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Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers
MP3 CD Format How did America end up with a leader who acts so crudely and despotically, and counter to our democratic principles? Why do his followers stick with him, even when he acts against their interests?
To fully understand, John Dean, a man with a history of standing up to autocratic presidents, joins with Bob Altemeyer, a psychology professor with a unique area of authoritarianism.
Together, using psychological diagnostic tools, as well as exclusive research and analysis from the Monmouth University Polling Institute—one of America's most respected public opinion research foundations—the authors provide us with an eye-opening understanding of the Trump phenomenon . . . and what we may be able to do to stop it.
To fully understand, John Dean, a man with a history of standing up to autocratic presidents, joins with Bob Altemeyer, a psychology professor with a unique area of authoritarianism.
Together, using psychological diagnostic tools, as well as exclusive research and analysis from the Monmouth University Polling Institute—one of America's most respected public opinion research foundations—the authors provide us with an eye-opening understanding of the Trump phenomenon . . . and what we may be able to do to stop it.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published August 25, 2020
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About the author
John W. Dean
27books121followersJohn W. Dean served as White House Counsel for United States President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. In this position, he became deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglaries and the subsequent Watergate scandal cover-up. He was referred to as the "master manipulator of the cover-up" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He pleaded guilty to a single felony count, in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution. This ultimately resulted in a reduced prison sentence, which he served at Fort Holabird outside Baltimore, Maryland.
Dean is currently an author, columnist, and commentator on contemporary politics, strongly critical of conservatism and the Republican Party, and is a registered Independent who supported the efforts to impeach President George W. Bush.
Dean is currently an author, columnist, and commentator on contemporary politics, strongly critical of conservatism and the Republican Party, and is a registered Independent who supported the efforts to impeach President George W. Bush.
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May 3, 2023
“The old GOP does not exist anymore. It’s gone the way of the old Whig party. But, rather, it's now a party of populists and nationalists devoted to Trump.�
-Steve Bannon
===========
They all knew....
“It is not necessary that people be wicked, but only that they be spineless.�
� James Baldwin
=============
Why Trump followers see themselves in Trump....
=============
Commentary on the article above from a GR connection....
The 'wounded narcissism' angle in particular strikes me as very important. Trumpist America, especially its Boomers, feel defrauded by the world at large. They were 'promised' wealth, status and at the very least that they would have automatic authority over women and 'the colored' simply by the fact that they are white and (usually) middle class. Now, they find themselves unable to say slurs in public, forced to recognise that women are actual human beings who will compete with them in the workplace as well as when it comes to discussing ideas...and 'the colored' will not just be quiet and take it.
There's a lot more to it but this is very likely one of the most potent factors: when was America 'great'? 'The good ole' days," when these people had a say on how things got done in America...AND NO ONE ELSE. Hence, 'make America great again'. The 'again' is crucial and immediately slides the meaning of 'great' into 'white' because that is the history of the States.
=================
From the book....
Believe it or not, this is based on a real story. It was part of a Trump rant against Elizabeth Warren that was documented in the WP (link below). What is added by the authors is an attempt to get inside the heads of Trump's followers who stood up and clapped, and what it tells us about them......
Imagine that you are a seventeen-year-old who thinks Donald Trump is the greatest president of all time, and you went to West Palm Beach, Florida, to attend the Turning Point USA Conference on December 19� 22, 2019, an annual event staged to increase enthusiasm among conservative youth. President Trump is speaking to the audience, and he has brought up (for ridicule) a liberal plan involving wind power for dealing with climate change. And he says whimsically: “We’ll have an economy based on wind. I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. I’ve studied it better than anybody. I know it’s very expensive. They’re made in China and Germany mostly� very few made here, almost none. But they’re manufactured tremendous� if you’re into this� tremendous fumes. Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So, the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount [sic] of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint� fumes are spewing into the air. Right? Spewing. Whether it’s in China, Germany, it’s going into the air. It’s our air, their air, everything� right? So, they make these things and then they put them up.�
An eerie hush has fallen over the audience, which, a minute before, was cheering everything Trump said. It was as if a minister had stopped his sermon on the Faithful Centurion to shout out the names of the twelve tribes of Israel and then proceeded to explain where Samaria came from. No one knew what was going on, it was all terribly embarrassing, and everybody just froze. Trump went on to criticize windmills some more, especially because they kill birds. It’s against the law to kill a bald eagle, he says, but windmills kill them all the time.
What are you going to do now? You have discovered the emperor has no clothes, that your leader not only has feet of clay, but a head of lead. He sounds like Grandpa jabbering away, making no sense at all anymore. Welcome to the most wrenching discovery of your life. And it is not fake news. You saw and felt it happen. Everybody did. Eventually Trump stopped talking, and for an instant no one did anything. Then people in the audience started standing and clapping. For all you knew these were “plants,� put there in pure Trumpian style to make sure the president got a standing ovation. But as others around you rose to their feet,you quickly stood up too. You would not want to look less enthusiastic than everybody else. And that was how you handled the crisis in your confidence. Everyone just pretended “it� never happened.
What does this cost you? You cannot just disconnect a piece of reality and have everything fit together perfectly again. But beyond that, you are both a liar and a fool who makes himself believe the lie. You are stealing from your self-worth coming and going. The dogmatism of a true believer springs from a deep, self-inflicted wound.
Dean, John W.; Altemeyer, Bob (2020-08-25). Authoritarian Nightmare (p. 168). Melville House. Kindle Edition.
==========
-Steve Bannon
===========
They all knew....
“It is not necessary that people be wicked, but only that they be spineless.�
� James Baldwin
=============
Why Trump followers see themselves in Trump....
=============
Commentary on the article above from a GR connection....
The 'wounded narcissism' angle in particular strikes me as very important. Trumpist America, especially its Boomers, feel defrauded by the world at large. They were 'promised' wealth, status and at the very least that they would have automatic authority over women and 'the colored' simply by the fact that they are white and (usually) middle class. Now, they find themselves unable to say slurs in public, forced to recognise that women are actual human beings who will compete with them in the workplace as well as when it comes to discussing ideas...and 'the colored' will not just be quiet and take it.
There's a lot more to it but this is very likely one of the most potent factors: when was America 'great'? 'The good ole' days," when these people had a say on how things got done in America...AND NO ONE ELSE. Hence, 'make America great again'. The 'again' is crucial and immediately slides the meaning of 'great' into 'white' because that is the history of the States.
=================
From the book....
Believe it or not, this is based on a real story. It was part of a Trump rant against Elizabeth Warren that was documented in the WP (link below). What is added by the authors is an attempt to get inside the heads of Trump's followers who stood up and clapped, and what it tells us about them......
Imagine that you are a seventeen-year-old who thinks Donald Trump is the greatest president of all time, and you went to West Palm Beach, Florida, to attend the Turning Point USA Conference on December 19� 22, 2019, an annual event staged to increase enthusiasm among conservative youth. President Trump is speaking to the audience, and he has brought up (for ridicule) a liberal plan involving wind power for dealing with climate change. And he says whimsically: “We’ll have an economy based on wind. I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. I’ve studied it better than anybody. I know it’s very expensive. They’re made in China and Germany mostly� very few made here, almost none. But they’re manufactured tremendous� if you’re into this� tremendous fumes. Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So, the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount [sic] of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint� fumes are spewing into the air. Right? Spewing. Whether it’s in China, Germany, it’s going into the air. It’s our air, their air, everything� right? So, they make these things and then they put them up.�
An eerie hush has fallen over the audience, which, a minute before, was cheering everything Trump said. It was as if a minister had stopped his sermon on the Faithful Centurion to shout out the names of the twelve tribes of Israel and then proceeded to explain where Samaria came from. No one knew what was going on, it was all terribly embarrassing, and everybody just froze. Trump went on to criticize windmills some more, especially because they kill birds. It’s against the law to kill a bald eagle, he says, but windmills kill them all the time.
What are you going to do now? You have discovered the emperor has no clothes, that your leader not only has feet of clay, but a head of lead. He sounds like Grandpa jabbering away, making no sense at all anymore. Welcome to the most wrenching discovery of your life. And it is not fake news. You saw and felt it happen. Everybody did. Eventually Trump stopped talking, and for an instant no one did anything. Then people in the audience started standing and clapping. For all you knew these were “plants,� put there in pure Trumpian style to make sure the president got a standing ovation. But as others around you rose to their feet,you quickly stood up too. You would not want to look less enthusiastic than everybody else. And that was how you handled the crisis in your confidence. Everyone just pretended “it� never happened.
What does this cost you? You cannot just disconnect a piece of reality and have everything fit together perfectly again. But beyond that, you are both a liar and a fool who makes himself believe the lie. You are stealing from your self-worth coming and going. The dogmatism of a true believer springs from a deep, self-inflicted wound.
Dean, John W.; Altemeyer, Bob (2020-08-25). Authoritarian Nightmare (p. 168). Melville House. Kindle Edition.
==========
January 7, 2021
It felt surreal to be reading this book today, January 6, 2021, while a mob of Trump supporters was storming the Capitol to overthrow the results of the presidential election. The authors of the book had presciently concluded that �...Trump could get strong support from his base to stay in power even if he made an obviously false claim of electoral wrongdoing.� Given the accuracy of that statement, we had better pay attention to the rest of their conclusions. Not only is Trump an authoritarian, but so are his supporters.
I’ve read a few books about the pathology and disfunction of Trump and his disastrous actions. There may be disagreement on the actual diagnosis of his mental illness, possibly because he displays so many symptoms. However I keep searching for a book that will explain his followers since they are a larger problem for America. After Trump is finally gone, those people who clung to him will still be with us. The next demagogue they vote for might be saner, smarter and less ignorant than Trump. The country could not survive that. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of opportunities to study the followers of authoritarians; “how they are created, where they are concentrated, how they think, why they are so easily led, why they are so aggressive and even a lot that they do not know about themselves.� The book uses this body of research. One of the authors has been studying authoritarians for decades.
The beginning chapters of the book cover biographical details about Trump which have been written about elsewhere. Everyone should know by now that he is a bully, fraud and con man. The authors describe 5 specific failures: incessant lying, inability to think straight, reliance on his intuition, his demand for loyalty and his growing aggressiveness. The rest of the book breaks authoritarians into three groups. Social dominators believe in inequality between groups, they believe their groups should be more prestigious and powerful and want to dominate others. Authoritarian followers are submissive, fearful and looking for a strong leader to protect them from all threats. They divide the world into friends and foes. Their ethnocentrism is often based on religious training and they are self righteous. There is also a small third group comprised of people who fall into both categories and they are very scary people. I felt like I was back in psych class.
Social dominators are proud of their discriminatory attitudes. They are full of grievances and Trump liberated them by voicing what they had been thinking all along. And he was a white male, how perfect! Followers are a larger group that exhibits a high degree of submission to established leaders, a high levels of aggression in the name of these authorities and a high level of conventionalism insisting others follow the norms. They have a lot of fear and a dominating authoritarian like Trump is very appealing when you are looking for a great leader who is bold, decisive and strong. It’s easy to get authoritarians on your side by reinforcing their prejudices and fears.
The book didn’t really help me understand why some people tilt so far on the authoritarian scale or how to coax them away from the dark side. I don’t think it will work to just tell people that their psychological makeup is going to destroy democracy, because they really don’t care. The Constitution is meaningless to them. I guess I have to keep looking for another book.
I’ve read a few books about the pathology and disfunction of Trump and his disastrous actions. There may be disagreement on the actual diagnosis of his mental illness, possibly because he displays so many symptoms. However I keep searching for a book that will explain his followers since they are a larger problem for America. After Trump is finally gone, those people who clung to him will still be with us. The next demagogue they vote for might be saner, smarter and less ignorant than Trump. The country could not survive that. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of opportunities to study the followers of authoritarians; “how they are created, where they are concentrated, how they think, why they are so easily led, why they are so aggressive and even a lot that they do not know about themselves.� The book uses this body of research. One of the authors has been studying authoritarians for decades.
The beginning chapters of the book cover biographical details about Trump which have been written about elsewhere. Everyone should know by now that he is a bully, fraud and con man. The authors describe 5 specific failures: incessant lying, inability to think straight, reliance on his intuition, his demand for loyalty and his growing aggressiveness. The rest of the book breaks authoritarians into three groups. Social dominators believe in inequality between groups, they believe their groups should be more prestigious and powerful and want to dominate others. Authoritarian followers are submissive, fearful and looking for a strong leader to protect them from all threats. They divide the world into friends and foes. Their ethnocentrism is often based on religious training and they are self righteous. There is also a small third group comprised of people who fall into both categories and they are very scary people. I felt like I was back in psych class.
Social dominators are proud of their discriminatory attitudes. They are full of grievances and Trump liberated them by voicing what they had been thinking all along. And he was a white male, how perfect! Followers are a larger group that exhibits a high degree of submission to established leaders, a high levels of aggression in the name of these authorities and a high level of conventionalism insisting others follow the norms. They have a lot of fear and a dominating authoritarian like Trump is very appealing when you are looking for a great leader who is bold, decisive and strong. It’s easy to get authoritarians on your side by reinforcing their prejudices and fears.
The book didn’t really help me understand why some people tilt so far on the authoritarian scale or how to coax them away from the dark side. I don’t think it will work to just tell people that their psychological makeup is going to destroy democracy, because they really don’t care. The Constitution is meaningless to them. I guess I have to keep looking for another book.
May 26, 2021
This book builds on John Dean’s 2006 work: where he outlines something like a Myers- Briggs grid to predict political affiliation. This takes a deeper dive into those who, with a different set of parameters test into the Right-Wing-Authoritarian � RWA- category.
To form the research pool of RWAs, potential subjects show their agreement or disagreement by rating from +4 to -4 with statements such as
-“Winning is not the first thing; It is the only thing.�
-“I like other people to be afraid of me.�
-“I will do anything to destroy anyone who deliberately blocks my plans and goals.�
Another set of ratings covered statements such as:
-“There really is no such thing as “right� or “wrong�. It boils down to what you can get away with.�
-“One of the most useful skills a person can develop is to look someone in the eye and lie.�
While these statements sound influenced by Donald Trump, they were developed in 1996 but it is not surprising that they reliably predict Trump and his voters.
The first group of questions rank subjects into what is casually called the “Power Mad� Scale, the second “The Con Man� Scale. Both reliably correlate with those who accept authoritarianism. Those with high scores on both scales often have separate studies with disturbing results.
Research on the RWA’s shows why they, despite all the contrary evidence, believe that Trump cares about them, is a Christian, always tells the truth, etc.
The studies show a high level of loyalty results from group bonding (families and friends are authoritarians too), compartmentalized thinking, and racism. Wearing MAGA hats and yelling at rallies helps bond with strangers and promote a feeling that the world agrees with them. They note that children in authoritarian families might be punished for having views not shared by the parents. As adults there can be high costs for breaking away.
The correlation that came as the biggest surprise to me was that those high on the Power Mad Scale are more interested in following an authoritarian than in leading. It makes sense when you understand how many are raised to obey. Those high on the Con Man Scale want to lead. Less surprising, was that research validates the hypocrisy of the Evangelicals. Not at all surprising was the high correlation of both groups with racism. Interestingly those on the Power Mad Scale deny their racism, while those high on the Con Man Scale are proud of their racism.
One revealing study showing how these personalities play out in the real world had groups with high scorers (in 3 groups: Power Mad, Con Man and high on both) play a world negotiation game. As the theory predicts, the players, acting on their beliefs lead to world hunger, environmental damage and war� with the those scoring high on both scales producing worst outcome. The players in the Power Mad group had trouble finding leaders, and some of these teams turned to the women for leadership.
The first part of this book has a lot of material on Trump that will be known by most who choose this book. My advice is to stay with it since there are bits of research in this section that are later revisited. The book was written just before the 2020 election and Dean's predictions are accurate. Trump still has not conceded - there was an insurrection, not a peaceful transition of power. Dean has gives some ideas on how this might play out with a warning on the importance of informed voting.
The studies cited took place in both the US and Canada and results seem to be consistent. (I don't think they noted if the percentage of high RWAs is higher in the US than Canada. I browsed backward, but couldn't find anything.) I’m wondering if today’s young people, who are products of a high school curriculum which requires more critical thinking, will correlate as strongly as their elders.
There an Appendix and links to a web site with more Appendix material. No Index which would have been helpful several times.
I highly recommend this book for those who want to understand why the Trump supporters cannot face it that their guy is a lost the 2020 election.
To form the research pool of RWAs, potential subjects show their agreement or disagreement by rating from +4 to -4 with statements such as
-“Winning is not the first thing; It is the only thing.�
-“I like other people to be afraid of me.�
-“I will do anything to destroy anyone who deliberately blocks my plans and goals.�
Another set of ratings covered statements such as:
-“There really is no such thing as “right� or “wrong�. It boils down to what you can get away with.�
-“One of the most useful skills a person can develop is to look someone in the eye and lie.�
While these statements sound influenced by Donald Trump, they were developed in 1996 but it is not surprising that they reliably predict Trump and his voters.
The first group of questions rank subjects into what is casually called the “Power Mad� Scale, the second “The Con Man� Scale. Both reliably correlate with those who accept authoritarianism. Those with high scores on both scales often have separate studies with disturbing results.
Research on the RWA’s shows why they, despite all the contrary evidence, believe that Trump cares about them, is a Christian, always tells the truth, etc.
The studies show a high level of loyalty results from group bonding (families and friends are authoritarians too), compartmentalized thinking, and racism. Wearing MAGA hats and yelling at rallies helps bond with strangers and promote a feeling that the world agrees with them. They note that children in authoritarian families might be punished for having views not shared by the parents. As adults there can be high costs for breaking away.
The correlation that came as the biggest surprise to me was that those high on the Power Mad Scale are more interested in following an authoritarian than in leading. It makes sense when you understand how many are raised to obey. Those high on the Con Man Scale want to lead. Less surprising, was that research validates the hypocrisy of the Evangelicals. Not at all surprising was the high correlation of both groups with racism. Interestingly those on the Power Mad Scale deny their racism, while those high on the Con Man Scale are proud of their racism.
One revealing study showing how these personalities play out in the real world had groups with high scorers (in 3 groups: Power Mad, Con Man and high on both) play a world negotiation game. As the theory predicts, the players, acting on their beliefs lead to world hunger, environmental damage and war� with the those scoring high on both scales producing worst outcome. The players in the Power Mad group had trouble finding leaders, and some of these teams turned to the women for leadership.
The first part of this book has a lot of material on Trump that will be known by most who choose this book. My advice is to stay with it since there are bits of research in this section that are later revisited. The book was written just before the 2020 election and Dean's predictions are accurate. Trump still has not conceded - there was an insurrection, not a peaceful transition of power. Dean has gives some ideas on how this might play out with a warning on the importance of informed voting.
The studies cited took place in both the US and Canada and results seem to be consistent. (I don't think they noted if the percentage of high RWAs is higher in the US than Canada. I browsed backward, but couldn't find anything.) I’m wondering if today’s young people, who are products of a high school curriculum which requires more critical thinking, will correlate as strongly as their elders.
There an Appendix and links to a web site with more Appendix material. No Index which would have been helpful several times.
I highly recommend this book for those who want to understand why the Trump supporters cannot face it that their guy is a lost the 2020 election.
January 8, 2021
Excellent Look at Trump’s Base
John Dean brought together social scientists to take a look at Trump’s base supporters. They found Republicans rate very highly on the Authoritarian scale for Right Wing Authoritarianism. It comes with high level of prejudice, evangelicalism and a more severe category for both. Republicans who become law makers enjoy being the center of attention and being an authoritarian figure, but they also enjoy being subservient to an authoritarian if they’re close to the power and receive benefits from it. Trump supporters are even more extreme and ones who attend rallies are extremely racist and prejudice. They also are able to accept conflicting information coming from the authoritarian and reject messages that come from other sources. They choose information that correlates with their beliefs and refuse to examine those that don’t. Social groups are very important because the like minded people reaffirm their beliefs. They made claim high religiosity but haven’t read the Bible. They can turn violent if their leader is threatened or their beliefs. I think that pretty much sums up Trump voters and Republicans. But it was refreshing to have social science explain it more. I really appreciated this book.
John Dean brought together social scientists to take a look at Trump’s base supporters. They found Republicans rate very highly on the Authoritarian scale for Right Wing Authoritarianism. It comes with high level of prejudice, evangelicalism and a more severe category for both. Republicans who become law makers enjoy being the center of attention and being an authoritarian figure, but they also enjoy being subservient to an authoritarian if they’re close to the power and receive benefits from it. Trump supporters are even more extreme and ones who attend rallies are extremely racist and prejudice. They also are able to accept conflicting information coming from the authoritarian and reject messages that come from other sources. They choose information that correlates with their beliefs and refuse to examine those that don’t. Social groups are very important because the like minded people reaffirm their beliefs. They made claim high religiosity but haven’t read the Bible. They can turn violent if their leader is threatened or their beliefs. I think that pretty much sums up Trump voters and Republicans. But it was refreshing to have social science explain it more. I really appreciated this book.
February 10, 2024
Trump is an adjudicated rapist who falsely claims he won the last election, climate change is a Chinese hoax, covid is just a flu, and that the FBI with the deep state and antifa enabled January 6; Trump and the MAGA gullible clearly have an unhealthy relationship with reality. If in doubt of the falsity of those Trump and his MAGA supporters� false beliefs, consult Wikipedia.
I was led to this book from Tim Alberta’s latest book The Kingdom, The Power, The Glory: American Evangelicals in the Age of Extremism. Alberta sees Trump for the rot that he is while blaming the churches and the flock as manipulated sheep in their complicity. I thought this book would answer the question why do 80% of white evangelicals support a man who has such an unhealthy relationship with reality, but this book doesn’t directly.
I recently finished the third volume of Aquinas� Summa Theologia and that book gave me more insight than this book to why white Evangelicals at an 80% level support Trump than this book did. Aquinas surprisingly supports an evangelical more than a Catholic’s world view in the third volume. For Aquinas, man needs God’s grace to save us from Aquinas� make-believe category of Sin and absolute universal necessary and certain truths guarantees this for the evangelicals through fear from a promised eternal punishment in an afterlife.
Religion has three components: beliefs, behavior, and belonging. The belonging component contributes to what these authors call ‘social dominator authoritarians,� since all belonging groups have groups not included and those not part of their clique are outsiders. The cohesion within evangelicals is clearly rigidly enforced in as much as they would say all non-members are going to hell, Catholics tend not to for example. Evangelicals definitionally are right and all else are wrong. The evangelical belief as instilled by the third volume of Aquinas� Summa Thelogia would. Oddly, for me Aquinas� first two volumes did not do that.
The second of the two major categories this book used was ‘right wing authoritarians.� By ‘right� I think they meant absolute, or at least that’s how I thought about it. Trump’s white evangelical supporters tend to hate gays (or they would say, ‘hate the sin, love the sinner�) and they tend to be certain that Gays are going to hell and it is a Sin, now they have moved off homosexuals because it no longer works, and they focus on transexual as not being part of their binary certainties about the world. Fear of imaginary Sin motivates them and Trump stokes their fears.
Overall, this book was written for its time just before the last presidential election and it doesn’t really hold up that well today after the adjudicated rapist, election denier, January 6 conspiracy creator, vaccine denier and at times incoherent babbler is losing his Svengali sway on those who want to believe in absurdities and conspiracies. White evangelical Christians don’t care about his raping or his absurdities since they know Sin is real and Trump promises to stoke their fears through his unhealthy relationship with the Truth. They have created Trump as much as Trump re-amplifies their fears, uncertainties, and doubts about preserving their beliefs, behavior and belonging.
