"Commentators like to think that most Americans are better than Trump. The college students, the small businesspeople, and even the Republican activists who vote for Trump do so, pundits hope, despite his manifest cruelty, rather than because those good Americans enjoy laughing at sexual assault victims."
"But CNN’s town hall was a reminder that Trump supporters are in fact bad people — in the sense that to support Trump, and defend Trump, requires them to become their absolute worst selves. Probably most of Trump’s supporters did not tell themselves before the town hall started that they were there to cheer on sexual assault. But by the end they were doing just that. That’s how fascism works."
'Less Than Human': The Psychology Of Cruelty (www.npr.org)
In Less Than Human, David Livingstone Smith explains how dehumanizing people makes us capable of atrocious acts.