It all breaks down to people who act on principle (maybe 50%) and people who don’t. The principled people break down further into a group that is largely emotional (how does something ‘feel’) and those that approach things from a more rational basis. Of course, these lines are not clearly defined and we all vary in one degree or another. However, it does explain why most people go along with the crowd and the dissenters are usually rational or emotional. Strangely enough, it also explains politics . . .
In some cases, people will use their free will to do things that are wrong and in some cases they can be tricked or pressured into doing things that are wrong. In the case of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Communist China, etc. you have the approximate 1/3rd criminal types running the show, who are able to trick or intimidate another 1/3rd or so of the population into cooperating with their schemes because they believe they are going to benefit in some way. The other 1/3rd who are the skeptics or "non-believeing" types end up having to go along out of self-preservation or because they mostly have no other choice. A small percentage of the latter may be brave enough to revolt against the powers that be.
In the United States, we are fortunate, because we had extremely intelligent men of high moral character that set up our system of government. Abuses have been kept in check because the politicians have to ultimately answer to the people. The problem comes when either the politicians/government manages to claim too much power for itself and/or the people have lost their moral character. Then things start to degenerate into some of the kinds of things we are seeing now.