I'm still in a state of unbelief that people are supporting Trump. I just can't.
Honestly I feel like we've failed as Americans already. I guess enough people have strayed so far from reason and understanding and given in to fear. MY biggest fear now is that Trump does become president. -----Original Message----- From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Adam Moffett Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2016 10:27 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT - rise of American authoritarianism That was a long, but interesting read. The TLDR version: Scientists have been working since the rise of the Nazi's to identify what makes people flock to extreme political views and a "strongman" type of leader. They identified sometime in 1990's a psychological tendency to have an outsized fear of destabilizing social change and perceived physical threats. They call it authoritarianism partly for lack of a better name, and partly because it correlates extremely strongly with the "authoritarian" style of parenting. They can more reliably identify such people with questions about parenting than with political questions. The authoritarian psychological tendency correlates more strongly to whether we'll vote for Donald Trump than any other indicator. They go on to discuss how the theory explains political shifts since the 1960's and the broader implications for the future. Personally, I've been wondering who the heck are all these people who listen to Trump talk and think, "yeah that guy should be my president." These researchers seem to say that the answer is, "people who are afraid of something." On 3/12/2016 5:52 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote: > Long read, unusual for an online article. Not sure I buy it all, but > interesting nonetheless. > > http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism > >
