Political Weirdos

That definition can cover quite a few autocratic or authorian systems like monarchy as an example. Facism isn't super hard to define if you know what to look for it's just the rubric always seems over the top and hyperbolic when applied contemporarily until whatever regime is being painted with the brush starts emulating Nazis on a 1:1 basis. The people who saw it coming from 10 years ago and ringing alarm bells were seeing fascist rhetoric back then and they weren't wrong it's just people don't veiw facism as being anything but it's worst fully realized iteration.

The easiest guage is to see how much Nationalist sentiment there is paired with calls to return to a mythical golden age, populist rhetoric surrounding a figure with authoritarian sentiments, scapegoating of groups of "outsiders" vs a "rightful inheritor" narrative and active erosion of democratic structures.

I'd wager that's just authoritative types and not fascists specifically. You can have an authoritarian fascist but bootlicking and subservience is a response to hierarchy and the social pressure to fall in line. While thinking critically with intellectual and ethical reasoning is always outside the desire of hierarchy enshrined in the status quo. Authority will always encourage sycophants.