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.
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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.
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.
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.