The market for cruelty is a real thing. It is one special case of the market for power. As everyone has known since Gutenberg was a little boy, people like to read and believe things that make them powerful, or make them feel powerful. These powerful ideas experience a selective advantage in the Darwinian marketplace of ideas.

Important. I said much the same in "no market for liberty" -- there is no desire for freedom, but for "justice" AKA vengeance and cruelty.