The power of the Dictator to draw in normal people has always astounded me..

[Peacetrain]

Hitler, Charles Manson, Poi Pot, yes even Trump just to name a few ..... they are delusional, dangerous, and morally bankrupt.. yet time and time again we see ordinary people drawn to them,, follow them and become their instruments of destruction.

Is it a group dynamic they (the individuals who follow them) get pulled into and then fearing loss of that group just toss everything out the window?

Maybe they are cowards.. they shake their fists at the wind and yell and scream about how they are misunderstood .. how the "other' is stealing something of theirs.. but to stand up for a true moral point of view .. somehow there is something missing there in these individuals..

I just did a quick search to see what others have said about the subject and this particular article was the lead..

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-personal-renaissance/202009/why-do-people-follow-authoritarian-leaders

[Walleye]

1. I think they hate the United States and are looking for someplace to channel that hatred

They don’t believe in democracy or equality. I blame a lot of it on poor education

[Ocelot II]

5. But it's not unique to the United States and it predates concepts of democracy.

It's a human thing, not an American thing. The mistake we made was assuming that Americans were immune to the influences of dictators and demagogues because we are the Good Guys - an idea we particularly internalized after WWII and the defeat of Hitler. We thought we could never be taken in by a Hitler. But why not? Germany was another industrialized First World country with an educated population - a country that had produced some of the world's greatest artists, musicians, writers, scientists and intellectuals - but somehow it fell under the spell of one of history's worse dictators. We are neither better nor worse than Germany in 1930, and it has little to do with education.

[Walleye]

7. You make some good points. Eternal vigilance is exhausting

[yonder]

20. +1.

[Blue Owl]

2. They seem to find comfort in their glorious leader

[kimbutgar]

3. The orange maggot has a Jim jones vibe about him

His supporters drink his koolaide and do stupid things to destroy their own lives.

[anciano]

4. "Those who can make you believe absurdities

can make you commit atrocities." --- Voltaire

[treestar]

6. Netflix has a documentary on "How to be a Tyrant"

explains a lot of it in an entertaining way.

If things are falling apart around us - Weimar Germany - people are fine with a strongman who claims he can and will take care of everything. One professor says we should not think, as we usually do, that we would NOT fall for it and that were are better than those Germans. If things were like that, we certainly would. That's what we need to keep in mind.

Finding a scapegoat, Hitler's, obviously. Idi Amin's Uganda had an Asian minority that was kicked out - so let's not think that because we are not white, that we can't do that too - there are scenes of black Ugandans saying the Asians needed to be kicked out.

Seeming to be one of the people - tyrants don't wear fancy clothing - mostly uniforms. Ghaddafi kept up the customs of the people he belonged to and insisted on sleeping in a tent. They emphasized any background they had that made them one of the people (thought TFG seems an exception - when you look at the subject, it is clear TFG wants to be a tyrant strongman - but he does not have the conditions to do it in).

Also people living well and happy don't fall for tyrants. Things were good during the 20s, so Hitler lay low until things went south.

They get a message and are able to push it in the right conditions. Fortunately, most of them end up being killed eventually. The Kims are the only ones able to keep it together over generations. Even so, it will fail eventually.

[Johnny2X2X]

8. On things going to Hell

It's why the Right is so invested right now in making it seem like America is in crisis. The crime wave that isn't. The economic crisis that isn't. Etc. etc.

[Peacetrain]

11. This!!!

[treestar]

13. Exactly.

And why TFG's inaugural address contained so much exaggerated darkness about the US at that time.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

9. Because we're glorified Chimpanzees and Chimps have Alpha Males

It's the same thinking that's led to religion becoming so much of a 'thing'. 'God' is the ultimate alpha male.

Because of this heritage, a certain % of the population naturally gravitates towards someone who seems powerful and 'knows what to do'.

Most people crave leadership, but then a certain % just want to be 'the leader'. Just like with Chimps.

We just a bunch of primates in the end.

And the only reason we're even as civilized as we currently are?

Is the one-time energy bounty provided by fossil fuels.

[Elessar Zappa]

18. Yes but we have higher thinking that chimps don't have.

We can override our base instincts. Not everyone does but I believe everyone is capable unless they have an intellectual disability. I think a good education is key to being able to reason and ignore our “lizard brain”. Not that education is a guarantee that people won’t fall victim to authoritarianism but it certainly helps.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

19. Any question like this where I look at it and can say definitively ...

That this thing/issue/phenomena has happened through ALL human history, in every culture, among every race and ethnicity, at all income and education levels ... my inclination is to believe that it's GENERALLY ... part of the primate genome.

Homosexuality is another example I apply this logic to (without the negative connotation, of course).

YES some people are born with less proclivity in this regard, and education CAN help if it's the proper kind.

Ultimately, we instinctively fear the unknown/uncertainty, and we fear 'our stuff' being taken away by others. At the animal level it's food, it's territory, it's social/reproductive status, etc.

IOW it's a survival mechanism, deeply engrained in the animal psyche. And demagogues and dictators know how to exploit this basic biological fact.

[Caliman73]

10. Why people betray their own stated moral ideologies and follow authoritarians...

has been a topic of discussion and research in Sociology and Social Psychology for some time.

If you remember the famous but controversial Milgram Study and the now questioned Zimbardo Study. The much maligned (on the right wing) Frankfurt School with Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, and others studied the phenomena in depth in their development of the again, much maligned on the right wing, Critical Theory. They began studying why the Socialist revolution never happened world wide. Then, as most of them were Jewish and anti-fascist academics who had to flee Germany when the Nazis took over, they wanted to study why the people of Germany went along with the fascist takeover of the country.

The reasons for people siding with authoritarians is somewhat complex but has to do with people's comfort with uncertainty, their ingroup and outgroup identities, and other factors.

On YouTube, Tom Nichols did a pretty decent summary video called "How to spot a Fascist" which talks about the research and some of the findings as to why people identify with movements that go against their stated values.

[NewHendoLib]

12. Lack of self awareness, lack of emotional maturity.

They need to "follow"

[The Unmitigated Gall]

14. I recommend "Escape From Freedom"

By Erich Fromm, published in 1941 after he fled Germany.

[keep_left]

17. Seconded. It should be required reading for a civics class, along with...

...The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. The latter was a favorite of Eisenhower, who recommended the book to his friends and most famously in a personal letter to Robert J. Biggs, a constituent. I first heard about the Biggs letter in a talk given by reporter Max Blumenthal.

https://web.archive.org/web/20111114143910/http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/1051.cfm

[GenXer47]

15. masochism

Some of them want to abuse you.
Some of them want to BE ABUSED.

[Mysterian]

16. It's truly mind-boggling

Humans just ain't that bright.

[Midnight Writer]

21. The strong man syndrome.

I noticed in my workplace that some of the employees yearned for a strong man to come in and "lay down the law around here".

These folks also invariably identified as strong conservative Republicans.

They were also the ones who were slackers in their work performance, but always whined about how set-upon they were.

Some folks always want John Wayne to ride in on a horse and punish the bad guys.

[NowISeetheLight]

22. Good Article

I thought reason #2 was totally relevant to the Mango Maniac. Keep them dumb and don't let them see facts. Very Putin (and Faux News) like.

2. The Power of Limited Information.