Stanford Prison Experiment; Milgram Experiment; Japanese 731 unit; Abu Ghraib; Hamburg Battalion 101; etc.  etc. etc.

The incredible power of social situations and the roles you are given.

Humans can be manipulated into doing despicable things given the right environment, pressure, plus the allure of power, validation, and acceptance. If you are thinking “I would never…”, you will never learn from those horrendous examples from the past. It’s not about the good people vs the bad people.  It’s about the social or political climate in which ordinary people start doing things that are unthinkable under normal circumstances.

Ordinary Americans carried out inhumane acts for Trump

A week ago, men and women went to work at airports around the United States as they always do. They showered, got dressed, ate breakfast, perhaps dropped off their kids at school. Then they reported to their jobs as federal government employees, where, according to news reports, one of them handcuff…
baltimoresun.com|By Chris Edelson