Authoritarians, and the Suckers Who Follow Them
Comment, July 1961 by Gore Vidal. On Ayn Rand, Vidal says:This odd little woman is attempting to give a moral sanction to greed and self interest, and to pull it off she must at times indulge in purest Orwellian newspeak of the “freedom is slavery” sort.
Revolt of the Rich by Mike Lofgren, The American Conservative, August 27, 2012.[T]he super-rich have achieved escape velocity from the gravitational pull of the very society they rule over. They have seceded from America.
Marxism of the Right by Robert Locke, The American Conservative, March 14, 2005.
How Pedophiles Con People by Rod Dreher, The American Conservative, July 13, 2012. Applies to the psychos controlling conservative political groups, the GOP, tea party and libertarians included.
The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer.This book was written in 2006, halfway through George W. Bush’s second term as president. A great deal was wrong with America then, and I thought the research on authoritarian personalities could explain a lot of it. Since then a new administration has been elected, and although it has had to deal with a very serious economic crisis brought on by others, it is taking steps to correct some of what is wrong.
However, the forces that largely caused the problems have remained on the scene, and are more active today than ever before. As I try to show in the “Comment on the Tea Party Movement” (link to the left), the research findings in this book apply at least as strongly to America today as they did four years ago. Indeed, the events of 2009 and 2010 have confirmed conclusion after conclusion in The Authoritarians. I wrote in 2006 that the authoritarians in America were not going to go away if they lost the 2008 election, that they would be infuriated if a new president tried to carry out his mandate. That has certainly been the case.
If you check the “hit counter” on this page, you’ll see that this site has been visited nearly 300,000 times so far. The feedback I’ve gotten from those who have read The Authoritarians enables me to give you the major reason why you might want to do so too. “It ties things together for me,” people have said, “You can see how so many things all fit together.” “It explains the things about conservatives that didn’t make any sense to me,” others have commented. And the one that always brings a smile to my face, “Now at last I understand my brother-in-law” (or grandmother, uncle, woman in my car pool, Congressman, etc.).
Maybe it’ll work that way for you too.
Revolt of the Rich by Mike Lofgren, The American Conservative, August 27, 2012.[T]he super-rich have achieved escape velocity from the gravitational pull of the very society they rule over. They have seceded from America.
Marxism of the Right by Robert Locke, The American Conservative, March 14, 2005.
How Pedophiles Con People by Rod Dreher, The American Conservative, July 13, 2012. Applies to the psychos controlling conservative political groups, the GOP, tea party and libertarians included.
The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer.This book was written in 2006, halfway through George W. Bush’s second term as president. A great deal was wrong with America then, and I thought the research on authoritarian personalities could explain a lot of it. Since then a new administration has been elected, and although it has had to deal with a very serious economic crisis brought on by others, it is taking steps to correct some of what is wrong.
However, the forces that largely caused the problems have remained on the scene, and are more active today than ever before. As I try to show in the “Comment on the Tea Party Movement” (link to the left), the research findings in this book apply at least as strongly to America today as they did four years ago. Indeed, the events of 2009 and 2010 have confirmed conclusion after conclusion in The Authoritarians. I wrote in 2006 that the authoritarians in America were not going to go away if they lost the 2008 election, that they would be infuriated if a new president tried to carry out his mandate. That has certainly been the case.
If you check the “hit counter” on this page, you’ll see that this site has been visited nearly 300,000 times so far. The feedback I’ve gotten from those who have read The Authoritarians enables me to give you the major reason why you might want to do so too. “It ties things together for me,” people have said, “You can see how so many things all fit together.” “It explains the things about conservatives that didn’t make any sense to me,” others have commented. And the one that always brings a smile to my face, “Now at last I understand my brother-in-law” (or grandmother, uncle, woman in my car pool, Congressman, etc.).
Maybe it’ll work that way for you too.