If 2016-2020 gave us a window into what it's like, I would say your last bit isn't quite right:

Authoritarianism rises gradually and relies on people looking away from it, unable to confront inconvenient truths.

I feel like many people paid a lot of attention, and confronted truths, and spoke out about it. Yet, Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not risk being shot in the streets at Step B, why should you finally take arms & march at Step C? And so on to Step D.

(Unless in your statement, "relies on people looking away..." refers to a subset of people, not the nation as a whole)