that ridiculous kind of theater

A theater sure, but ridiculous? Perhaps to us. Times change, at one point wearing a fedora wasn't ridiculous like it is now.

I think by disregarding that these types of leaders were popular, by assuming they were ridiculous and stupid, plain evil as some put it...

We're robbing ourselves of the possibility to recognize if another Mussolini comes along.

Or equally bad, this lack of recognition could be abused to paint political opposition as fascist.

I know of at least one POTUS lately that has been presented in that light, and scarily many fell for it...