... Rush Limbaugh decades ago, reminded daily of the supposed "evils" of liberalism.
Now the allegiance to their group prevents too
much critical-thinking, or they risk ostracizing themselves from their group identity which was ingrained within them long ago.
Right-wing authoritarians:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarian_personality
(Partial text)
RWAs are extremely submissive even to authority figures who are dishonest, corrupt, and inept. They will insist that their leaders are honest, caring, and competent, dismissing any evidence to the contrary as either false or inconsequential. They believe that the authorities have the right to make their own decisions, even if that includes breaking the rules that they impose on everyone else...
Difficulty judging evidence
Right-wing authoritarians have trouble deciding what facts are valid or irrelevant, and making logical deductions. Consider the following syllogism:
All fish live in the sea.
Sharks live in the sea.
Therefore, sharks are fish.
Although the conclusion of the syllogism happens to be correct, the reasoning before it is incorrect. Sharks are indeed fish, but not because they happen to live in the sea. Whales also live in the sea, and some fish live in rivers and lakes. Right-wing authoritarians are far more likely to incorrectly judge the above syllogism to be correct. Because they liked the conclusion, they assume that the reasoning that led it was correct.
Dogmatism
Authoritarians tend to hold stubbornly to their beliefs even when presented with evidence that suggests their beliefs are wrong. This is particularly true concerning beliefs that underpin the identity of the group. If anything, when confronted with contradictory evidence, their beliefs are often reinforced.
Compartmentalized thinking
The ideas in authoritarians' minds are poorly integrated. They tend to hold contradictory beliefs in their minds to a degree far greater than what is normal for humans. High-RWAs simply absorb ideas from their peers without thinking about how they fit together.
In one of his experiments, Bob Altemeyer presented his students a booklet which contained the following statements on different pages:
"When it comes to love, men and women with opposite points of view are attracted to each other."
"Birds of a feather flock together when it comes to love."
His students with authoritarian personalities were more likely to agree with both statements even though they are completely contradictory.
Their tendency to compartmentalize information makes it hard to change the cherished opinion of a high-RWA by telling them evidence that contradicts their beliefs. They will ignore the contradiction even if they accept the evidence as factual.
Notes
According to Altemeyer, the above-mentioned reasoning flaws prevalent among authoritarians are all connected to their instinct to not think for themselves but to absorb their beliefs from their group, with particular deference to what the leader tells them to believe. If they are to absorb whatever they're taught, they must not think critically about the logic of what they're taught. A person who can think critically can achieve sustainable beliefs as they come closer to the truth, but an unthinking authoritarian can only achieve sustainable beliefs if they stubbornly stick to what they were taught no matter what outsiders tell them.
Ignorance
Altemeyer has observed that authoritarians are often very ignorant when it comes to both general knowledge and current events.
Lack of self-awareness
Authoritarians tend to be lacking in general knowledge, particularly on issues with which they disagree.
Authoritarians also are often unaware of just how different they are from most people. They tend to believe they are very average. Altemeyer has found that authoritarians in America underestimate how prejudiced and conformist they are compared to the majority of Americans. Altemeyer has also observed that when he lectures about the psychology of right-wing authoritarians to his students, the RWA students in his class fail to recognize themselves in his description. Altemeyer believes the tendency of authoritarians to avoid anyone who isn't like them reinforces their belief that they are normal. They have relatively little contact with normal people.
They strongly supported the fascist, Trump:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-2016-authoritarian-213533/
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