I was led to this book from Tim Alberta’s latest book The Kingdom, The Power, The Glory: American Evangelicals in the Age of Extremism. Alberta sees Trump for the rot that he is while blaming the churches and the flock as manipulated sheep in their complicity. I thought this book would answer the question why do 80% of white evangelicals support a man who has such an unhealthy relationship with reality, but this book doesn’t directly.
I recently finished the third volume of Aquinas� Summa Theologia and that book gave me more insight than this book to why white Evangelicals at an 80% level support Trump than this book did. Aquinas surprisingly supports an evangelical more than a Catholic’s world view in the third volume. For Aquinas, man needs God’s grace to save us from Aquinas� make-believe category of Sin and absolute universal necessary and certain truths guarantees this for the evangelicals through fear from a promised eternal punishment in an afterlife.
Religion has three components: beliefs, behavior, and belonging. The belonging component contributes to what these authors call ‘social dominator authoritarians,� since all belonging groups have groups not included and those not part of their clique are outsiders. The cohesion within evangelicals is clearly rigidly enforced in as much as they would say all non-members are going to hell, Catholics tend not to for example. Evangelicals definitionally are right and all else are wrong. The evangelical belief as instilled by the third volume of Aquinas� Summa Thelogia would. Oddly, for me Aquinas� first two volumes did not do that.
The second of the two major categories this book used was ‘right wing authoritarians.� By ‘right� I think they meant absolute, or at least that’s how I thought about it. Trump’s white evangelical supporters tend to hate gays (or they would say, ‘hate the sin, love the sinner�) and they tend to be certain that Gays are going to hell and it is a Sin, now they have moved off homosexuals because it no longer works, and they focus on transexual as not being part of their binary certainties about the world. Fear of imaginary Sin motivates them and Trump stokes their fears.
Overall, this book was written for its time just before the last presidential election and it doesn’t really hold up that well today after the adjudicated rapist, election denier, January 6 conspiracy creator, vaccine denier and at times incoherent babbler is losing his Svengali sway on those who want to believe in absurdities and conspiracies. White evangelical Christians don’t care about his raping or his absurdities since they know Sin is real and Trump promises to stoke their fears through his unhealthy relationship with the Truth. They have created Trump as much as Trump re-amplifies their fears, uncertainties, and doubts about preserving their beliefs, behavior and belonging.
February 18, 2021
This book was pretty informative, but I simply got tired of reading about how bad Trump was. I dislike him intensely, never did like him, and I'm not surprised at anything he's done or does. And I don't think any of this will help me really understand the people who like him, or help me talk to them in any reasonable manner. We simply don't share a common set of facts or beliefs. So, I gave up.
November 18, 2023
Well organized (like a textbook) and, upon reflection, it reads a little bit like a textbook too.
And the message of the lesson, taught by the textbook, regarding Trump and His Followers, is this:
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.� (with apologies to George Carlin for using his quip).
4 Stars.
If only the Germans had a book like this before giving power to Hitler. If only Americans had learned anything about Hitler, as it appears history is repeating itself.
And the message of the lesson, taught by the textbook, regarding Trump and His Followers, is this:
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.� (with apologies to George Carlin for using his quip).
4 Stars.
If only the Germans had a book like this before giving power to Hitler. If only Americans had learned anything about Hitler, as it appears history is repeating itself.
July 28, 2024
Authoritarian nightmare�..
Crazy eh
NPR
Canadian CBC
The youth have to see they are the only hope for America
They are least likely to vote
And most likely to vote democrat.
Hopefully they're educated. But I'm not. So sure
Sadly the only people voting 🗳� are fitted in a puzzle piece 🧩 of four walled if your group doesn’t like your puzzle piece of republican than they ostracize you out. It’s considered if you speech out your opponent your alienated.
Kind of scary right now �
Its sophistry that’s going to bring authoritarianism sadly
And in September all will be said with out fact checking to keep up to it.
How do things get so whacky
And it won’t be fact checked � cause it’s how threatened one feels
Politics is saddening
Minimum of four walls is saying anything but tapping the underlining descriptions
Life of Pi is Canadian book 📕
Listen to CBC the life of pi was saying it was written by Canadian author . ✍️
Crazy eh
NPR
Canadian CBC
The youth have to see they are the only hope for America
They are least likely to vote
And most likely to vote democrat.
Hopefully they're educated. But I'm not. So sure
Sadly the only people voting 🗳� are fitted in a puzzle piece 🧩 of four walled if your group doesn’t like your puzzle piece of republican than they ostracize you out. It’s considered if you speech out your opponent your alienated.
Kind of scary right now �
Its sophistry that’s going to bring authoritarianism sadly
And in September all will be said with out fact checking to keep up to it.
How do things get so whacky
And it won’t be fact checked � cause it’s how threatened one feels
Politics is saddening
Minimum of four walls is saying anything but tapping the underlining descriptions
Life of Pi is Canadian book 📕
Listen to CBC the life of pi was saying it was written by Canadian author . ✍️
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
November 16, 2020I did not finish this one unfortunately. I was hoping to read something about the Trump presidency that was academic and objective, and I found Dean's constant verbal abuse of Trump and his followers a little tiring after a hundred pages. I don't disagree with his opinions about the latter but after a while of reading the same things over and over I grew weary.
Around page 180 I believe I got the gist of what Dean and Altemeyer's message was to the American public:
+Trump lacks empathy and care towards others, is self-involved and selfish, and most likely has serious issues concerning his self-image. All this may be due to his upbringing; his mother was not loving and his father was very strict, demanding perfection at all times.
+His followers can be defined as Right Wing Authoritarians, or those who submit to authority, follow blindly orders or statements without question, lack critical thinking skills and are aggressive towards those who challenge their view.
