My take is that people are attracted to fascists and authoritarians for similar reasons as many people are fascinated by serial killers and the evil protagonists in TV shows. Something about watching evil and cruelty appeals to human nature.
Maybe the fascination from people who never actually lived through fascism. Like people who fantasize about BDSM or CNC sex but would never really do it in real life.
I'm from Spain and even to this day we hear old people saying that "life was better with Franco". I think it's more about a need to have a homogenous society with very clear rules and boundaries.
The best explanation I heard for the appeal of fascism was from someone on the far-right – that fascism is basically an immune response of a nation.
When enough people are hurting from the status quo voting for "sensible" policies of soft reform isn't going to cut it. At some point you need to blow up the existing system so you clear out the rot.
This immune response might be costly to the nation in the near-term but the hope is when it's over it will have also have destroyed the infection.
When it's put in these terms I can begin to relate more with the appeal of Trump, and while I'm not personally convinced he is a fascist, I do get why people say that. I can be nervous and unhappy with the result, but also acknowledge that the US needs significant change and voting in Biden or Harris was never realistically going to bring that.
There's clearly something wrong with democratic party. They're no longer appealing to the working class they claim to speak for and instead their primary supports now seem to be suburban white-women and the college educated metropolitan class. Today they're also supported by the media establishment, war-mongers like Dick Cheney, most billionaires, Hollywood celebs and pop-stars. Given this it's really no surprised we smart well off people on HN don't like Trump and quite like the sensible status-quo Harris promised.
I hope this immune response doesn't kill the host and I hope something positive comes out of all of this. We should take comfort in the fact that the US is the most resilient democratic nation on Earth and Trump probably won't be alive in another decade. Those who worry about an actual fascist up rising probably need to relax a little. The great risk over the next few years is probably just geopolitical stupidity and we've seen plenty of that in the last 4 anyway.
> The best explanation I heard for the appeal of fascism was from someone on the far-right – that fascism is basically an immune response of a nation.
This is some really low-tier fascist apologia, in my opinion. Fascism isn't an immune response, it's a cancer. Once active in the host, it tries to sap it of whatever resources it can to enrich itself. Rooting out fascism has, historically, come at great personal and political cost to the countries that manage it.
