"Jack of all trades, master of some
Jack of one trade, connector of none"
The story of how Cambridge Analytica used social media to sway the results of Brexit and the Trump campaign. Democracy is now for sale.
Facebook is monetizing social discord by selling our information -- without consent -- to the highest bidder. Oh, and it's bad for your mental health.
Perhaps the entire pretext of my website is to relieve liberals of the faulty premise, "What we need is to teach all those backwards rednecks how to think straight!"
It's just not how it works: "Education seems to increase, rather than mitigate, the Perception Gap (just as increased education has found to track with increased ideological prejudice). College education results in an especially distorted view of Republicans among liberals in particular."
The only relevant question of the thinking person. If you're looking for a clear explanation behind the Trump cult, this is where you start. Altemeyer is the preeminent sociologist on the topic. He brought RWA to the mainstream over 2 decades ago. He is constantly updating his website to reflect current events and forewarns of looming dangers on the horizon.
Good science is nothing if not predictive and reliable. Written in 2016, Altemeyer accurately forewarns of what is to come.
Altemeyer's research on RWA (Lite Version from WAPO)
Erich Fromm, the German psychologist, humanist, and social theorist, coined the term, Authoritarian.
"What defines the essence of the authoritarian personality is an inability: the inability to rely on one’s self, to be independent, to put it in other words: to endure freedom".
The emotional feedback loop shared between Trump and his supporters does indeed seem to create a perfect breeding ground for political co-dependence.
From Wikipedia. Why not? They do an incredible job of breaking it down including addressing the (somewhat forced) concept of Left-Wing Authoritarianism (LWA).
Couldn't have said it better myself...
Deeper down the rabbit hole of moral foundations.
Though slightly off-topic, the plight of the Flat-Earther is the perfect expose into the futility of reasoning with the unreasonable.
FMRI Brain-scans confirm that the role of fear limits our ability to update beliefs. The illustrious, Sam Harris is in on this one.
Right-wing authoritarianism is negatively related to belief updating.
Physical safety promotes socially (but not economically) progressive attitudes among conservatives
From the self-aggrandizing sex addict himself, on the power of "love", of all things.
Absolutely poignant, relevant, and incisive critique on the DNC and it's hypocritical cancel-culture tribal rhetoric.
"They're the party that disappears people and tries to make them apologize for ridiculous things."
A breath of fresh air from Bill and deceptively unifying.
Analyzing Trump's support from many nuanced angles, including fMRI brain scans
Hate Inc., Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another
The battlecry of the Politically Homeless (this says it all)
The same thrust as my blog, but in eloquent prose. Arlie is courageous, thoughtful, careful, and her timing couldn't be better. The underlying emotional "story" of the American Right illuminates the need to break down walls of empathy.
"Compassion, not Capitulation", is my favorite line.
