Reads
Even though this book is almost 20 years old, I found it relevant and instructive to many questions we have today. Why do people follow others, even when they promise to do bad things? What does it mean to be authoritarian, and to follow those that are?
The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer 📚
Two of the big takeaways from the authoritarian book for me was that the author was pointing out that “conservatives” were being swapped out for authoritarians starting many decades ago. In his view, conservative principles should stand on their own merits and defend democracy. The trojan horse has been religious fundamentalism, particularly evangelical christians with their values against gays, immigrants, etc. Those values have usurped any traditional conservative values. So we really shouldn’t be calling those people conservatives anymore. He pointed out John McCain was staunchly against the Jerry Falwell liberty university types, but the evangelicals organized so well, by the time 2008 rolled around, he had to accept them to get the republican nomination
The other main takeaway was about his authoritarian scale (inclined to believe or follow authoritarians): Dems were all over the scale, but largely grouped lower on the scale. Whereas, just about all Republicans were higher. About 40 points higher on average than Dems