People get nostalgic for order and predictability that came at the point of a gun. “At least we had food and everything wasn’t falling apart!” Plenty of Russians I’ve been around remember the “good old days” under authoritarian “communism” and were unhappy with the turmoil and unpredictability when the USSR collapsed, and they’re the same ones that are happy with Putin’s and trump’s authoritarian methodology and threat of violence to enforce compliance.

So people absolutely can have a fondness for their abusers, especially if freedom from them leads to unpredictability and poverty.