Yeah but only when it's applied to others

I think there's a scene in a TV show recently where the modern day Nazi says something like "They like what I say. They just don't like the word Nazi"

Many people have a, let's say, shallow understanding of history. They believe Nazis are bad but just like axiomatically. They don't have a good definition of why, and so they don't really see it when their in-group behaves the same.

When I started dating my now wife, my now Father In Law got into a massive argument with my wife's uncle because the uncle's a pretty unhinged version of a leftist and was arguing that his ideal form of goverment was that of a benevolent dictatorship. My FIL was flabbergasted that anyone would think that that was a good idea, not just because he's politically opposed to my wife's Uncle's idea of what constitutes benevolence, but that he would think that a strong autocratic leader would fix anything, regardless of their politics.

8 years later, here we are with my Father In Law being so loudly and unrelentingly pro-Trump it has nearly caused permanent rifts in the family, including with my wife, and nearly destroyed his marriage too. He has zero problem with Trump taking as much power as needed to push his policies through. The fucking irony of it, supporting the most blatant autocratic shift in American political history after being furious at the idea from my wife's Uncle, and it's entirely lost on him.

Not to get all "human nature", but there's a primal appeal of fascist rhetoric, particularly when it is couched within the urgency of media misinformation and real material economic decay.

People who are overworked, underfed, and deluged with propaganda are primed to accept the "evil foreigners have inflicted this upon you" rhetoric. The states where Republicans outperform tend to be states with large O&G based economies, with people who feel their livelihoods are predicated on petroleum production and export. Downturns in these economies are blamed on Muslims, who just happen to be the majority faith in rival oil exporting nations. The opioid crisis and its socio-economic impacts have very real material consequences to impoverished communities, but the domestic pharmaceutical industry employs and enriches a lot of people. So its easier to blame China than the Sackler Family, in the same way it was easier to blame Jimmy Carter and public housing policies from the 1970s than the Mega-Banks back during the '08 financial crash. High health care costs and housing / education / credit card debts are, similarly, problems that can be displaced onto migrants "stealing" limited resources and PoC getting special government subsidies offered by evil liberal socialists. And "crime" as an eternal bugaboo haunts every local news network and AM Talk Radio show in the country, justifying ever more draconian police and surveillance.

You don't even have to limit yourself to the Republican Party to find this compelling. How many liberals are fully sold on the idea that Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are behind all of America's domestic failings? How many people were willing to throw Muslim and Transgender voters under the bus because Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election?

Fascist rhetoric is appealing because it offers a very simple, straightforward, and violently final solution to a host of perceived social problems. It promises immediate relief from your pain. It promises schadenfreude as a kind of restitution for accumulated injustices. And it promises to make you impervious to future harms, through the terror you invoke in your enemies.

It's an instinctual social response. One that aspiring politicians play on to build popular movements and seize power from sclerotic bureaucracies. And when you're feeling the impulse, it doesn't feel wicked or wrong. It feels justified and deeply satisfying.