File Under "Duh, But Proof Is Always Nice....."

By Number Six

Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 04:00 PM

I love bits like this, really. Neat story with former Nixon White Slum counsel John Dean........

The study he mentions says as follows:

DEAN: I ran into a massive study that has really been going on 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. It was not the opinion of social scientists. It was information they drew by questioning large numbers of people -- hundreds of thousands of people -- in anonymous testing where [the subjects] conceded their innermost feelings and reactions to things. And it came out that most of these people were pre-qualified to be conservatives and this, did indeed, fit with the authoritarian personality.

Authoritarian personality? Pretty term for a sheepie kind of person, y'know, criticizes libs, gays, whatever....so long as another kind of "authoritarian" type stands up and tells them to. Tells them what? Why, whatever they need to be told to think.

Sort of explains a lot, eh? From Constantine's bullying the early sheepies around with the new-and-improved Holy Bible (which he helped design, of course, as the old saw goes, where there are rules, must have a ruler, right?), to later on, as he mentions, the paranoia we suffered for the many years of The Cold War.

I am one of those who hate those who attempt to categorize "certain persons" into "certain groups" based on, well, crappy data, such as the infamous The Bell Curve, stuff like that. It's tantamount to a kind of racism-based-on-data, which never worked, sadly.

Yet, the sad part is, there are really those who, like it or not, can be categorized as "authoritarian personailities". One drive through the Deep South is a dead giveaway: The confederate flags a-waving, the endless John 3:16 decals, and of course, the empty-headed rhetoric that always.....always....ALWAYS...sounds like it was first processed through the lips of Rush/Anne/Michelle/Mike/Sean/Rove/RNC.

(Which is why I refuse, as always, to engage in any debate that sounds exactly like any of the above-mentioned: Don't have an opinion of your own? Screw you. Sideways. My pleasure.)

Too, Dean does point out: Finding a cure ain't gonna happen, as sheepies have existed since that day that Ogg stood up and declared that the volcano wanted virgins and the crowd went "ooooo!". A few, of course, wrinkled their brows.

But, as he points out, they are out there, some 23 percent of the populace, and yes, dear Virginia, it does explain what I've come to call "fucking dumbass facist followers". Perhaps, with a change to come, we can get them some meds. Or maybe not.

Or, as has happened past, we will revolt anyways. Nyahh.