Originally Posted by roachboy

the question of how perfectly ordinary folk in the germany of the mid 1930s could have found fascism appealing, in a nationalist common-sense kinda way, is really pretty interesting. far more interesting than the save-your-ass stories about forcing that came after the war had ended. what there is to be learned from that experience, and applied to the american one in particular, is how easy it was (and is) for perfectly ordinary folk, who were not evil by nature, who were not exceptional in any way, could become supporters of a fascist regime without even really noticing the shift. or so it seems. maybe a few more military-style rallies. but they would be the logical extension of nationalism, yes? maybe the disappearance of a few neighbors--but that's all good as well, if the purity of the body politic is at stake. a few civil liberties here, a few there--no problem, you arent giving anything away, you have nothing to hide, you are a good person, these things are for bad people--the militarization of everything will weed them out anyway. it was easy then, i think, for folk, particularly petit bourgeois folk who did not understand themselves as being political, to just follow the lead of their radio and papers and neighbors and neighhborhoods and slide right into this. of course they did not know how the story was going to go in the longer run. but the future is never clear, is it.