Interesting essay here; an excerpt:

“[I]t is fascism’s capacity to make a nuanced oppression seem both nurturing and empowering that makes it so dangerous. It is this nuance of fascism – more than the Big Lie techniques and the brute force fascists also employ – that makes the Bush/Cheney administration and its police and propaganda mechanisms a true threat to humanity in general and to the United States – formerly respected as an icon of liberty – specifically.

“The fundamental appeal of fascism to the everyday person is threefold. It consists of:

“The promise of security. Fascists typically posit threats, external and internal, that are easily identified but difficult to fight, and then promise to protect you from them – if only you will give them absolute power to do so.

“Relief from uncertainty. It is no accident that Orwell had his dictator characterize himself as Big Brother. The fascist relieves you of the responsibility to make difficult decisions. You simply follow orders – given, of course, by Big Brother.

“A share of strength. Most insidious, Big Brother will let you exercise power over others – as long as you exercise Big Brother’s power Big Brother’s way.

“This last is the stroke of genius. The fascist enlists the sufferers of fascism themselves as petty dictators over those who have been designated as ‘below’ them. And we the people are all too often eager to enlist.”

(Thanks to Kenneth Castaneda Widjaja for the pointer.)