dagblog - Comments for "What Makes Right Wing Authoritarians Tick?"

Nixon's "southern strategy"

David Seaton — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 16:53:42 +0000

In reply to What Makes Right Wing Authoritarians Tick?

Nixon's "southern strategy" is the cause of what we are seeing now. Nixon began it and Reagan fine-tuned it, with his "welfare queens" and "state's rights". It was all very simple: it was postulated on the theory that southern whites, who had supported the Democrats solidly (the solid south) since the Civil War and had been some of most favored by FDR's "New Deal", in fact hated black people more than they loved their own children, who needed healthcare, housing and schools. This curious theory proved correct and since then, the southern states and a great many poor whites elsewhere vote Republican.

In fairness, my concern with

kgb999 — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 07:22:15 +0000

In reply to To go with the last comment,

In fairness, my concern with Rand Paul isn't so much that he's an authoritarian (although I never thought about it much either way) ... my concern is that he's an apparent dimwit.

Ya know, I don't think anyone

oleeb — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 06:21:56 +0000

In reply to This is all somehow the

Ya know, I don't think anyone has even faintly implied that. Nope. That would miss the point entirely.

Glad ya found us here

oleeb — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 06:18:44 +0000

In reply to Oleeb,Now I know what you

Glad ya found us here Eric!

You must have missed the several weeks of consternation and gnashing of teeth over the shut down of the cafe reader blogs atTPM. It is unclear whether they will ever return or not. Optimists are hoping it will. Pessimists are resigned.

You can have all your posts migrated here by downloading them or having Genghis download all your old posts and import them here for you. Genghis, BTW, is some osrt of saint for doing that for folks just for the asking.

So yes, this is one of several refugee sites to be found at. Another is at FDL. Another is tpmaholics I believe.

Sure it can be done.I'm not

oleeb — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 06:10:29 +0000

In reply to Please lay out your argument

Sure it can be done.

I'm not sure exactly who your comment is addressed to but I'll respond to it. Perhaps others will too.

One of the hallmarks of authoritarian leaders is their hypocrisy and I think if elected, we'll see an amazing degree of hypocrisy between what he says now and what he does as a Senator. This, if course, on top of the hypocrisy we can already verify. But that's just the beginning. I think he is a kind of hybrid who talks liberterian and behaves authoritarian. Just as one example, his religious and racial bigotry which is a central characteristic of authoritarians. His lack of self awareness and not seeing at all how badly he comes off to people when expounding on his crackpot ideas about race and discrimination. His dishonesty about his personal and professional life. Again, something you will find is a comon characteristic of authoritarians. If you look down th list of personality traits of authoritarian leaders he has most of them.

There are lots of facets to

oleeb — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 06:02:32 +0000

In reply to I already wrote something

There are lots of facets to this problem. I keep trying to focus people's attention on what compels the authortiarian leaders and followers to believe and behave as they do. I think it exremely important because if people do not understand what it is that is driving these people it will be difficult, if not impossible, to counter and defeat them. For example, this idiotic belief amongst some Democrats (Obama is one) that you can reason with and find common ground with these extreme right wing authoritrians when, in fact, you cannot. It doesn't work. Not only is it not how they operate, they can't function in that manner. They cannot compromise with what they consider anathema to their very existence. They live in a black and white world where you are either all good or all bad and everyone who is not with them is against them, thus: all bad. They also posses distinct personality dysfunctions that can and should be used against them tactically. If you think they are just reasonable people who hold a few wacky beliefs then you misread them entirely and their intentions as Obama and company have done over and over and over. The monied upper classes use and exploit the psychological characteristics of these people much to their advantage and particularly use them to fight their battles for them as proxies. Thus the super rich appear to be disiniterested and aloof from such concerns when, in fact, they are up to their eyeballs in it all trying to keep their greedy paws on as much money as possible.

Uhhhh ... Hello Rootman . .

oldenGoldenDecoy — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 19:19:57 +0000

In reply to Altemeyer is an associate

Uhhhh ... Hello Rootman . . .

Are the lights on? What I mean by that is, I'm not the one who wrote this blog. That's Oleeb. So why are you replying to me?

~OGD~

Truculent Proletariat

AmericanDreamer — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:14:21 +0000

In reply to Truculent Peasant Menagerie

Truculent Proletariat Menagerie.

Troublemaking Pitchforker Menagerie

(ok, i'll stop now..)

Truculent Peasant Menagerie

moat — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:07:51 +0000

In reply to Once Upon a TPM which runs

Truculent Peasant Menagerie

Sure, you're most welcome,

AmericanDreamer — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:05:14 +0000

In reply to Thanks for the heads up,

Sure, you're most welcome, moat. I figured there must be someone who is glad for book references I sometimes sprinkle into what I write. Or maybe I just hoped that was the case.