Jan 11, 2023·edited Jan 11, 2023Liked by Jacob Siegel
It's simultaneously funny and maddening to hear the "authoritarian personality" nonsense still repeated and echo all these years later, mostly among elite white liberals. After its use, overuse, and misuse in the 1950s and 60s by Richard Hofstadter et al., the concept was completely debunked by historians and sociologists in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. But you still hear echoes of it all these decades later, whenever you hear some figure, idea, or argument identified as "conservative" when the opposite is heard much less often -- or when the existence of PC/woke thought and speech control are denied outright -- or when the language of "right-wing extremism" is used.
It's a way of short-circuiting thought and critical examination of ideas, policies, and what's going on generally in society. The mere existence of figures like Kanye West and Nick Fuentes refutes the proposition by counterexample.
the academic idea market is putting its leftist head in the sand by being so removed from the realities of a big variety of people, those who aren't pulled in to the closed orbit created by the assumed gravity of 'higher than thou' education.
It's simultaneously funny and maddening to hear the "authoritarian personality" nonsense still repeated and echo all these years later, mostly among elite white liberals. After its use, overuse, and misuse in the 1950s and 60s by Richard Hofstadter et al., the concept was completely debunked by historians and sociologists in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. But you still hear echoes of it all these decades later, whenever you hear some figure, idea, or argument identified as "conservative" when the opposite is heard much less often -- or when the existence of PC/woke thought and speech control are denied outright -- or when the language of "right-wing extremism" is used.
It's a way of short-circuiting thought and critical examination of ideas, policies, and what's going on generally in society. The mere existence of figures like Kanye West and Nick Fuentes refutes the proposition by counterexample.
Oh wow thank you for the detailed response, Jacob.
I want to know more about the eels!
re Attitudinal Adjustments and ideology:
the academic idea market is putting its leftist head in the sand by being so removed from the realities of a big variety of people, those who aren't pulled in to the closed orbit created by the assumed gravity of 'higher than thou' education.