Human Nature

[Ivan Denisovich]

Nazis were chumps, and predestination is ridiculous.  I agree.  I think people do vote for fascists because of parts of our human nature, though.  We would be hard pressed to explain it's recurring appeal across cultures, geography, and time - otherwise.  I do think we can say that some people are more or less decent, however that gets defined.  Presumably, you and I share these qualities, and put them to other uses.  Or don't see the utility (to say nothing of decency) in fascism to them, as those others do.  I'm not the nicest person I know, you're probably not the worst person you know.

I disagree, about human nature part that is. Fascism is recent idea barely over hundred years and there is nothing hard in explaining why it got votes. Hitler was already mentioned with his luck about Great Depression. Current crop of fascists get votes for much the same reason - capitalism is failing millions of people and it was failing them for so long that they decided to turn onto other options (though I'm sure there is host of other factors like racism, bigotry, "law and order" crap...). One must also remember that fascists don't present themselves as such and people don't necessarily recognize them or agree with them being called so. Nothing in fascists electoral success (which isn't exactly earth shattering) can't be explained without conjuring specter of human nature. Neoliberalism and damage that it did to the fabric of society easily sufficess - poor might vote fascist because neoliberal policies fucked up their wallets and wealthy might vote fascist because neoliberal policies fucked up their morals.

Do you expect that hurt people will hurt people, or be more likely to hurt people?  Is there a correlation between abuse and abusiveness?  Is there a correlation between social change and reactionary violence?  The idea that humans might have shared behaviors due to our shared biology and/or common environments is pretty predictive....

I don't spend my time on armchair psychology. For me people voting for fascists or other scum (or disregarding voting altogether) is perfectly explainable without cheap shit like human nature.