Howdy MOQers:
As an antidote to the political tone-deafness and the confusion over who should
be labeled what, I thought it would be good to get specific. Thanks to a
researcher named Altemeyer, we can discuss the particular attitudes and
positions held by right-wingers. It seems quite obvious to me that his
descriptions fit the present moment quite neatly and it's not a very flattering
portrait of the right. As you'll see in the quoted section that follows,
right-wing authoritarians tend to exhibit cognitive errors and symptoms of
faulty reasoning. They are more likely to make incorrect inferences from
evidence and to hold contradictory ideas. They are more likely to uncritically
accept insufficient evidence if it supports their beliefs, less likely to
acknowledge their own limitations, generally lack an openness to experience.
Authoritarian politicians are more likely to be in the Republican Party in the
United States. They generally have a conservative economic philosophy, are
highly n
ationalistic, oppose abortion, support capital punishment, oppose gun control
legislation, and do not value social equality, have pro-capitalist attitudes,
favor religious orthodoxy and they tend to accept covert governmental
activities such as illegal wiretaps. They are more willing to suspend
constitutional guarantees of liberty such as the Bill of Rights and they tend
to be ethnocentric and prejudiced against racial and ethnic minorities, and
homosexuals. All of those claims are Altemeyer's, which are based on research.
Here is the quote in full (I don't want to spoil the surprise but notice how
they all die in the end):
According to research by Altemeyer, right-wing authoritarians tend to exhibit
cognitive errors and symptoms of faulty reasoning. Specifically, they are more
likely to make incorrect inferences from evidence and to hold contradictory
ideas that result from compartmentalized thinking. They are also more likely to
uncritically accept insufficient evidence that supports their beliefs, and they
are less likely to acknowledge their own limitations. Nevertheless, there is no
connection between authoritarianism and either low or high intelligence. In
terms of the five factor model of personality, authoritarians generally score
lower on openness to experience and slightly higher on conscientiousness.
Altemeyer suggested that authoritarian politicians are more likely to be in the
Conservative or Reform party in Canada, or the Republican Party in the United
States. They generally have a conservative economic philosophy, are highly
nationalistic, oppose abortion, support capital punishment, oppose gun control
legislation, and do not value social equality. The RWA scale reliably
correlates with political party affiliation, reactions to Watergate,
pro-capitalist attitudes, religious orthodoxy, and acceptance of covert
governmental activities such as illegal wiretaps. Although authoritarianism is
correlated with conservative political ideology, not all authoritarians are
conservative, and not all conservatives are authoritarian. It is also worth
noting that many authoritarians have no interest in politics.
Authoritarians are generally more favorable to punishment and control than
personal freedom and diversity. For example, they are more willing to suspend
constitutional guarantees of liberty such as the Bill of Rights. They are more
likely to advocate strict, punitive sentences for criminals, and they report
that they obtain personal satisfaction from punishing such people. They tend to
be ethnocentric and prejudiced against racial and ethnic minorities, and
homosexuals.
In roleplaying situations, authoritarians tend to seek dominance over others by
being competitive and destructive instead of cooperative. In a study by
Altemeyer, 68 authoritarians played a three hour simulation of the Earth's
future entitled the Global change game. Unlike a comparison game played by
individuals with low RWA scores, which resulted in world peace and widespread
international cooperation, the simulation by authoritarians became highly
militarized and eventually entered the stage of nuclear war. By the end of the
high RWA game, the entire population of the earth was declared dead.
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