Posted on 09/16/2021 8:50:37 PM PDT by DoodleBob
Authoritarianism has been the subject of scientific inquiry for nearly a century, yet the vast majority of authoritarianism research has focused on right-wing authoritarianism. In the present studies, we investigate the nature, structure, and nomological network of left-wing authoritarianism (LWA), a construct famously known as “the Loch Ness Monster” of political psychology. We iteratively construct a measure and data-driven conceptualization of LWA...
We find that LWA, right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation reflect a shared constellation of personality traits, cognitive features, beliefs, and motivational values that might be considered the “heart” of authoritarianism. Still, relative to right-wing authoritarians, left-wing authoritarians were lower in dogmatism and cognitive rigidity, higher in negative emotionality, and expressed stronger support for a political system with substantial centralized state control. Our results also indicate that LWA powerfully predicts behavioral aggression and is strongly correlated with participation in political violence.(emphasis added)
...
Our results point to the fruitfulness of a tripartite conceptualization of LWA comprising three correlated dimensions...
Anti-hierarchical aggression reflects motivations to forcefully overthrow the established hierarchy and punish those in power, perhaps mirroring (authoritarian dominance/)SDO’s definitional core. Moreover, anti-hierarchical aggression’s nomological network was extremely similar to SDO’s nomological network, especially in the personality domain (i.e., low agreeableness, low honesty-humility, low conscientiousness, and psychopathic disinhibition and meanness)...
Similarly, top-down censorship reflects motivations to wield group authority (e.g., governmental limitations on speech) as a means of regulating characteristically right-wing beliefs and behaviors, mirroring (right wing authoritarianism/)RWA’s definitional core....
Anti-conventionalism, the final LWA dimension, reflects a moral absolutism concerning progressive values and concomitant dismissal of conservatives as inherently immoral, an intolerant desire for coercively imposing left-wing beliefs and values on others...
(Excerpt) Read more at researchgate.net ...
A Cliffs Notes version of the article is found here.
While an individual reporting that they had performed an act of violence was rare, nearly a third of respondents agreed with the statement that they wouldn’t mind if a politician that diametrically opposed their own political views was assassinated. “The higher a respondent ranked on the scale for either left-wing or right-wing authoritarianism, the more likely they were to agree with this statement,” Costello says.
...
In addition to the striking similarities between the two political extremes, the research also highlighted a key difference between the two: Left-wing authoritarians were more likely to perceive the world as a dangerous place and experience intense emotions and a sense of uncontrollability in response to stress.
80% of the left—the giant flock of sheep— are fearful by nature. Their leaders exploit this trait, masterfully. The balance, the 20% remaining, are evenly split between corrupt white collar criminals and insane Control Freaks. They are at the top, above the 80% scardy cat mob.
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Authoritarian definition is - of, relating to, or favoring blind submission to authority.
Totalitarianism definition is - centralized control by an autocratic authority.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Authoritarianism seems to imply some kind of acceptance or submission to or selection of the authority, even if blind submission.
Totalitarian is autocratic central control, no submission nor selection involved.
Seems like what is going on, at least for more than 1/2 of the country, is Totalitarianism.
>> Cliff notes...
You did a good job with the excerpt. And I learned a new term: nomological
Not sure we fall into the RWA camp, but the described characteristics of the LWAs are spot on — basically hating free and representative forms of govt, and willing to get psychotically violent about it.
We need to be prepared for the unthinkable, and be willing to deal with it.
Both forms require submission. A simple analogy could involve the comparison of a dictatorship to communism where the latter is akin to authoritarianism.
Authoritarianism is the suitable term for what we’re now seeing in the US.
Thank you. FR is definitely not a RWA board. I’ve seen JimRob pull threads with the reason “American Renaissance nonsense”. But I observed threads covering China’s limitation on video gaming, where fellow FReepers cheered that idea. Go figya.
The old analysis is that conservatives are authoritarian on social issues and libertarian on econoic ones, while leftards are the reverse. I question that. I think liberals are for more authoritarian today than the conservatives they used to rebel against ever were.
So today’s conservatives trend more libertarian, having ceded the social stuff to the libs. Republicans, OTOH (as opposed to conservatives), seem to be a mix of those libertarians, war-hawks, nation-builders, and CoC open-borders RINOs. Any authoritarianism they have is just backing up the libs on big-government wish lists.
Totalitarianism in all forms is Evil!
Progressive #Progressive_Caucus
Socialist #Venezuela
Marxist #BLM
Fascist #Nazi's (Erdogan’s Turkey)
Communist #Antifa
Dictator #ComDem_Covid19_Dictators
Islamist #ISIS
Bureaucrap #the_Swamp
All Evil. All Fail.
Freedom Works.
It's TIME to DownSize DC!
Restore the Constitution!Size DC!
No doubt about the "intense emotion" comment... Lefties think with their emotions, and their leaders play these emotions like a Stradivarius. As for being authoritarians, there is no better proof than their support for totalitarianism--the only system in which the left can fully operate. Lefties are above all thieves, taking money from some to buy votes from others . And finally, as Mencken observed:
Your true socialist is convinced, before everything else, that his personal existence is of vast and undoubted value to the world, and that the world, if it were not a swindling felon, would reward him handsomely for remaining alive.
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