+Trump loyalists could also be described as Social Dominators, or persons who enjoy dominating (bullying) a group of people or individuals. They also tend to be prejudiced, nationalistic and aggressive.
I skimmed the remaining chapters and it looks like they focus on how the 2020 election could look like and what tactics Trump would use to win. I think its safe to say, at the time of me writing this, who our president will be for the next 4 years (SPOILER ALERT: NOT TRUMP).
Overall, what I managed to read was enough for me to get a clear picture of the thought process (or lack thereof) of Trump and his followers.
Around page 180 I believe I got the gist of what Dean and Altemeyer's message was to the American public:
+Trump lacks empathy and care towards others, is self-involved and selfish, and most likely has serious issues concerning his self-image. All this may be due to his upbringing; his mother was not loving and his father was very strict, demanding perfection at all times.
+His followers can be defined as Right Wing Authoritarians, or those who submit to authority, follow blindly orders or statements without question, lack critical thinking skills and are aggressive towards those who challenge their view.
+Trump loyalists could also be described as Social Dominators, or persons who enjoy dominating (bullying) a group of people or individuals. They also tend to be prejudiced, nationalistic and aggressive.
I skimmed the remaining chapters and it looks like they focus on how the 2020 election could look like and what tactics Trump would use to win. I think its safe to say, at the time of me writing this, who our president will be for the next 4 years (SPOILER ALERT: NOT TRUMP).
Overall, what I managed to read was enough for me to get a clear picture of the thought process (or lack thereof) of Trump and his followers.
September 24, 2024
Listened to on Audible and thoroughly enjoyed. The book was published in August 2020 and accurately predicted that if Trump lost the election, he would not give up power easily and even claim he won and that the election was rigged.
September 6, 2020
Bob Altemeyer was for decades a leader among the social psychologists investigating authoritarianism. When he retired from teaching, he wrote and published a book, The Authoritarians, that summed what his and others' research showed. Recently, John Dean persuaded Dr. Altemeyer to collaborate with him on a book, Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers, which applies that research to Donald Trump and more importantly to Trump's authoritarian followers. The chapters that summarize the research repeats what was in The Authoritarians, but with an interesting surprise: A major polling organization agreed to do a survey of US voters to update the research and to verify it that it applied to Trump supporters. The results are disheartening. Not only are Trump's authoritarian followers prepackaged to believe whatever Trump (or some other demagogue) tells them, but they are extremely dogmatic and unlikely to change their minds no matter how much evidence piles up. This book is an easy read. I highly recommend it to anyone who is not already familiar with the research into authoritarianism and social dominance. It explains why our democracy is in danger and why Trump supporters, including Republicans in Congress, slavishly support Mr. Trump no matter what he does.
September 25, 2020
I have never read a book which terrifies me as much as this one does. I used to think that management of conflict had three phases, facts, emotions and beliefs, and that if you could focus on facts, you could resolve most problems. This book taught me otherwise. Trump followers have certain characteristics outlined in this book which make it virtually impossible to reframe discussions, resolve issues and avoid conflicts. What terrifies me even more are three names, Pence Pompeo and Barr and the tremendous power they wield. Trump is a blank slate. They see him as the vehicle for the end of days. God help us. Even if Trump is gone after a single term, the book warns us that there is someone more intelligent, more sinister and more devious lurking in the shadows waiting to take over in the future. God help us. God help democracy. God help the world.
September 7, 2020
An incredibly well-written book. I feel that I not only understand Donald Trump better, but more importantly the inside story on his authoritarian followers and how they, and especially the double-highs, have brought us to the brink of disaster in our country. If only we could get them to see what they are doing before they foist another Trump on us. I see a civil war in the future and it saddens me.
October 21, 2020
I seriously scary, yet educational book to read. It is one that should be required reading in high school ....do they still call it civics? and college history classes.
Dean recounts much of what has already been reported about Donald Trump and how he is disregarded the constitution and the core beliefs of our democracy. Along with Bob Altemeyer, a retired professor of psychology, he delves into the psychological currents that led to Trump being the way he is. They describe the psychological tests and evaluations they base their theory on.
They then go on to discuss Trump's followers and that it is not that Trump himself is such a fabulous leader -- indeed they go into detail about why he is such a failed leader -- but that the people who follow him would follow anyone who told them what they want to hear. Dean warns readers throughout that even with Trump gone, his followers will not only look for the next authoritarian to lead them, but there is probably one who is actually smart who is waiting in the wings to step in to rule.
The ending of the book doesn't leave the reader with much hope for the future even if Trump is voted out of office. But the authors do encourage us to be vigilant and we might, as Franklin essentially said, keep our democracy.
Dean recounts much of what has already been reported about Donald Trump and how he is disregarded the constitution and the core beliefs of our democracy. Along with Bob Altemeyer, a retired professor of psychology, he delves into the psychological currents that led to Trump being the way he is. They describe the psychological tests and evaluations they base their theory on.
They then go on to discuss Trump's followers and that it is not that Trump himself is such a fabulous leader -- indeed they go into detail about why he is such a failed leader -- but that the people who follow him would follow anyone who told them what they want to hear. Dean warns readers throughout that even with Trump gone, his followers will not only look for the next authoritarian to lead them, but there is probably one who is actually smart who is waiting in the wings to step in to rule.
The ending of the book doesn't leave the reader with much hope for the future even if Trump is voted out of office. But the authors do encourage us to be vigilant and we might, as Franklin essentially said, keep our democracy.
November 30, 2020
Can't say enough about how well this book explains the psychology of authoritarian mentality; both of the leaders (social dominators) & followers (authoritarian followers) backed by decades of social psychological research.
We have a long & unstable poltical path in front of us with the millions of Americans who constitute this mentality. And it's not unique to America. Their argument is that this population underlies many nations & is what propels what propels despots & demagogues into power.
We have a long & unstable poltical path in front of us with the millions of Americans who constitute this mentality. And it's not unique to America. Their argument is that this population underlies many nations & is what propels what propels despots & demagogues into power.
September 10, 2020
If you support Trump you may not like this book.
