See Things As They Are: Interrupted Ordinary Lives by Ego Restoration Through Degradation, No One Was Fragile or Confused In Escalating Violence & Being On The Side of Permission To Condemn

This is simply a matter of “If I cannot make you obey me, I will make the group degrade you” They offered people moral permission to enjoy their worst impulses and the participants accepted because the arrangement allowed them to experience aggression without identifying themselves as aggressive.

You are going to see them as they behaved, not as they now describe themselves. People are no longer interested in using words, they are looking for something that can function as a weapon. They are willing to use others as proxies, recruit whoever would act, and pursue an outcome by any means necessary like claimants performing a counterfeit court. Make no mistake about it they did not mistake you for the enemy, they needed you to be the enemy so they could mistake themselves for being good people.