Fascism exploits psychological tendencies rather than being caused by them.

Evidence

The so-called psychology of fascism is largely engendered by manipulation. Rationally calculated techniques bring about what is naively regarded as the ‘natural’ irrationality of masses. This insight may help us to solve the problem of whether fascism as a mass phenomenon can be explained at all in psychological terms. While there certainly exists potential susceptibility for fascism among the masses, it is equally certain that the manipulation of the unconscious, the kind of suggestion explained by Freud in genetic terms, is indispensable for actualization of this potential. This, however, corroborates the assumption that fascism as such is not a psychological issue and that any attempt to understand its roots and its historical role in psychological terms still remains on the level of ideologies such as the one of ‘irrational forces’ promoted by fascism itself. Although the fascist agitator doubtlessly takes up certain tendencies within those he addresses, he does so as the mandatory of powerful economic and political interests. Psychological dispositions do not actually cause fascism; rather, fascism defines a psychological area which can be successfully exploited by the forces which promote it for entirely non-psychological reasons of self-interest. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 206

Categorization

• XREF: This reverses the naive ‘irrational masses’ reading of fascism and dovetails with the reader’s aim of applying Adorno’s analysis to post-death culture — the same move of exposing manufactured irrationality applies to influencer-driven outrage loops. — connects to: Fascist mass mobilization is repressive equality, not a reversion to barbarism.; Adorno linked phenomenology’s reified premises to fascism as twin terminal crises. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 267; Fascism’s cohesion rests on overt terror, not just psychic compliance — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 495 (+3 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how does this ‘exploitation area’ framing survive contact with actual data on which personality types were over-represented in early Nazi membership?