This is a comment by MikeH on the post “The Demise of the Far-Right Conservative White Guy“.
MikeH said:
“It’s actually not that hard to define a ‘far-right conservative white guy’ at all.
“First, most easily, he’s white. Duh.
“Second, he’s liable to score high on an assessment of his authoritarian tendencies.
“Third, he’s three for three on the Big G issues: God, guns, and gays.
“Number two is the big one, the one from which the others flow. I’d strongly suggest anyone interested in understanding this—or anyone who thinks ‘the left is the same, only different’—to read Bob Altemeyer’s work ‘The Authoritarians’. It’s the findings of about 20 years of research he’s done into why people are the way they are when a person in power tells them to do (or believe) something.”
Photo credit: Flickr / Debs (ò‿ó)♪
On authoritarianism, I’d suggest reading Theodor Adorno’s (et alliae) postwar book on the authoritarian personality instead. It’s one of the few things Adorno wrote that I can stomach. One of the key points is that authoritarian personalities try to control others sexually. Nothing about guns.
I think the suit and tie photo is a bit off -a john deer hat would be more apt.
I’m a well-armed liberal (in many ways a liberal.) The attitude does not stem from guns. It is partly due to masculinist hierarchies, sure. But it’s also due to the Dems deserting labor and rural people since seventies in favor of culture-only type issues. Globalization has wrecked the country, and the Dems did nothing to block it.