Quote of the Day

A high [right-wing authoritarian] can have all sorts of illogical, self-contradictory and widely refuted ideas rattling around in various boxes in his brain, and never notice it. . . .

Research reveals that authoritarian followers drive through life under the influence of impaired thinking a lot more than most people do, exhibiting sloppy reasoning, highly compartmentalized beliefs, double standards, hypocrisy, self-blindness, a profound ethnocentrism, and -- to top it all off -- a ferocious dogmatism that makes it unlikely anyone could ever change their minds with evidence or logic. - Professor of Psychology Bob Altemeyer, in his book The Authoritarians

The link is to his book, that you can read in pdf format in it's entirety.

Certainly, I don't expect any of the Loon Brigade would read it - and that is by definition. The patterns they display, and Doug is the poster child, are exactly as the author describes. A significant part of the authoritarian mentality is the out-of-hand rejection of that which demonstrates they really are not in control of their own thought processes. It's a big part of the fun I have with them, in demonstrating their hypocrisy and self-contradiction, while observing their fear based agression.

Besides.. the book is "science", and we all know that science has a well-known liberal bias.

So a right-wing authoritarian follower doesn’t necessarily have conservative political views. Instead he’s someone who readily submits to the established authorities in society, attacks others in their name, and is highly conventional. It’s an aspect of his personality, not a description of his politics. Rightwing authoritarianism is a personality trait, like being characteristically bashful or happy or grumpy or dopey.

They literally cannot help it, and they don't even know it because it's a personality trait - not a concious choice.

And remember this, you can't convince me otherwise. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong. - Douglas V. Gibbs

via Greenwald, who reveals the principles in action.