ActRight

Satire For The Right. And The Wrong.

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New ABC News/Ipsos poll finds consensus on problems in the treatment of African Americans by police

Just after the Second World War, the philosopher Theodor Adorno was puzzled by why so many of his fellow Germans had participated in mass murder. Adorno suspected some people had personality traits that predisposed them to bow to authority figures and kick down people they thought were below them. To test his theories, Adorno joined forces with social psychologists working at the University of California, Berkeley. Together they undertook a large-scale study of the psychology of authoritarianism. The research team eventually identified an "authoritarian personality type". These are people who adhere to traditional values, readily submitted to authority figures within their group and are aggressive to people who violate "traditional values". The results of this research were published in 1950 in The Authoritarian Personality. Adorno and his colleagues' work sparked off decades of social psychological research on the topic. Probably the most well know is the University of Manitoba’s Bob Altemeyer studies on "right-wing authoritarianism". Altemeyer found that right-wing authoritarians are submissive to authority figures in their society, tend to become aggressive in the name of those authority figures and hold very conventional views. They strongly agreed with statements such as, "The established authorities generally turn out to be right about things, while radicals and protestors are usually just 'loud mouths' showing off their ignorance." They would strongly disagree with statements such as, “Everyone should have their own lifestyle, religious beliefs, and sexual preferences, even if it makes them different from everyone else." While Altemeyer looked at authoritarians on the right, other researchers pointed out there were also authoritarians on the left. In 1954, the sociologist Edward Shils wrote that left-wing authoritarians created "spurious sibling relationship of comradeliness with their fellow members of the party". They also engaged in "exploitation and manipulation of comrades, especially new recruits" which was "covered with expressions of solidarity". A systematic study in 1983 found that about half of authoritarians had left-wing political views. A decade late, Altemeyer surveyed more than 2,500 Canadians. Out of his entire sample, he didn’t find a single person who fitted the profile of a left-wing authoritarian. Altemeyer concluded that the left-wing authoritarian is like "the Loch Ness Monster: an occasional shadow, but no monster". Nearly 25 years after Altemeyer failed to find any left-wing authoritarians, Thomas Costello, a graduate student at Emory University in the US, has tried again and come back with some different results. Costello and his team used standard psychological procedures to developed a new test for identifying people with "left-wing authoritarian" personality types. They identified some tell-tale signs of left-wing authoritarians: They believe people in power should be punished and the existing order should be violently overthrown. They see people with opposing political views as inherently immoral and prefer to be surrounded by people who share their values. They think the government or other institutions should forcefully stop people from sharing views they find abhorrent. Left-wing authoritarians, in Costello's research, typically strongly agree with the following statements: the rich should be stripped of their belongs and status; deep-down just about all conservatives are racist, sexist and homophobic; classrooms can be safe spaces that protect students from the discussion of harmful ideas. Costello’s team also wanted to understand whether left-wing authoritarians behave in a different way to the rest of the population. Using a simple game, they found left-wing authoritarians were much more likely to punish others who held opposing political beliefs and favour people who shared their beliefs. Other researchers have noticed left-wing authoritarians tend to reject mainstream political institutions. A study of 13 Eastern European countries led by Utrecht University’s Sabrina de Regt found that left-wing authoritarians were more distrustful of democratic institutions than their fellow citizens. Christopher Federico of the University of Minnesota looked at left-wing authoritarians in Western Europe and the US. With his team he found left-wing authoritarians were more likely to absent themselves from mainstream politics. More recently Bristol University’s Paula Surridge has found that a mixture of left-wing economic values and authoritarian social values influences how people vote. Looking at data since 2015, she found people with traditional left-wing economic values (who agreed with statements such as, "there is one law for the rich and one for the poor") and authoritarian value (who agreed with statements such as, "censorship is necessary to uphold moral values") were more likely to vote for right-wing parties than people with left-wing economic values and liberal social values. This was particularly true if they did not already identify with a political party. Although left-wing authoritarians might seem like the polar opposite of their right-wing authoritarian cousins, there is much they share. Using standard personality tests, Costello found that both left and right-wing authoritarians tended to be disagreeable, lacked intellectual humility, were not particular contentious and had a tendency to be mean. Where left and right-wing authoritarians differ is their attitude towards current society. While right-wing authoritarians fanatically support authority figures in power, their left-wing cousins fanatically oppose them. Costello and his team found that left-wing authoritarians were also more likely to be keen on political violence than their right-wing counterparts. The idea of left-wing authoritarianism continues to spark controversy. There are some, like Altemeyer, who think it is simply a myth. Surridge thinks it is mistake to see authoritarianism as part of someone’s personality. Labelling restrictions on harmful views in classrooms or the redistribution of wealth as "authoritarian" could also be seen as a gross confusion of terms. Of course, there are those who think that "authoritarian" means (such as the forced redistribution of wealth and status) are sometimes justified to create a fair world. Despite these criticisms, it is likely that the idea of left-wing authoritarianism will continue to play a decisive role in some of the most contentious political issues of our times. You can see how you score on the Right Wing Authoritarian scale, or on the Left Wing Authoritarian scale. André Spicer is professor of organisational behaviour at Cass Business School, City, University of London

