A curtain of darkness is falling upon America and the world

[wiggs]

45. Seems to me, and to some friends during happy hour discussions, that there is a percentage of

any human population that needs or wants a significant autocratic component in their lives. It seems that people in general may inherently be set up to respond to authority...but that there's a wide range of need in people, some much more than others. I posit that in general people who want/need to defer more to a father figure, the police, the president, the pope, the military, a cult figure, etc will trend toward signing up with the gop.

Used to be fine to be a republican. Many, if not most, of our parents were gop. Then comes the 80s. For the last several decades a combination of wealth concentration, rise of the corporation, marketing advances, consolidation of media, the use of hate and polarization etc has taken advantage of this need for authority among some of us to weaponize them against democracy.

Money, using propaganda and marketing and polarization, has found a willing percentage of people around the world who will vote or otherwise act against their own interests. It has been a surprise to how many people in the US have this need to follow a leader and go up against truth, democracy, education, justice, empathy, and freedom.

Agree with the OP. I just think it's part of the human experience to have psychological variation within a population such that there's a percentage open to fascism and it has been recognized and weaponized.