Right-wing Authoritarianism

Talk about a perfect description.

I agree that fascist authoritarianism is frighteningly on the upswing.

Here's a test you can take to see where you fall in this "New World Order":

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Originally posted by oldgoat:
It would seem that at 1.8 I am also a whining rotter. I tried answering every question with a 1, which still left me as a whining rotter. The tester needs more epithets. I wonder if "wooly headed socialist" is in there. Oh well, at least I'm not a liberal airhead.

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In Altemeyer's terminology Rigth Wing Authoritarians (RWAs) Are heavily focussed on keeping fear at bay by having everyone follow rules and conform to the norm. However, almost all of them are fairly timid aobut actually doing anything themselves. They are followers. The other thing that is significant about RWAs is that, to put it bluntly, they don't think very well. In particular, they compartmentalize so that they do not see when they are being contradictory. If they agree with a leader they will believe him long past any logical contradiction.

However, there is another category which Altemeyer calls Social Dominators (SDs). These are people who are aggressive about gaining power and wealth and don't care much about how they do it. Their dominant philosophy is "don't get caught". The two groups are not disjoint, in fact there is a small positive correlation between them.

The SDs are the dangerous politicians, the RWA SD politicians are more dangerous because they have an easier connection to unthinking followers.

To reiterate, Altemeyer has created a questionnaire to identify what he calls Right Wing Authoritarians (RWAs). These are people who think norms (social, political, and religious) should be enforced with punishment. He also identifies Social Dominators (SDs) and points out the dangers involved with politicians that are both RWA's and SD's.