Thread by @LDBildy

Thread about viruses & tyrants:

1. This study proves a relationship between the threat of infectious disease & individuals' authoritarian tendencies.

People respond to a threat of disease with "functionally adaptive shifts in cognition & behaviour."

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

2. As the sort of person who is sensitive to the "madness of crowds," I tend to observe from the outside with some fascination. This shift in cognition to more authoritarian tendencies has been quite evident in our fellow citizens who turn to snitch lines to report on neighbors.

3. It can be seen in the way people have rallied around a consensus viewpoint on the merits of lockdowns, & shamed those who questioned that approach. It's there in the demands that others be confined, masked & punished for any breach (even when it can't possibly cause harm).

4. Some (not all) police and bylaw officers have forgotten their community-policing roots and have become petty tyrants, with many citizens cheering them on.

I get that a crisis causes a desire to act in the "common good", & that some threats do require pulling together.

5. But, as the study goes on to show, this individual-level authoritarianism shapes political systems, rather than political systems shaping individual attitudes.

In other words, our response to this virus could reshape our society in ways that may be hard to shake later.

6. A great price has been paid for liberties we enjoyed just two months ago & we need to be aware of (and guard against) our own human tendencies toward authoritarianism in a crisis, or the consequences for individual rights, civil liberties, & political freedoms could be dire.

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