People tend to support dictatorships that "support their views", we saw recently with the pandemic how people were more than happy to let the Government have sovereignty over their lives, The Government decided who could go out, who could work, who could eat in restaurants, etc. and many people were all for it... all because their views aligned.

So yeah, I see most people that say "I would never support the Empire" would probably be the 1st to support them in real life. I'm not a fan of the Government having too much power, mainly because 99% of politicians are corrupt.

To be quite honest, it would really depend on my personal situation. Allow me to elaborate.

To put it as simply and briefly as possible, we humans and our personalities are simply products of our environments. What we experience in our lives shapes our mannerisms and our core values according to how we perceive them and what we take away from them. For everyone it’s different. I have my own standards that are, as I said, a byproduct of the experiences of my own life. However this may not be the case in all situations. If I were in Star Wars experiencing the fall of the republic and the rise of the empire, I may see it very differently than what I would now simply because I may have grown up under very different circumstances, and my core values and moral standards may be radically different from what they are now. Our priorities and our outlook on life differ based on how the course of our life goes. That being said, how I would react to the formation of the galactic empire could have been almost anything at all.

But on a more simple level…

However, if we are assuming that we would all be the same people as we are now, here, then likely the first emotion I would experience would be confusion. Personally, I don’t form opinions or views until I have seen enough to draw a logical conclusion about the things I’m seeing that can be based on sound evidence. That being said, the first few months of the change would likely have me trying to make heads or tails of the new government I would be living under.

After the confusion would be, again, up to circumstance. What I see and take in. For example, we have the knowledge of all the inner workings of everything the Empire ever did. We know they are ruled by two Sith lords who follow the Dark Side of the Force, the epitome of evil in the galaxy. We know they reanimated the dead and tried to weaponize them, and we know they took slaves and used them to build superweapons intended to destroy planets and kill thousands of innocents. But as a civilian, your average joe just going about life normally, I wouldn’t know any of this. My opinion of the Empire would likely come from how I view what I do see, rather than what I don’t. That would be how they treat their citizens and the people they are responsible for.

The news would not publish anything except propaganda, we have already seen that the Empire censors anything that does not paint it in a positive light. As such, I would not know anything about things like what we see them doing to people. That brings it down to what I physically see in front of me.

That much, brings me to the question of where.

By where, I mean where I would be living. If I was living on a thickly settled Imperial homeworld, such as Coruscant, I probably wouldn’t see all that much happening. Whereas if I lived more in the Mid to Outer rim, I might see more Imperial suppression because people are being forcibly introduced to a new way of life. This, I postulate, is likely why the majority of the Rebellion and those attempting to achieve the same goal as they are are primarily from outer rim worlds and worlds that haven’t been fully occupied and integrated into Imperial society. They see more unsettling actions on the part of the Empire because the empire needs to execute said actions more often to accomplish the ultimate goal of fully settling that planet. This much, in regards to myself, I cannot accurately predict simply because there isn’t much way to really determine this.

However…there is democracy

A republic, in nature, is a government comprised of a body meant to be representative of the people they are in charge of. The people vote for representatives that they most agree with and the representatives speak for the people and cast their vote according to their better judgement.

To say I would enjoy my say in the way I’m governed being taken away would hardly be accurate. Yet I would be one voter of a planet of voters giving one vote for one representative who is one among those of countless occupied planets. That is hardly a significant total, and thus my say in the governing body may very well get lost among the millions of other voting citizens in the Republic.

But I would like to rebut my former statement by saying that a wrinkly fascist space wizard is hardly preferable to having one vote among millions. In one instance I at least have a say, in the other, a new change can be enacted simply on the whim of one person, whose judgement can very easily do more Ill than good, let alone if his intention is, in fact, to do Ill.

In Summary:

In short, my point here is that how I see the Empire taking hold of the galaxy is subject to the events of my life. Yet assuming that I would be the same in Star Wars as I am now, it would take me time to formulate my opinion and reaction to the new government. I would likely have some mild protest to having my voting rights abruptly revoked, yet my protest would likely not be so great that I would take legitimate action over it unless I bore witness to an action by the Empire’s hand that violated my own set of morals and standards that I would disagree with. In the most probable outcome, I would likely continue life as close as I could to how I knew it when the republic was in charge.

What if none of the evidence is sound?

I'm a bit selfish, if something does not affect me, I don't care. Assuming I have similar jobs to the ones I've had in real life, the Empire would actually benefit me therefore I would not mind.

After reading a lot of other responses I feel the need to expand upon my earlier response. Given the decaying democracy of the galactic republic and I like many of other republic citizens would be barely scrapping by, in the heat of the moment I'm not going to be thinking about the long term effects of this new galactic empire. I'm most likely going to be thinking about the safety and security of my family, something that the old republic failed to provide me and many other families as the clone wars raged on throughout the galaxy.

I'm going to use the Martez sisters as an example. Regardless of what we think of them, they're a prime example of a family that was essentially left to fend for themselves as the republic and the jedi order was simply too focused on the war. Now, we have the leader of the republic promising the citizens that things will be better for galaxy under the empire's rule. I may not exactly love it but I'll probably accept it in order to provide for my family.

As time passes, and I see that this empire has destroyed the very safety and peace that was promised to us, then I definitely would've turned against it and joined the rebellion. At the start me supporting the empire is more out of necessity but what's a life worth if you're not actually living a full life, if you're afraid of being alive. A lot of citizens of the empire were too afraid to stand against it because they were afraid of the consequences, hence they weren't actually living (If that makes sense). Anyways, my final answer in the short term I would've support it but in the long term I'm going to rebel against the empire.

Actually, during the time Germany was invading many of the Allie's in the early stages of WWII, before America got involved it's citizens were pleading with the president if they could join Axis as they were winning, and they almost did. Imagine that but instead of the fascists controlling a continent of a small world they're controlling the entire Galaxy.

@Admiral of the Xtacy Someone who recognizes the truth of authoritarianism is rare these days. 👏

The truth that authoritarianism is a shit show for all but those in favour. And that favour is not a solid foundation either. I like freedom.

The main way the empire was able to take over was not enough people paying attention. Palps publicized and magnified all of the issues that would make increased authority seem not only reasonable, but also necessary.

The vast majority of imperial citizens; particularly humans in the core worlds had happy carefree lives. What little information about the rebellion leaked to them made the rebels look like careless terrorists unconcerned with civilian casualties. The empire even tried to spin the Death Star as an ore extraction station which the rebels planned to hijack and turn into a weapon.

Depends on what planet i lived on

A planet like Tatooine, that under the Republic they did not seem to care then - yes, the Empire might make things better for me.

A planet like Lothal - maybe, that planet seemed to have a more "civilized" way of living in the time of the Republic (not like Tatooine) but was still far away from the core - so it might not be any different

A planet like Alderaan - NO, to quote Palpatine -- "I will not let this democracy that lasted for 1,000's of years be destroyed." - a planet like this near the Core has known Freedom and Democracy for generations being part of an empire would destroy what an Alderaan type planet is at it's core.

A Hutt controlled planet - PLEASE EMPIRE WE NEED YOU