Thompson frames the essay as a “somewhat macabre
parlor game”, wherein one privately speculates which attendees at a social gathering could conceivably “go Nazi” under the proper political or social circumstances. She posits that support for Nazism is not formed on the basis of class, nationality, or race, but that the ideology “appeals to a certain type of mind”. She demonstrates the game by describing the well-heeled attendees of an imagined party, the majority of whom are denoted by letters. Characters such as “Mr. C”, a socially alienated
Wall Street advisor who in school “took all the scholastic honors but was never invited to join a
fraternity”, would go Nazi so that he could “rise to such an eminence that no one can ever again humiliate him”, while subservient
antifeminist “Mrs. E” would go Nazi for a politician “who proclaims the basic subordination of women”. Thompson concludes that individuals most likely to go Nazi are those who are ruthless and cerebral, are embittered by their circumstances, are easily deceived, and/or would opportunistically seek to be close to power if Nazism was ascendant, summarizing that "the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success—they would all go Nazi in a crisis". == Reception ==