Moral inversion and the rise of authoritarian sympathy

Ideologies that claim to be anti-oppressive, like antizionism and far-left progressivism, say they fight for the oppressed and against the violation of universal human rights.

We put these claims to the test, by asking 1270 Americans to assess the human rights records of democracies and authoritarian regimes, and take a battery of psychological tests.

The results were striking. Study link and highlights in 🧵 We found a cluster of associations, all correlated with each other, that predicted moral inversion: "a pattern in which the perceived human-rights standing of Western democratic states declines relative to that of authoritarian regimes"

The cluster included antizionism, generic antisemitism, endorsement of both antisemitic Soviet imagery and Hitler quotes (taken directly from Mein Kampf) directed against Israel, and left-wing "progressive" authoritarianism.

The same pattern appears over and over - green lines (ratings of democracies) decrease and red lines (ratings of authoritarian regimes) increase as scores go up for each variable in the cluster. At the high end of each variable, Israel is viewed as worse than North Korea!