Teri Kanefield: The Authoritarian Personality [View all]

[Nevilledog]

https://terikanefield.substack.com/p/the-authoritarian-personality


What makes saving American democracy difficult is that a segment of the population is (according to political psychologists) naturally disposed toward authoritarianism.

I plan to argue that the problem is exacerbated by social media and the way we get information, which is causing people not disposed to authoritarianism to embrace authoritarianism.

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

Historian Richard Hofstadter, in his classic 1964 work offered an eerily accurate description of today’s politics.

Hofstadter conducted a thorough review of American politics from before the founding of the nation through McCarthyism. He noticed a pattern among a small impassioned minority on the fringes of the political spectrum.

He called their behavior the “paranoid style” in politics.

Those embracing the paranoid style of politics believe that unseen satanic forces are trying to destroy something larger in which they belong.

*snip*