Mussolini was a moron too. They play to image and emotions though, which doesn’t take smarts, just a decent understanding of people. Which can come from experience and operate more instinctively, you just do it, you don’t have to understand how any of it actually works.

They actually often come after the smart people, who can be an obstruction in their path, due to smart people being better at seeing through emotional bullshit. So, if they get rid of us more rational sorts, we can no longer stand in their way. They end up with brain drains from this, but I don’t think that would really bother Trump.

Fascism is very anti-intellectual overall.