Kicking down and kissing up: Signs of a classic authoritarian [View all]

[Fumesucker]

Last edited Thu Oct 16, 2014, 10:08 AM - Edit history (1)

There is a common misconception about authoritarians, they want to rule everyone. In fact a classic authoritarian is obsequious and servile to those perceived to be of a higher social status or possible utility while at the same time being extremely harsh and strict with anyone they judge to be their social inferior and of no utility to them.

Watching the reactions in the M$M to this Ebola story has been interesting, every time there has been a screwup their first reaction is to blame the lowest status person they can find (unless they can somehow make it Obama's fault, they do have another agenda).

First it was the triage nurse did not pass on that Mr Duncan had been in Liberia, it took a couple of days for that to be shot down. But notice that the fact the doctor who signed him out missed it too has been entirely dropped like it never happened. Notice also that the the fact the doctor treated what he diagnosed as a viral condition with antibiotics has been dropped from the conversation.

Next it was nurse Pham, she had "breached protocols", again it took a few days for them to get slammed upside the head with the fact that for all practical purposes there were no protocols for some time after Mr Duncan was returned to the hospital. They implicitly believed the management story and did not bother to do any investigation with lower level employees.

Now it's nurse Vinson, the authoritarians exploded with rage at nurse Vinson for traveling but when it is revealed later the same day that the CDC was consulted and assented to the travel their rage was instantly muted rather than directed at the perceived social superior.

Watch for this reaction, if someone's first instinct is to believe that some little person screwed up hugely and the institution is blameless there's a decent chance you are witnessing an authoritarian in action.