The book was well written and makes a great case about Trumps Authoritarian intentions. This was one of the scariest books I have ever read.
The book was well written and makes a great case about Trumps Authoritarian intentions. This was one of the scariest books I have ever read.
December 2, 2020
Necessary reading: well constructed and very readable.
I purchased the ebook copy that I read.
I purchased the ebook copy that I read.
Read
September 17, 2020I did something I've only done for the second time. I returned this book. I got about 1/4 of the way done and it was so dry and so excruciatingly boring I simply had no choice. I originally picked it up as I'm fascinated in a train wreck kind of way by the cult that still actually believes and worships trump and I was hoping this book might give some kind of insight into why, after his negligence has resulted in the death of almost 200,000 people, why, when he can tell 2 lies in the same sentence, why, when he has divided a nation to the point where even wearing a mask to SAVE THE LIVES OF OTHERS and I could go on and on and on, that still has hold of these people.
I couldn't make it even to the cult of trump section of the book. It's boring with a huge, capital B and to read one more word than I did would become beyond painful. I found it the kind of book one reads when desperately tired and needs something to put them to sleep. But interesting???? A huge no to that one. I guess it will just have to remain a mystery to me.
I couldn't make it even to the cult of trump section of the book. It's boring with a huge, capital B and to read one more word than I did would become beyond painful. I found it the kind of book one reads when desperately tired and needs something to put them to sleep. But interesting???? A huge no to that one. I guess it will just have to remain a mystery to me.
September 25, 2020
As with any other book I have read on Trump, I feel sad and disheartened that so many people can be so willingly blinded into following the "Pied Piper" and also behaving badly themselves. The book basically rehashes his upbringing which explains a lot. Most of what Trump has done in the past can be found anywhere but there is more detail in this retelling. But the most interesting parts are of the psychological analysis of his personality. To see it in print is eye opening. To me it validated my personal opinion that he has no redeeming value what so ever, him or his family. I can only assume they were raised in the same fashion which is not admirable. This book made me start to wonder and really fearful, will we recognize these traits the next time we have someone running for office? I sincerely hope so.
October 3, 2021
In Authoritarian Nightmare, John Dean and Bob Altemeyer attempt to shed light on the answer to the question on the minds of decent, law-abiding people:
Who are the people who make up Trump’s base?
How can 40% of Americans support Trump as president, the leader of the free world, the most powerful person on Earth, while knowing he is a serial liar, tax cheat, deadbeat, adulterer, rapist, separator of parents from children, numbskull, and promoter of hatred for gays, minorities, and non-Christians?
Authors Dean and Altemeyer published this book before Biden was elected in November 2020. The final chapter predicts, accurately, the steps Trump would likely take to discredit an election should he be the loser-which he was.
What’s even more chilling, though, is that Trump went further than the mad tactics listed in the book and tried to overthrow the gov’t on Jan. 6, 2021.
Who are the people who make up Trump’s base?
How can 40% of Americans support Trump as president, the leader of the free world, the most powerful person on Earth, while knowing he is a serial liar, tax cheat, deadbeat, adulterer, rapist, separator of parents from children, numbskull, and promoter of hatred for gays, minorities, and non-Christians?
Authors Dean and Altemeyer published this book before Biden was elected in November 2020. The final chapter predicts, accurately, the steps Trump would likely take to discredit an election should he be the loser-which he was.
What’s even more chilling, though, is that Trump went further than the mad tactics listed in the book and tried to overthrow the gov’t on Jan. 6, 2021.
December 30, 2020
Dean certainly imbues the text with energy and urgency! In an appeal to save Democracy itself, Dean aims to inform readers that Trump's "mysterious" base is actually comprised of authoritarians. Most of the book seeks to define authoritarians and how those traits are sussed out by psychologists. At least, that's the content. The tone, however, lets us know that these authoritarians seek to destroy America's laws and democratic institutions and that This Is Evil. Regardless of your personal politics, that tone interfered with what should have been a thorough, weighty, social science show. It didn't help that the book was littered with typos. What else was lost to speed?
And that doesn't even address the snark. So. Much. Snark. In fact, I'd say many of students of snark will be satisfied for that reason alone. I was!
And that doesn't even address the snark. So. Much. Snark. In fact, I'd say many of students of snark will be satisfied for that reason alone. I was!
November 10, 2020
Everyone should read this book. The first half looks at Trump's presidency and his role as an authoritarian leader, and the second (larger) half, outlines the extensive research that been done on to understand authoritarian followers.
The book is well documented and not light reading, but I found it accessible. It's worth the time and effort to read, especially you've wondered what makes a person or a large segment of the population follow an authoritarian. This book will explain the research.
This is not a comfortable read. The research isn't encouraging, and by the end, I was more worried about our democracy than I was when I started it. It's an eye opener.
There were a few places where Dean gave some insight into changing the current maw that separates the political right and left, but those offerings are sparse. If anyone has read this and come away with insights I missed in this area, I'd love to hear from you.
The book is well documented and not light reading, but I found it accessible. It's worth the time and effort to read, especially you've wondered what makes a person or a large segment of the population follow an authoritarian. This book will explain the research.
This is not a comfortable read. The research isn't encouraging, and by the end, I was more worried about our democracy than I was when I started it. It's an eye opener.
There were a few places where Dean gave some insight into changing the current maw that separates the political right and left, but those offerings are sparse. If anyone has read this and come away with insights I missed in this area, I'd love to hear from you.
January 18, 2021
Not well written
One can easily skip the first four chapters of this book. Only chapters 5-8 are relevant to the title, specifically covering research into authoritarianism, both leaders and followers.
This book could have been so much more.
One can easily skip the first four chapters of this book. Only chapters 5-8 are relevant to the title, specifically covering research into authoritarianism, both leaders and followers.
This book could have been so much more.
January 25, 2021
It's eerie how accurate this book is. If you go to the authors' website, they wrote a follow-up blog post in October about what Trump would do if he lost. They basically got everything right about what did *actually* happen (deny the results, launch lawsuits based on nothing, spread a lie, and finally end with an armed insurrection).
