Great comment! I certainly wasn't thinking of some secret cabal sitting in a smokey room, but more a bit along the lines of what you have written. I guess I wonder about the specific people agitating/pushing society in this direction, as most people are pretty passive. I guess there are some among the pro-authoritarian crowd who are capable of agency and independent activity and can harness their more passive fellows in the direction they believe in.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around this as pro-authoritarian thinking is so foreign to me.