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing for looters to be charged with bail-eligible crimes — after his sweeping bail reforms made that all but impossible.

Violence directed at cops is being ignored, and innocent victims aren't having their stories told when it won't fit the media's narrative. It has to end.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has told Trump officials behind closed doors that another round of fiscal stimulus from Congress could be just under $1 trillion.

Project Veritas exposed antifa tactics, in this case a "Fight Club" style training in New York City. Instructors advised a "crippling" kidney shot.

Trump confronted communist China, targeted its grand strategy, and put on notice its backers — for the betterment of America and other freedom-lovers.

As a wave of riots batter American cities — resulting in the arrest of thousands for looting, vandalism and violence — and with officials citing among the groups behind the riots Antifa, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas released a video that appears to show an undercover journalist infiltrating the far-left violence-embracing group. In the video, organizers […]

Somebody call the wahmbulance.

In the court of public opinion, perception decides whether an officer has exercised his powers prudently. The death of George Floyd is no exception.

Coming from the experts behind a shutdown that hit the black community especially hard, this is insulting and ludicrous.

Friday on CNN, host John King played a clip of a new interview between former Trump administration communications director Anthony Scaramucci and former chief of staff John Kelly. | Clips

In a letter to congressional colleagues, Libertarian Rep. Justin Amash (MI-3) said he'll be introducing a bill to do away with the law that protects police officers from being sued while doing their jobs.

nd just like that, social distancing is canceled. At least for some. After submitting to house arrest orders for the past three months in order to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, Americans may have noticed a slight change in the rules this past week. There are no duct-taped outlines on city streets telling …

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The same politicians who shut down businesses are now making value judgments on when and where one should be allowed to practice one’s freedoms.

Way to totally show you don't understand anything, AOC.

emerica is under siege by left-wing extremists and racial agitators. The lawless crowds have brutally beaten dozens of innocent people and destroyed the stores and homes of thousands. Police are doing their best to quell the crowds, but feckless leaders have kept them from doing their job and providing sufficient support. Many ordinary citizens are …

List: Thirteen DACA recipients who committed felonies.

Confidential report says Tehran continues to increase its stockpiles of enriched uranium and enriching beyond levels allowed under nuclear deal

Liberalism breeds its own destroyers, as evident in the scenes of mayhem in city after city run by liberals. The more purely liberalism has been applied in the

The left is eating itself. Watching conservatives stress over this baffles me. As the meme goes, Let them fight.

After months of forced quarantine, how are millions of U.S. citizens transitioning back into public life? One would imagine a gentle, controlled re-entry would