alt Hacker NewsOk, yes I think it helped me to understand what you had in mind.
I'm not interrested in the mind of violent sociopaths as much as I'm interrested in that of the decent people who have to accept to live under their rule, not only because of the numbers involved. Rulers might be a bit shy about their motives at times (although I can apreciate a candid one), but living under one's reign is one of our strongest taboo - thus my interest.
> ...decent people who have to accept to live under their rule...
On one hand, there's the option of voting with one's feet, which Zweig describes in "Die Welt von Gestern" (1942)
On the other hand, another alternative is "inner emigration", eg https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innere_Emigration
On the gripping hand, there might be the possibility of ignoring wanna-be authoritarian leaders but convincing people not to follow them, à la https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24786278
Maybe there are more possibilities of which I am unaware; of these three, I chose the first.