Reply #14: There is no reason. They just "know" that she's evil incarnate.

[pat_k]

"Reasoning" simply isn't an attribute of the authoritarian personality.¹ Right-wing reactionaries don't reason; they believe (which is why it is pointless to argue facts or logic with them²).

The authoritarian personality appears to be a basic type. "Non-authoritarians" who grow up in an isolated, homogenous world will tend to "get out" or "get along to go along," only questioning the haters when confronted with particularly egregious examples. Authoritarians who grow up in a multicultural world seek out and find safety in fundamentalist/fascist communities (e.g., a community of "ditto heads"; a fundamentalist religion; or a "conservative" town).

When someone in an authoritarian/fascist/fundamentalist community doesn't conform to their assigned role, hatred and repulsion are the means by which they are forced to conform (or at least shut up) or are driven out. As for the various ethnic groups "out there," who knows what they might be up to? What frightening "foreign" ideas they might bring? Hatred is the means by which they are "kept out."

There are so many threats to the security of their safe little world. They are hateful because there are so many things and people to hate (be frighted of). They don't need reasons. They just need something to say. And they are fed those "somethings" by their peers and "leaders."

Hillary haters hate Hillary for the same reason they hate black and brown people, people of different religions, homosexuals, feminists, or anyone who subscribes to a belief system that threatens their world view. But unlike the threats that are close to home -- threats they can usually drive out with "run of the mill" hatred -- Hillary was a heretical "first lady." She's trying to "take over." Despite the intensity of their hatred and efforts to demonize her she refuses to "go away."

What we need to "get" is that authoritarians are only about 20-25% of the population. It doesn't matter if they hate Hillary. There is no rational reason to take issue with. Stop worrying out them. Ignore them. Dismiss them. Their fantasies don't belong in the "marketplace of ideas." Reject their assertions out of hand. If we engage/argue/defend we validate them. They are followers. When "everybody knows that's crap" then they'll "know it" too, even if they "knew" the opposite yesterday.

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1. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2681291&mesg_id=2681323">belief people v. knowledge people and http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2681291&mesg_id=2682633">how to deal with them more effectively.


2. Countdown, July 10, 2006
   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13816491
   
   DEAN: I ran into a massive study that had really been going on for 50 years now, by academics. They‘ve never really shared this with the general public. It‘s a remarkable analysis of the authoritarian personality, both those who are inclined to follow leaders, and those who jump in front and want to be the leaders. . .
   
   OLBERMANN: Does it really—do the studies indicate that it really has anything to do with the political point of view? Is it—would it be easier to essentially superimpose authoritarianism over the right than it would the left? Or is it theoretically possible that they could they have gone in either direction, and it‘s just a question of people who like to follow other people?
   
   DEAN: They found—they have found really—maybe a small, 1 percent of the left, who follow authoritarianism, probably the far left. But as far as widespread testing, it is just overwhelmingly our conservative orientation.
   
   OLBERMANN: There is an extraordinary amount of academic work that you quote in the book. A lot of it is very unsettling. It deals with psychological principles that are frightening and that may have faced other nations at other times, in Germany and Italy in the ‘30s coming to mind in particular. . .
   
   DEAN: The lead researcher in this field told me, he said, I look at the numbers in the United States, and I see about 23 percent of the population who are pure right-wing authoritarian followers. They‘re not going to change. They‘re going to march over the cliff. The best thing to deal with them—and they‘re growing. And they have tremendous influence on Republican politics. The best thing, the best defense is understanding them, to realize what they‘re doing, how they‘re doing it, and how they operate. Then it can be kept in perspective, then they can be seen for what they are. . .