For years now I've been able to laugh off my grandparents, FOX News and brainwashed Republicans in general.
But my roommate's interaction with her parents changed things for me.
Her parents told her that they were scared. They were scared because something serious was underway in America, that a revolution was happening that threatened to destroy the entire country and that it was serious. They told her that Marxists were on the brink of pulling Biden to the Left, and that they were legitimately danger.
I usually laugh this off, but something struck me: they weren't angry, or grumpy, or bone-headed, like I usually imagine Republicans. They were legitimately afraid, and perceived themselves to truly be descending into a national emergency, one that FOX News has completely manufactured.
I used to laugh off people that said FOX is paving the way to Fascism, or Drumpf = Hitler. But I've come to comprehend that fear, not anger, was the driving motivator in Nazi Germany, and now understand that FOX is pumping sheer terror into the American public at levels only possible in modern society.
I don't really think FOX is a laughing matter anymore, because I begin to understand how an American public this afraid could condone Nazi Germany level atrocities under the impression that they were saving themselves.
Exactly, fear is the emotion underpinning fascism.
Looking only at its results, it is easy to come to the conclusion that fascism is rooted in hate. Looking at how fascists style themselves as descending from some ancient, better culture, you might think it is based in pride.
But if you look at the core of the ideology, the thing that drives the average fascist, is fear. Fear of the foreign. Fear of being "replaced". Fear of losing their privileged position in society. Fear of being treated the way they like to treat others. Fear of not being able to live the life that was promised to them.
Some of these fears are manufactured by propaganda, and can be dismissed as baseless. Others are legitimate fears caused by living in a capitalist hellscape, but not having any ideological framework to figure out why it's happening.