Thread by @j2dumfounded

This document on authoritarians and how they are swayed makes for a fascinating read. I’d like to pull out a few tidbits, compare them to the approach Cambridge Analytica used, and make some inferences for the future in this thread.

“Authoritarianism is substantially heritable and mostly determined by lack of “openness to experience.””

It is driven by aversion to complexity.

Compare this to the OCEAN characteristics identified by Cambridge Analytica. The four major groupings into which they place their target audiences all share high levels of Neuroticism AND are very low on Openness.

So almost everyone CA wanted to reach is likely to have authoritarian tendencies, with the exception of the Wildcard psychographic, and that’s just a small portion of their audience.

Authoritarians are fine when they don’t face what Stenner calls “normative threats.” But when they feel insecure about something, they are more likely to be triggered.

For example if you tell authoritarians that Hillary Clinton is a member of global elite and go on to share disinformation about the Clinton Foundation or Uranium One, they are likely to feel threatened.

When liberals celebrate diversity, authoritarians feel threatened. They value oneness and sameness. This explains why Trump’s targeting of immigration and Muslims, the “othering” of people who are different from the group, proves so effective.

The idea of an open society is scary to authoritarians. That’s why George Soros is such a great punching bag for the rightwing punditry — his foundation is actually named the Open Society.

Let’s think back. In order to maximize turnout, political advertising (including microtargeting on Facebook) requires that authoritarians feel threatened. So if it’s not the Clinton Foundation, or immigrants, it’s going to be CRT or any flavor of the day. Fear must be created.

These people are not going away.

We must find ways to communicate with them that helps authoritarians to feel society is safe, that help unify. We can’t make them think like liberals and share our values. We can’t vilify them for who they are.

I think @HeidiHeitkamp makes a good point, that Democrats are not communicating the right way.

We know the #ShadowNetwork people will stir up 💩 7 ways to Sunday. We need to find talking points that will address their disinformation AND find ways to unify. It’s a tall order.

Here’s a more recent article from Dr. Stenner whose work informs this thread.

You don’t go France and get by without a soupçon of French.

We must speak to authoritarians using the language they understand:

• Strength
• Dignity
• Honor
• Respect

“If one side of politics is making them feel perpetually panicked, and the other is conveying a reassuring message of oneness and seamless – united against a common foe – some portion of those authoritarians might comfortably transfer their devotion to the new normative order.”

“We must keep in mind that authoritarians are better able to tolerate racial and ethnic diversity if we increase, by whatever means possible, the appearance and feeling of oneness and sameness.”

Tweeps I will attempt to post some good resources, later.

Off to see a wizard IRL, ciao.