[popularrecluse]

Most of the massacres alluded to here used some variety of misinformation, secrecy, or euphemism to keep the calm and quell any heroics. Think "relocation" or "re-education". Even in the cases where they knew their fates, the settings were likely too swift or chaotic for any chance of successful resistance and there are countless stories of these attempts.

Frankly, this reeks of victim-blaming and shows a real lack of imagination for what has gone on in the world that you don't know about.

[A_D_E_P_T]

Right. To add to this, it's said that ISIS was particularly infamous for staging mock executions of high-propaganda-value prisoners.

For instance, they'd take a prisoner out, film the prologue to an execution video, unsheathe a knife or rack a shotgun, and then... they wouldn't perform the execution itself. "It's just for show," they'd tell their target, as they return him to his cell. Then, one day, after calmly filming yet another prologue, they'd swiftly and gruesomely execute their prisoner, who had been lulled into a certain docility and wasn't expecting them to actually go through with it.

[jki275]

They are also notorious for drugging them.

[thmsths]

Pretty much this. You are basically put in a situation where information is extremely limited/unreliable and have to use something akin to a greedy algorithm to make decisions. And of course things are setup so that complying is the best choice at every single step, save for the last one. By the time death is obvious, it is far too late to resist and accepting your fate is now your best option.