" for those who became his zombies to unleash the worst of themselves out into the open. Let's be clear along the lines of "Human, all too human" (NIETZSCHE) : All of us are a mixture of everything good, bad, indifferent. Whatever the forces that suppressed the Bad stuff - religion, philosophy, social Norms - most people keep some things out of expression, bottled up perhaps, things you just don't say or do in public.

So when Drumpf came along it was clear that he had brought things down to the Lowest Common Denominator, that the Deplorables were that way, not from anything new to them, but what they had been suppressed/oppressed into hiding - the racism, resentment, hatred, et al.

These YouTubes just popped into my feed, the first one featuring a photo album belonging to Nazi concentration camp staff and their families, all having a heigh-ho "normal" time in their quarters adjacent to the killing chambers. The contrast between the "normal" happy family times close to the horrors next door is stark. One of the survivors, whose whole family was exterminated, said that humans are capable of everything and can "turn into animals" very easily and fast, "all it takes is permission."

[Irish_Dem]

1. Leaders who encourage the dark underbelly of human nature to become the norm.

There should be a special place in hell for such leaders.

[usonian]

2. There are commonalities between cult behavior, the mob and even addiction.

Lots of reading behind this.

The "leader" or the addiction itself "legitimizes" destructive behavior, such as hate, racism, theft, violence, out of control drug use and so on, by "legitimizing" or "normalizing" it, or as you say, giving permission.

"Everyone steals", "Everyone has a weakness", "WHAT ABOUT so and so? ... "

That's the reward people get for their membership. In exchange, they lose control of their lives, health, they're conned out of their money ... all for the benefit of the leader or leaders, or pushers.

And someone else or something else is blamed.

[Johnny2X2X]

3. Zone of Interest

The 2023 movie was about just this. It's plot is that of a Nazi running Auchewitz and the home he and his wife built there. HOw it was their little paradise and a fulfillment of Hitler's promise.

This can happen here. It doesn't take that many extremists to get people to commit mass murder. Trump has millions of people willing to kill for him.