There seem to be roughly two types. There are the usually somewhat naive true believers who latch on that idea because it sounds... nice. Meaning the purported end result. Brotherhood of man and all that, everybody gets what they need, all the mean people kicked off. So nice.
Then they go and many can do horrible things because hey, eggs and omelets and the end justifies the means, right? They are, after all, trying to create heaven on Earth because that is all there is, just this life. Besides, those people were just mean, better to get rid of them.
Then there are the others.
If their movement wins most of the true believers will be genuinely surprised when many of them - anybody with any real power or influence, or seen as a potential threat to those in power - get shot or send to the gulags. Those others - the ones for whom the idea is mostly just a mean to an end, and the end is what is good for them, personally - continue, sometimes working together, sometimes backstabbing, while bigger regular purges also happen whenever some faction or big leader gets secure enough power to get rid of the competition.
The true believers are the smaller problem, even though they can create real havoc they can't usually destroy a country unless they get help from the others (sometimes a smart fanatic in lead can, though). They are among the useful fools, if the most destructive part. And sometimes they can be red pilled because a lot of them actually mean well, sort of anyway. Often not because they tend to be kind of dumb, and unwilling to let go of a favorite idea no matter how much proof there is against it.
The most dangerous ones are usually among those others.
There seem to be roughly two types. There are the usually somewhat naive true believers who latch on that idea because it sounds... nice. Meaning the purported end result. Brotherhood of man and all that, everybody gets what they need, all the mean people kicked off. So nice.
Then they go and many can do horrible things because hey, eggs and omelets and the end justifies the means, right? They are, after all, trying to create heaven on Earth because that is all there is, just this life. Besides, those people were just mean, better to get rid of them.
Then there are the others.
If their movement wins most of the true believers will be genuinely surprised when many of them - anybody with any real power or influence, or seen as a potential threat to those in power - get shot or send to the gulags. Those others - the ones for whom the idea is mostly just a mean to an end, and the end is what is good for them, personally - continue, sometimes working together, sometimes backstabbing, while bigger regular purges also happen whenever some faction or big leader gets secure enough power to get rid of the competition.
The true believers are the smaller problem, even though they can create real havoc they can't usually destroy a country unless they get help from the others (sometimes a smart fanatic in lead can, though). They are among the useful fools, if the most destructive part. And sometimes they can be red pilled because a lot of them actually mean well, sort of anyway. Often not because they tend to be kind of dumb, and unwilling to let go of a favorite idea no matter how much proof there is against it.
The most dangerous ones are usually among those others.