Asklemmy

You don't have to be an ex-fascist to understand what causes an exit for them.

It's a very similar experience for anyone getting out of a cult, religion, abusive relationship, gang, etc. Something random in their life, whether a thought or concrete consequence, seeds their exploration of evaluating whether they want to stay, and then they reach the point where hope exceeds the sunk cost and anxieties of change.

There are all kinds of avenues that lead one into harmful ideologies and behaviors, which could be ignorance, self-preservation, community seeking, frustration, or whatever. They invest themselves in various ways through connections and warping their worldview. The human brain is capable of all kinds of compartmentalization/mental gymnastics/self-delusion to maintain the stability of their new reality. Breaking away from it comes at a cost, and the cost is usually realized to be relatively small once on the other side, but before you get there, it can feel huge and insurmountable.

If anyone has had an experience like that, the generalized template described above should make sense, but I'm more interested in the reason for asking. If it's about whether you can be hopeful that we are on track to put this behind us, there are three realist aspects to keep in mind. (1) It's on average a slow process for individuals because it stagnates until that random catalyst, (2) we repeat history and there will always be people going in the wrong direction, and (3) not everyone encounters the catalyst that helps them break free.

However, it is eventual. Our rebound from the push toward authoritarianism as a society will either come from a build up of realizing we're suffering from a thousand cuts or one major catastrophic incident. It sucks that we have to repeat this cycle periodically, but the fallible human psyche just doesn't seem to permit any other way.