Numerous people are susceptible to tribalism (or cult brain) & dehumanization of the “other”. Especially idealists.
Why do groups of people inflict violence on unarmed neighbors (think Germany, Rwanda, Darfur, Nanking….)?
“Why do groups of people inflict violence on unarmed neighbors (think Germany, Rwanda, Darfur, Nanking….)? How do ingroups and outgroups form, neurally-speaking? How does social context and obedience to authority navigate mass behavior?”
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
― C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology (Making of Modern Theology)
"Oh my dear, idealists are the cruelest monsters of them all." — Sarah Vowell