This post by my old pal Pastor Dan from yesterday is worth thinking about.
Because as everyone knows, if you want to be widely read, the time to post is the day before a major holiday, I want to share some thoughts on this terrific (long) essay be @karen_stenner:
Stenner is a political psychologist studying authoritarianism, and as such, she provides what not many sources on the subject do: insight into the *why* of authoritariansim.
According to Stenner, about 30% of all people have personalities that are predisposed to authoritarianism. She says that seems to be the case across cultures, and importantly, those traits are found on *both* the right *and* the left.
One of Stenner’s studies found that about 14% of left-wingers in the EU have an authoritarian bent, compared to 19% of right-wingers. According to her, it’s about the same in the US. We’ll come back to this point.
So what are these authoritarian traits? Basically, it’s a need for “oneness and sameness.” Authoritarians want everyone everywhere to be singing from the same hymnal.
I think this is why so many older church people are so nostalgic for the “good old days” of the 1950’s and 60’s, when things were much more conformist.
This does indeed play out in racism, but Stenner argues that it’s actually bigger than that: it’s what she calls “difference-ism,” an inability to accept diversity and difference.
If you’ve ever lived in a small town or a rural area, you know exactly what she’s talking about. Some folks don’t like *anybody* who’s too different from them.
The important point, of course, is that this is exactly the opposite direction of the one global society is moving in. Diversity and difference and the celebration of such are becoming a bigger part of social life.
Stenner says that shift in society has essentially exceeded authoritarians’ ability to cope. I don’t think she mentions it, but I’m sure the post-2008 financial crisis didn’t do wonders on this score, either.
Last point of summary, and then we’ll move into some application. Stenner says “authoritarians concern themselves obsessively with…’normative order,'” in other words, the “common authority and shared values” that create a unified society.
This is why authoritarians often rally around religious and nationalistic symbols such as the cross or the flag: they’re meant to express a common “us” bringing people together.
But it works in other ways too. If you stop to listen to the way some leftists talk about economic equality, you quickly realize that “the 99%” embodies what are supposed to be shared values of the community over and against the “them” in the 1%.
I should say *often* embodies, not everyone on the left does this, but you catch my drift.
Whoops, sorry, one more thing to understand. Authoritarianism and conservatism are not the same thing. Conservatives want things to change slowly, authoritarians want everyone to be the same.
To give a concrete example, I’m a relatively conservative Democrat in that I don’t think it’s necessary to burn the party or the government to the ground for the sake of reform. I prefer gradual change. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But I’m *not* an authoritarian in that it doesn’t bother me that my daughter is bi, and I don’t mind living in racially diverse neighborhoods. As a matter of fact, where I live now is too damn white.
Stenner is careful to make this distinction first because it helps us understand some of the gradations of the GOP and conservatism: there is in fact a difference between establishment Republicans and Trumpers.
But it also helps explain some of the apparent contradictions of the Trump era. Small-state conservatives dislike government handouts, Stenner says, but authoritarians don’t mind them a bit, as long as they go to “us” and not “them.”
Likewise, tradcons want to change things slowly, but authoritarians are just fine on fast, even revolutionary, change. The idiots walking around with assault rifles are an extreme example of this feature.
I hope it’s starting to become clear how well this framework fits the current moment. Again, according to Stenner, authoritarians are ordinarily quiet, community-minded folks who can be activated by threats to perceived norms and by strong leaders who offer protection from same.
This fits well with my experience. Rural/working-class church folks are some of the most supportive members of their communities. They take care of their own and expect their churches to do the same. Woe betide you though if they get the idea that you’re not behind them 110%.
This is why you see the “We back the blue” signs way out in the countryside where the last time anyone challenged the cops, they were hauling moonshine across the county line.
There’s not actually a threat to police authority in rural Wisconsin or wherever. But BLM and other protests against police violence is a perceived threat to (racialized) social norms, and therefore must be vigorously contested.
It’s also why we see small towns and rural areas turning on their public health leaders:
Embracing mask mandates is for many stepping out against the community and its norms. Irrational, but there it is.
We could on all day with this—it really is a rich framework—but let’s focus in on just a few more applications.
One is that because about 1/3 of any given society has these authoritarian tendencies—which again, cut across left/right lines—democracies are under constant threat, and as we’ve seen America is certainly no exception to that rule.
As Stenner points out, Trump made hay in 2016 with self-described *liberals* who perceived threats to social norms. 49% who saw low or mild threats went for Trump, and *66%* of those who saw high threat.
So it doesn’t take much of a coalition to push authoritarianism to the front, especially in a counter-majoritarian system like ours.
Fortunately for us, it doesn’t seem to happen that often. It takes the right circumstances and the right strongman. Doesn’t mean there’s no reason for concern, but typically, it doesn’t all come together.
Originally tweeted by Daniel Schultz (@pastordan) on December 31, 2020.
It doesn’t happen often. But what we’re seeing with this monumental temper tantrum over the election, endorsed by the mainstream GOP, is basically a “stab in the back” myth in the making. Traditionally, that hasn’t gone well.
Do not take your eyes off of this phenomenon. It never happens cleanly in one fell swoop. It happens over time and then all at once. Hitler’s Beer Hall putsch was in 1923. He came to power ten years later.