The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer, began asking certain questions in 1951, when the science delving into Hitler was in its infancy. It is an article of faith on the Right that the only way to oppose tyrants and fanatics, whether Nazis, Communists, or ISIS, is with tyranny and fanaticism. McCarthy, Birchers, Tea Parties, militias, Boogaloo Bois, and especially Qanon.
Monday, 9/22/2014: Grokking Republicans: The True Believer. Free PDF.
This book deals with some peculiarities common to all mass movements, be they religious movements, social revolutions or nationalist movements. It does not maintain that all movements are identical, but that they share certain essential characteristics which give them a family likeness.All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective of the doctrine they preach and the program they project, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance; all of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of activity in certain departments of life; all of them demand blind faith and singlehearted allegiance.