• Fascism is chameleonic and often looks cultish. Authoritarian movements thrive on a leader-myth, ritualized loyalty, simplified narratives, and strong in-group/out-group dynamics — all the social mechanics that make cults sticky.

• Groups reliably amplify certain human tendencies (conformity, obedience, moral narrowing), so the casual line “people in groups are terrible” captures a real pattern — we’re all vulnerable to it.

• “Cultism” is a useful metaphor, but fascism isn’t only a cult: it also builds on institutions, law, media, economic interests and ordinary bureaucracy. That’s why it can move beyond a charismatic circle and change whole societies.

• Group pathology isn’t just individual moral failure; it’s shaped by incentives, scarcity, fear, propaganda, and the structure of institutions. Experiments like Asch, Milgram and Zimbardo (not proofs, but signals) show how ordinary people can do strange things under pressure — but systems matter as much as personalities.

About “extreme individualism” vs “individuate”

• There’s a difference between market/consumer individualism (atomized, performative selfhood) and psychological/civic individuation (becoming a thinking, morally responsible person). Modern life often produces the former — people who are isolated, insecure, or performative — without creating the conditions for the latter. It's worth distinguishing ‘individualism’ (atomized selves sold to the market) from ‘individuation’ (the slow, often lonely work of becoming an autonomous thinker). The first is common; the second is rare because societies rarely make space for it.

• Genuine individuation takes time, resources, solitude, relationships that tolerate dissent, and social space to practice independent thought. It’s therefore rarer and structurally unequal — not just a personal failing.