Understanding both leaders and followers may guard against fascist catastrophe

Evidence

Finally, we should remember that we are questing to avoid repeating some of the darkest moments of human history. I think we understand the people on the podium a bit better now, just as we have developed an understanding of the adoring crowd before them. May this double our protection against the calamity that can result when these mutually attracting forces find one another, and embrace in lethal union. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1087

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘podium and the adoring crowd as mutually attracting forces that embrace in lethal union’ metaphor is a striking frame for an essay on how charisma and compliance co-produce authoritarian outcomes.
• XREF: connects to: Fascist leaders are focal points of citizens’ reactions, not supermen — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 225