I wish I knew who said this--

"I think what really creeps people out about fascism is that it allows the mob to oppress others, either inside or outside the state, willingly. The mob runs amok and controls itself and others in service of some ideal like national honor or virtue or glory. For the sake of these ideals, the mob votes away its freedoms. The state doesn't need to suppress dissent, at least initially, because the mob only too happily does it for itself. It really is like a democracy that has suddenly mutated and turned cancerous, its institutions rampant and without its usual curbs."

This quote was a comment left on Orcinus about a year ago that I kept, and now it is no longer online. All I can tell you is that the commenter's name is Melissa. But whenever the righties form their goon mobs to punish people who dare say what they don't want to hear, I think of this quote.

http://www.mahablog.com/2005.05.15_arch.html#1116587671966