Academia IGNORED Left Wing Authoritarianism

Left wing authoritarianism is real, we see this clearly in the rise of groups like Antifa and BLM that are not afraid to violently advance their ideologies, yet since the 1950's academia has largely ignored the possibility of left wing authoritarianism. This is a large part of why our institutions let these groups get away with as much as they have. In a stable society the right wing calls out their authoritarians and the left wing calls out theirs and we all behave like adults. The vacuum in self reflection left by the left's refusal to acknowledge the presence of radicals in their ranks has led to many bad effects. Luckily some researchers are working diligently to remedy how the academy addresses authoritarianism. Hopefully it isn't too little too late.

The Experts Somehow Overlooked Authoritarians on the Left Sally Satel The Atlantic (Good on them for publishing this)

Donald Trump’s rise to power generated a flood of media coverage and academic research on authoritarianism—or at least the kind of authoritarianism that exists on the political right. Over the past several years, some researchers have theorized that Trump couldn’t have won in 2016 without support from Americans who deplore political compromise and want leaders to rule with a strong hand. Although right-wing authoritarianism is well documented, social psychologists do not all agree that a leftist version even exists. In February 2020, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology held a symposium called “Is Left-Wing Authoritarianism Real? Evidence on Both Sides of the Debate.”

An ambitious new study on the subject by the Emory University researcher Thomas H. Costello and five colleagues should settle the question. It proposes a rigorous new measure of antidemocratic attitudes on the left. And, by drawing on a survey of 7,258 adults, Costello’s team firmly establishes that such attitudes exist on both sides of the American electorate. (One co-author on the paper, I should note, was Costello’s adviser, the late Scott Lilienfeld—with whom I wrote a 2013 book and numerous articles.) Intriguingly, the researchers found some common traits between left-wing and right-wing authoritarians, including a “preference for social uniformity, prejudice towards different others, willingness to wield group authority to coerce behavior, cognitive rigidity, aggression and punitiveness towards perceived enemies, outsized concern for hierarchy, and moral absolutism.”

Published last month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Costello team’s paper is persuasive, to the point that you have to wonder: How could past researchers have overlooked left-wing authoritarianism for so long? “For 70 years, the lore in the social sciences has been that a ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIeuU_z82jc