I’ve always been curious how fascism takes hold, and how people like Hitler, Stalin. etc rise to power. Do people not see what is happening? Shouldn’t hindsight, foresight and common sense kick in at some point? I used t think they were like mob bosses early on - anyone disagreeing with them ends up in a barrel, but surely were civilized and educated by now?

It seems the people don’t want to jeopardize their comfortable livelihoods and individual lives so expect the ‘powerful elected officials’ to do their bidding. After all, the public gave them the power to do just that. Otoh, the politicians don’t want to jeopardize their cushy jobs and accumulated power by challenging the majority, so are waiting for the public to start a jan6 situation so they can point and say, ‘see, the people are unhappy so we should act’.

It’s a shitstorm of no consequences and a man child hacking away at the country and no one seems to be doing anything meaningful. I’m literally watching fascism take place.

History/ psychology/ sociology majors care to chime in?

  • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
    102·
    2 days ago

    Bigotry, that’s how. People have problems, the economy is struggling. They need a scapegoat. So someone like Hitler or Trump convince them that all their problems are caused by jews or immigrants or LGBT people or some other minority group and that everything will be fixed by getting rid of that group

    • blackfox@lemmings.world
      2·
      3 hours ago

      Why is the economy struggling while rich people live in luxury?

      I’d say what’s causing people grief is a bigger trigger for fascism than how they react to it.

    • FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.auEnglish
      3·
      17 hours ago

      Or that all their problems are caused by and will be fixed by getting rid of all of the people who disagree with their ideologies and political allegiance. They call for censorship of those people, they try to get them de-platformed/fired and arrested for wrong-think, outlaw their ability to get any power, and they try to paint them as all sorts of horrible things and say that if you disagree then you’re also those horrible things.

      Radicalisation, basically, and if you think it’s only one side doing it, you’re well on your way.