• … [those] who rating excessive on the authoritarianism scale agree that (italicized phrases are direct quotes from the dimensions) our nation wants a mighty chief; that the chief ought to destroy opponents; that individuals ought to belief the judgment of the right authorities, keep away from listening to noisy rabble-rousers in our society who’re making an attempt to create doubts in individuals’s minds, put some powerful leaders in energy who oppose these values and silence the trouble-makers, and smash the beliefs of opponents; that what our nation wants is a powerful, decided chief who will crush the evil; that society ought to strongly punish these they disagree with. In addition they deny that an opponent has a proper to be wherever she or he desires to be, and help the assertion that the nation can be higher off if sure teams would simply shut up and settle for their group’s correct place in society.
  • —Luke Conway, Liberal Bullies: What Psychology Teaches Us In regards to the Left’s Authoritarian Downside—and How you can Repair It1, p. 160
In his guide, Liberal Bullies, Luke Conway decries the intolerant conduct that may be discovered within the up to date progressive motion. What differentiates his perspective from others who share his dislike for the conduct of radical progressives2 is his declare that persona psychology supplies perception into authoritarianism and tackle it.

Within the aftermath of the Second World Struggle, psychologists developed the idea that there’s an authoritarian persona sort. They wished to know the help for fascism of their day, they usually assumed that authoritarianism was a attribute of individuals with right-wing political opinions.

Psychologists ultimately arrived at a scale that could possibly be measured utilizing a questionnaire. Somebody who scores excessive on the authoritarian scale may have responses that mirror a perception that dangerous individuals must be managed, suppressed, and punished.

What Conway and others have discovered is that high-scorers on the authoritarian scale are prevalent on the political left in addition to on the proper. They’ve been digging additional to attempt to perceive the authoritarian persona.

Authoritarians are inclined to show what Conway calls mental apathy. When given a barely difficult psychological train (having nothing to do with politics), they have an inclination to reply rapidly, with out the endurance for locating the proper reply. They’ve cognitive rigidity.

  • Excessive-rigidity individuals ignore proof and rational argument; as an alternative, they concentrate on lazy, quick-and-easy heuristics which might be functionally irrelevant to the argument itself. p. 54

Conway argues that mental apathy and cognitive rigidity are contagious to some extent. A few of that is unconscious imitation. Nevertheless, it additionally may be as a result of authoritarian repression of dissent. Folks simply come to just accept that it’s unsuitable to query established narratives.

  • Why do you have to trouble listening to your opponents’ arguments when you possibly can merely ignore them, realizing that they are going to be punished by an authority determine in the end? p. 59

One other authoritarian attribute is an obsession with misinformation. Conway attributes this to an incapacity to deal with ambiguity. In apply, many points, similar to whether or not COVID got here from a lab leak or arose naturally, are contestable. Freedom of speech is important to ensure that individuals to have an opportunity to reach at one of the best approximation of the reality. Somebody who can’t tolerate ambiguity reacts to contestable conditions by making an attempt to close down opposing views, labeling them as misinformation.

  • Authoritarians actually, actually dislike uncertainty. The don’t like ambiguous concepts; they don’t like ambiguous poems; heck they don’t even like ambiguous footage. p. 85

Conway cites a research that confirmed that individuals on both the political left or the political proper who’ve a low tolerance for uncertainty reply to political debate in a extra polarized vogue. One other research, which regarded on the extent to which individuals admitted to “combined emotions” a couple of subject, discovered that liberals have been really much less possible than conservatives to manifest ambivalence.

He factors out that individuals who can’t tolerate uncertainty aren’t solely illiberal of what they understand to be misinformation. They’re extra liable to imagine misinformation themselves.

Conway argues that one other attribute of authoritarians is the usage of double requirements. They overlook authoritarian conduct on their very own aspect whereas accusing the “different” aspect of authoritarianism for lesser transgressions.

One other attribute of authoritarians is what Conway calls simplicity.

  • We did a linguistic evaluation of over 6,000 individuals ourselves utilizing many alternative linguistic variables, and for each left- and right-wingers, easy language was probably the most constant predictors of authoritarianism. p. 128

What to do about authoritarianism? Conway says that the plain reply is to struggle mental apathy, intolerance of ambiguity, and different traits of the authoritarian.

He argues that many individuals, maybe most, are neither strongly authoritarian nor anti-authoritarian. Sadly, these moderates usually discover it simpler to associate with authoritarians somewhat than take them on. I’m wondering if moderates who’re unwilling to face up for professors with unpopular viewpoints allow the unconventional authoritarianism that one finds on school campuses right this moment.

Conway says that resistance to authoritarianism may be self-defeating if it takes on authoritarian varieties. I believe that this was proven within the late phases of the U.S. Presidential election of 2024, which came about a number of months after his guide appeared. In October, each side made statements that sounded authoritarian to the opposite aspect.

Conway asks,

  • Would you like the non permanent satisfaction of crushing you enemies or would you like your kids to develop up in a free society? As a result of in the end, you can’t have each. p. 239

In his last chapter, Conway presents a set of six rules for combating authoritarianism. These rules, similar to “win gracefully,” struck me as imprecise and basic.

What I used to be ready for was a option to apply the insights of persona psychology. If authoritarianism is one thing that’s ingrained in somebody’s persona, then that means that to stay free we’ve to make a decided effort to establish and fend off the authoritarians.

Conway appears to lean within the path of believing that authoritarianism arises in individuals based mostly on social context. In that case, then how can we information individuals away from mental apathy, intolerance for ambiguity, and tribal double requirements? It appears to me that this was once the perform of schooling, particularly greater schooling. That realm is the place issues have gone badly unsuitable, and the place we have to focus if we’re to sort things.

Footnotes

[1] Luke Conway, Liberal Bullies: What Psychology Teaches Us In regards to the Left’s Authoritarian Downside—and How you can Repair It. Pitchstone Publishing, 2024.

[2] Fifteen years in the past, Jonah Goldberg wrote Liberal Fascism, wherein he identified that within the Twenties liberalism and fascism resembled each other. Conway appears to be unaware of Goldberg’s guide. Arguably, Goldberg foresaw the attraction of progressive ideology to somebody with an authoritarian persona. You might be welcome to return and browse my evaluate, though it isn’t considered one of which I’m significantly proud. Out there on-line by the Wayback Archive, from TCS Every day, January 23, 2008.