> Even worse is that people I've known and respected my entire life, intelligent people … are defending, and even calling for the escalation of these tactics.

> Even worse is that people I've known and respected my entire life, intelligent people … are defending, and even calling for the escalation of these tactics. It's a spectrum. More a question of temperament than intelligence: Some people desperately wish to told there's someone out there, looking out for them. A wise enlightened leader, preferably in a tie or a white lab coat. "Just follow orders and everything will be alright." Others prefer to assume responsibility and evaluate risk on a case-by-case basis. This end of the spectrum is more sparsely populated, because it requires personal struggle and sacrifice. So such people are always a minority, with obvious implications for democracy (AKA the rule of the majority). Most people oscillate somewhere in between, swayed by pragmatic incentives and currents of social zeitgeist.