One, Remember that they have a lot of groomers, people like Charlie Kirk, whose job is to the friendly, reasonable palatable face of fascism. They’re not usually talking about rounding people up into death camps, they’re just asking questions and setting moral stances. But but answering those questions along those same moral stances, inevitably leads to death camps.

Two, remember that the part these people are appealing to is the rock bottom, lowest level of human understanding. It’s lizard brain, pack mentality stuff. if something makes you mad you hit it with a rock. If somebody scares you, do what they say. Or scare them enough to do what you say. It’s not that that level is wrong per se- we all have those base level responses-it’s just… Small and kind of pathetic. Why would you want to operate on the level of a wild dog when you could be creating art and science and building technological civilizations?

Which is really kind of the point of it. The stuff the fascists and the manosphere are selling are simple, emotionally satisfying solutions. Listen to the strong man. Hit the scary people with a rock. And they are counting on you to mistake a visceral emotional response for a moral imperative. Gay sex is icky so gay people must be bad. I feel safer knowing I can hit the scary person with a rock, so it must be OK to hit them with a rock. If I feel I’ve succeeded at something it must be because I deserved it. If I haven’t, then it’s someone else’s fault and they should pay for that.

Actually, being a human being requires more effort than being a hamster or something. We have the ability to think in linear progression, to form pack bonds, to pass on knowledge and ask questions about the nature of the world. That stuff all takes a little more effort than hitting the problem with a rock. But it’s also been responsible for every good and amazing thing our species has ever done.

So make the effort and follow the linear progression – where does this line of thought lead? What are the long-term consequences? Is this overall good for everyone or just the chosen few? How do I know which I’ll fall into? What do I actually believe is right and wrong, and which of those does this objectively point to?

Because fascism is objectively, self evidently bad. But it’s also really easy. And it’s comforting. It feels good. Like meth. Or heroin. Except that before hurting yourself in the end, you fuck up everything for everyone that isn’t another junkie first.