Thread by @clearing_fog

These overly-simplified takes are driving me crazy.

This is not directed at Mr. Shaub, whom I have a great deal of respect for, but at the underlying data and news outlets.

This idea that one specific demographic is authoritarian is missing the forest for the trees...

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https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1264975985822359555

While it is true that *currently* the demographic that tends to authoritarianism is intolerant white people, the fact is that a number of people in *any* demographic can express an affinity for authoritarian leadership.

This is neither defense nor semantics.

It’s important..
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because if we ascribe what is happening simply to the demographic, we are going to miss what helped bring it about in the first place.

Authoritarianism, in a certain percentage of *any* population, is a natural (latent) human reaction to certain environmental factors...

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There is a body of research supporting this.

In any given population, there is a subset of the population (let’s call it 25% for simplicity, although that isn’t the actual number) whose natural response to certain stimuli is to seek strong authority and leadership.

So why...
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would we be seeing a certain demographic group be primarily expressing this tendency, above all others?

Because something is “triggering” that latent tendency, almost in a fight-or-flight fashion, in that demographic.

So what is it that triggers these tendencies?

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In basic terms, a significant number of people react this way and seek strong authoritarian leadership when there is an existential threat that needs to be defended against.

As an evolutionary adaptation, it makes sense - it turns pluribus into unum; it’s how armies work.

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The entire reason that authoritarianism as a governing model is bad, is because it takes advantage of this perfectly natural human instinct - it short circuits rational thought in a certain segment of the population, and results in relinquishing individual power to authority.

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So the question we need to be asking ourselves is not simply which group of people we can label as “authoritarians,” as a way to explain what group is responsible for the inexplicable support that we see of Donald trump right now.

We need to ask why *that* group is triggered.
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If 25-35% of the US population is susceptible to authoritarian tendencies when threatened - in all demographics - then why are we currently only seeing it switched on in what we see as intolerant white people?

If this were truly a culture war, wouldn’t “both sides” do this?

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Here is my observation - some based on reading and research, but much of it also admittedly anecdotal:

If you talk to “intolerant white men,” you’ll find that they aren’t all just racist - their intolerance isn’t uniform or targeted to a specific group.

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Some are intolerant to people of color. Some are intolerant to women. Some are (more recently) intolerant to trans people. Some are intolerant of all the “out groups,” some only one or two.

But there is one common thread that is always there...

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They believe that they are in a “culture war.”

They believe that a war is being waged *against them.*

Why would they think that?

It’s easy to be dismissive and blame them; to say they’re all just racist, or sexist.

But they didn’t all just imagine this idea on their own.

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Here is something to think about.

There are millions of 40 year olds in this country who, by the time they were 6 years old, were hearing about a culture war being waged against them.

They were hearing about this evil “other” - corrupt, permissive, pathetic, moral decay.
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As young kids, they rode around in the car with their parents, and on the radio they heard they were in a battle to “save western civilization” from 12-year-olds having babies, and 17 year olds dying of AIDS, and 18 yo’s not being able to read their own diplomas.

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By the time they were old enough to have their first job, they very likely worked for someone who thought this way - and aggressively discussed it, especially after a couple of drinks.

And the higher they climbed, the more likely it became that their superiors did this too.
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There are some ideas that are literally designed - with whiteboards and psych studies - to make people hate and fear each other.

And ideas like that, in the hands of those who hunger for power, can become a framework, evolving to target any group for political expedience.

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For many of the people who have been in one of these “out groups” over the years, it was already clear that what we are seeing today isn’t new - it is only different in terms of degree.

It is a culmination - a distillation - of a philosophy where the ends justify the means.

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How does all this explain our current situation?

You can see that at some point - arguably as far back as Nixon, but clearly in the Gingrich days - the GOP became desperate to continue to be a winning party.

A win at all costs philosophy embraced questionable actors. And...
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Gingrich delivered. He found a way to unite libertarians, social conservatives, and other groups of course, but the core of the strategy to win was much simpler: “psychologically manipulate voters to hate and fear the (nebulous) Democratic agenda.”

From that point forward...
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any initiative Democrats supported, that the GOP donor base opposed, had to be cast in these morally repugnant terms.

The words they use to describe Dem/progressive policies are psychologically relevant; they drive hate, fear, disgust, and other base emotional reactions.

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We can also make connections between Gingrich’s GOPAC project and the gradual “dumbing down” of GOP candidates that we see today, and how that also further welcomed bad elements into the party (including criminals), but returning back to the original topic...

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it is clear to see that, over time, these tactics have led both to a combative narrative against anything that liberals/secularists support (including race/gender issues), and also to turning all of those issues into fronts in a “culture war.”

With that being the case...
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is it any wonder that we have a group of intolerant white people, almost exclusively in the GOP base, who have reverted, fight-or-flight style, to looking for a strong authoritarian leader because they feel like they are being attacked?

Nope. This is literally by design.
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