Right Wing Authoritarianism - An in-depth look into a strange psychological phenomenon

[SoCalbound12]

Originally Posted by brattpowered

I happened upon a link to Wikipedia's page on Right Wing Authoritarianism:

Right-wing authoritarianism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is quite an interesting read, and sheds a lot of light on what is going on in our country and the mental processes of a lot of so-called "conservatives." This mental condition is based on three characteristics: Authoritarian submission (submission to established authorities), authoritarian aggression (general aggressiveness toward "deviants"), and conventionalism (a high degree of adherence to social norms).

Among other factors, RWAs can be identified as people who are ethnocentric, highly nationalistic, say they value freedom but actually work toward undermining the Bill of Rights, support capital punishment, oppose abortion, do not value equality very highly and oppose measures to increase it, and are not likely to rise in the Democratic party, but do so among Republicans.

As a minarchist/voluntarist/libertarian I have no love for authoritarianism of any stripe. I do not want to live under the boot heel of government oppression and I care not whether the boot is the left or right one. However I take a great deal of issue with "do not value equality highly and oppose measures to increase it." That's just a sorry excuse to label anyone who doesn't support endless government spending, womb to the tomb entitlements, and the nanny state a "Nazi." I care only for equality of opportunity but equality of results, which is what you're talking about, is an impossibility and obsession with equality of results leads to left wing authoritarianism.

[mateo45]

Originally Posted by NorthGAbound12

As a minarchist/voluntarist/libertarian I have no love for authoritarianism of any stripe. I do not want to live under the boot heel of government oppression and I care not whether the boot is the left or right one. However I take a great deal of issue with "do not value equality highly and oppose measures to increase it." That's just a sorry excuse to label anyone who doesn't support endless government spending, womb to the tomb entitlements, and the nanny state a "Nazi." I care only for equality of opportunity but equality of results, which is what you're talking about, is an impossibility and obsession with equality of results leads to left wing authoritarianism.

Agreed re: "equality of results". But seems to me there still needs to be some moderating factors, otherwise aren't you basically just describing yourself as a "social Darwinist" (aka, "survival of the fittest and devil take the hindmost")? And BTW, if so, isn't that really just saying that the strongest always deserve to be in control?