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Study: Left-wing authoritarianism needs to be taken seriously in political psychology

#1
C C Offline
(political fashions) Left-Wing authoritarianism is real & needs to be taken seriously in political psychology, study argues
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/10/01/lef...dy-argues/

INTRO: Authoritarianism has been well-studied by psychologists. Well, right-wing authoritarianism has. In fact, as that’s typically the only type that’s studied, you might be forgiven for thinking that’s what authoritarianism is. The very idea of left-wing authoritarianism (LWA) has received not only little academic attention, but a lot of scepticism from psychologists. “I think I have not found any authoritarians on the left because if there ever were any, most of them have dried up and blown away….” wrote Bob Altemeyer, pioneer of work on right-wing authoritarianism, in 1996.

But as Thomas Costello at Emory University and colleagues write in their new paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Personality Processes and Individual Differences, “From Maoist China to the Khmer Rouge (and perhaps even the French Reign of Terror), history abounds with examples of LWA at the broader societal level, rendering psychology’s inability to identify left-wing authoritarians puzzling.”

Puzzling is right. Perhaps predominantly left-leaning researchers have been unwilling to even go there…. But in their new paper, Costello and his colleagues absolutely go there. They conclude that LWA does indeed exist, and they define not only its characteristics but the characteristics of the people who subscribe to it. They also reveal substantial similarities between authoritarians on the political right and the left.

First, the team used a bottom-up approach to devise a scale to get at LWA. As well as scouring research papers for items that might relate to authoritarianism, they solicited ideas for items from psychologists, political scientists and philosophers. Using multiple batches of online participants, the team gradually whittled down and revised these items. They ended up with 39 items that reflected three conceptually distinct dimensions of LWA. I’ll take the definitions directly from the paper:

• Antihierarchical Aggression – the belief that those currently in power should be punished, the established order should be overthrown, and that extreme actions, such as political violence, are justifiable to achieve these aims.
• Anticonventionalism – the rejection of traditional values, a moral absolutism concerning progressive values and concomitant dismissal of conservatives as inherently immoral, and a need for political homogeneity in one’s social environment.
• Top-Down Censorship – preferences for the use of governmental and institutional authority to quash opposition and bar offensive and intolerant speech.

Looking over that list, I certainly know some people who I’m sure think of themselves as being extremely liberal but who would score pretty highly on the anti-conventionalism dimension, at least... (MORE)
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#2
Syne Offline
There's nothing "fashionable" about the truth.

The political spectrum is a horseshoe, with both extremes more like each other than their neighboring/labeled political side. On the right, extreme libertarianism leans toward anarchy just as much as extreme "anti-authoritarian" leftism. At the very extreme of both is "eat the rich"/revolutionary violence. BLM/CRT advocates want the same kind of racial segregation and expresses the same kind of racial animus that the KKK does.

The difference nowadays is that a vast majority of the left actually think they can use the government to control people, while a very tiny minority on the right even want it to.
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