If there’s anything that can be called the “root of fascism,” it’s the anxiety of socially privileged classes in times of great turmoil. Most fascist sympathizers in the 30s were middle-class people and business owners who were nervous about all of those uppity leftists getting louder and more organized, usually with a heavy dose of xenophobia and racism.

They weren’t “afraid of death,” they were afraid of losing power.

To further elaborate, fascist ideology has these class anxieties coalesce into a heavily politicized form of nostalgia, what Roger Griffin calls palingenetic ultranationalism - the myth that The Nation has fallen into decay and must be restored to its former glory. The narrative becomes “we would be great if it weren’t for these immigrants/Jews/leftists/etc. sowing division among The Nation,” thereby scapegoating vulnerable groups and their supporters as the real causes of unrest, rather than the ruling classes.