There were neo-Nazis joining ISIS. Before that, many of the discredited Ba'athists of the secular fascistic regime of Saddam Hussein found a home in ISIS.
As Eric Hoofer put it in his The True Believer,
Consider this: as the Commies took over Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Romania after World War II they needed people to do the dirty work of beating opponents. Fascist thugs who had recently belonged to the Arrow Cross, Ustase, and Iron Cross needed only show that they would do as told and that the Commies would pay them amply for work well done. Of course those fascists would have to accept Marxist ideology. Before that plenty of wayward left-wing extremists went fascist. Doriot in France and Pavolini in Italy had been Commies. There were plenty of "roast-beef fascists -- brown on the outside and red (Commie) on the inside" such as the Strasser brothers in Germany, one of whom was murdered on the Night of the Long Knives and one of whim took flight wisely. Laval, Quisling, Goebbels, Mussolini, and D C Stephenson (the dangerous leader of the Indiana KKK in the 1920's*) had all been socialists.
Fanatics may seem like the most vehement of believers, but they almost never act upon any high moral principles. Angry and violent, they need only find someone willing to patronize their inherent brutality, and then they are happy.
*The 1915 Klan had many of the characteristics of European fascism before Mussolini established his Fascist Party. That's a reminder in case anyone wants to say that Americans do not have their own True Believers.
As Eric Hoofer put it in his The True Believer,
Quote: the opposite of a raging fascist is not a raging Communist. The opposite of a raging fascist is a sober liberal.
Consider this: as the Commies took over Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Romania after World War II they needed people to do the dirty work of beating opponents. Fascist thugs who had recently belonged to the Arrow Cross, Ustase, and Iron Cross needed only show that they would do as told and that the Commies would pay them amply for work well done. Of course those fascists would have to accept Marxist ideology. Before that plenty of wayward left-wing extremists went fascist. Doriot in France and Pavolini in Italy had been Commies. There were plenty of "roast-beef fascists -- brown on the outside and red (Commie) on the inside" such as the Strasser brothers in Germany, one of whom was murdered on the Night of the Long Knives and one of whim took flight wisely. Laval, Quisling, Goebbels, Mussolini, and D C Stephenson (the dangerous leader of the Indiana KKK in the 1920's*) had all been socialists.
Fanatics may seem like the most vehement of believers, but they almost never act upon any high moral principles. Angry and violent, they need only find someone willing to patronize their inherent brutality, and then they are happy.
*The 1915 Klan had many of the characteristics of European fascism before Mussolini established his Fascist Party. That's a reminder in case anyone wants to say that Americans do not have their own True Believers.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.