fanatics

The sympathizers, who are to all appearances still innocuous fellow-citizens in a nontotalitarian society, can hardly be called single-minded fanatics; through them, the movements make their fantastic lies more generally acceptable, can spread their propaganda in milder, more respectable forms, until the whole atmosphere is poisoned with totalitarian elements which are hardly recognizable as such but appear to be normal political reactions or opinions.

After clinching their eighth World Series title with a 7-6 win over the New York Yankees on Wednesday night, the Dodgers set a Fanatics sales record for first-hour sales of a team’s merchandise, across any sport, after claiming a championship.

Over the first 12 hours of sales following Wednesday’s game, Fanatics said, sales of Dodgers merchandise are up 20% from four years ago.

In recent weeks, the quietude of this affluent Beverly Hills neighborhood has been filled with the buzzing of tourists and true crime fanatics all swarming to peek at the infamous Menendez mansion on Elm Drive — where two brothers murdered their parents in 1989.

A Los Angeles Times account from 1983 referred to the house, tongue in cheek, as “the adobe equivalent of Lincoln’s log cabin,” noting how Fernando fanatics flocked to the site, even breaching the wire perimeter to peer inside the windows.