Although the simplistic bumper-sticker synopsis has it that fascism glorified the state at the expense of the individual, this was definitely not the way the proposition was presented to the people.

What the fascists promised to them was actually to restore the dignity of the individual, by offering him an opportunity to make a noble, even heroic, voluntary sacrifice of his own personal wants and needs for the good of the greater community.

When the fascists spoke of failed individualism, it was in the context of various forms of empty 1920s self-indulgence that had already left a generation feeling distinctly less substantial than its predecessors.  A sense of diminishment was prevalent even before the flimsy, self-servingly hollow financial schemes behind much of the world's publicly-accumulated wealth came crashing down.  By the time the 1930s arrived, unfettered materialistic hedonism looked even less like something self-respecting people should be reaching for.  (And of course, even if people still aspired to it, it was completely out of almost everyone’s reach.)

All in all, noble selflessness made a lot more practical sense to most men as a route to personal significance than hustling to attain speculative stock fortunes, flashy cars, or the “kept” companionship of flappers.

At the same time, fascism (especially the German and Japanese varieties) held out opportunities to degrade other people, like the Jews and the Chinese—a classic dysfunctional way for the abusers to attempt to distance themselves from their own feelings of insignificance. This enabled its adherents to simultaneously choose a low road  along with the higher road of what they considered their own noble self-sacrifice.

And of course, given their militaristic orientation, all forms of fascism offered virtually unlimited supplies of classic tribal opportunities to feel significance and connection by advancing the tribe’s cause in combat.