I've tried to figure that out myself. In my situation, I chalk it up to a set of life experiences and being brought up by a libertarian/skeptic with serious problems w/ authority. My sister, whom I have disagreed w/ for years on politics so we don't think alike, and I have agreed from the beginning that this was bat shit crazy, though she grasped how crazy it was before I did. I know people in huge groups are stupid and panicky, but I thought we had a constitution and civil rights. Boy did I get a wake up call. But I, like you, have muddled this over and I know people from similar circumstances to mine that bought it hook, line, and sinker. All I know is not long in, my sister and I were talking and we both agreed that we now understood how something like Nazi Germany happened, and that no one should be under any illusion it couldn't happen here.