December 7, 2020
I despise President Trump as a person, though I did reluctantly vote for him. (Though I voted against him in each primary.) Much of the criticism of Trump, in this book, is valid, but much is exaggerated and taken out of context. To be clear, the valid critiques show that President Trump is NOT a great leader of men or a good person. But this book is about more than the President. It is about authoritarian and dominating personalities that put him in power, and that apparently sustain the Republican Party. The author throws a very weak attempt at showing impartiality when he describes the Right Wing Athoritarian personality by stating that right wing is a description of tactics, and can just as easily include leftists. And he also cites President Lyndon Johnson as an authoritarian. However every other sentence in the book is structured to make it look like the problem of authoritarian and dominating personalities are synonyms for Republicans. It would have been more balanced, and I may have more faith in his work, if he had taken a more balanced view. There is plenty to criticize Trump for, and he rightly takes him to task for the horrible taunting and threatening of reporters and adversaries in the crowd. Violence is the Republican way, after all. Though stories of leftists leaving death threats to conservatives or Trump supporters go unreported and unanalyzed. Furthermore, he minimizes the violence that occurred over the past year by those on the left. He does cite a couple of cases where that violence was conducted by those on the extreme right, but if I didn't know better, after reading him, I would think that there was absolutely no violence, looting, shooting, arson, etc perpetrated by leftists. And he never explained the lack of violence of Tea Party demonstrators, who were probably mostly the dreaded Double High Authoritarians.
He also ties many legitimate view (pro-life, supply side economics, favoring the right to bear arms (he constantly chides President Trump for having no regard for the constitution), and viewing the USSR as bad, and the USA as good) to Right Wing Authoritarian personalities... which makes me wonder about the validity of the test that measures RWA. He also several times says conservatives are not for equality, without explaining what equality means. If it means equality of dignity, freedom, opportunity, every good American believes in that. But if it means equality of outcomes, anyone who respects the constitution has to be careful with such a concept. We certainly can and should mitigate inequalities of outcomes when we can, but we have to realize that every move we make towards that type of equality entails a certain loss of freedom.
I recently read Why Are We So Polarized, by Ezra Klein, and though the authors left leanings are evident there, it is fairly balanced and informative. I would heartily recommend that book to anyone interested in the psychology of modern politics.
He also ties many legitimate view (pro-life, supply side economics, favoring the right to bear arms (he constantly chides President Trump for having no regard for the constitution), and viewing the USSR as bad, and the USA as good) to Right Wing Authoritarian personalities... which makes me wonder about the validity of the test that measures RWA. He also several times says conservatives are not for equality, without explaining what equality means. If it means equality of dignity, freedom, opportunity, every good American believes in that. But if it means equality of outcomes, anyone who respects the constitution has to be careful with such a concept. We certainly can and should mitigate inequalities of outcomes when we can, but we have to realize that every move we make towards that type of equality entails a certain loss of freedom.
I recently read Why Are We So Polarized, by Ezra Klein, and though the authors left leanings are evident there, it is fairly balanced and informative. I would heartily recommend that book to anyone interested in the psychology of modern politics.
May 1, 2024
Despite getting bogged down in some staid information about various personality tests, Authoritarian Nightmare comes through by using that background to help frame their explanations of why Donald J Trump is an authoritarian and why some people eagerly follow him any way. (For kicks, take the tests; they're included in the appendices.)
And that's the question many of us have, after all: why would someone follow a man who claims to be a Christian (yet brags about assaulting women), purports to be a successful businessman (yet begs for money every chance he gets), and allegedly has committed various crimes for which he has been lawfully indicted. To some, he's a hero. To others, he's a whining braggart who is "all hat no cattle," at the very least.
What is it about him that makes people follow him? What is it about the followers that makes them follow him?
This is the question John Dean and Bob Altemeyer attempt to answer. In a conversation with friends the other day, one said, "What is it with people that they'll support Trump?" My response was to tell them to read this book.
There are authoritarians. And there are people who need to follow authoritarian leaders. Some of those people are authoritarians themselves, so they see traits in Trump they admire because they're essentially looking in a mirror. It's hard not to like someone--to follow their lead--if you see yourself in them.
But this is simplistic and doesn't begin to describe all Dean and Altemeyer manage to cover in their book. What is simple to explain is this: if you don't understand why people follow Donald Trump, if you don't understand why your arguments against him fall on deaf ears, you'll learn it's not because your argument is faulty or Trump's followers aren't as smart as you. The reason is much more nuanced, and much, much more frightening.
And that's the question many of us have, after all: why would someone follow a man who claims to be a Christian (yet brags about assaulting women), purports to be a successful businessman (yet begs for money every chance he gets), and allegedly has committed various crimes for which he has been lawfully indicted. To some, he's a hero. To others, he's a whining braggart who is "all hat no cattle," at the very least.
What is it about him that makes people follow him? What is it about the followers that makes them follow him?
This is the question John Dean and Bob Altemeyer attempt to answer. In a conversation with friends the other day, one said, "What is it with people that they'll support Trump?" My response was to tell them to read this book.
There are authoritarians. And there are people who need to follow authoritarian leaders. Some of those people are authoritarians themselves, so they see traits in Trump they admire because they're essentially looking in a mirror. It's hard not to like someone--to follow their lead--if you see yourself in them.
But this is simplistic and doesn't begin to describe all Dean and Altemeyer manage to cover in their book. What is simple to explain is this: if you don't understand why people follow Donald Trump, if you don't understand why your arguments against him fall on deaf ears, you'll learn it's not because your argument is faulty or Trump's followers aren't as smart as you. The reason is much more nuanced, and much, much more frightening.
September 13, 2020
Another week, another few Trump books. This one purports to describe ‘why he acts the way he does� and also includes his supporters in that assessment, all from a sociological viewpoint based on prior studies of authoritarians. I just didn’t find this as resonant or convincing as other books describing the various factors that have brought us to this sad state of affairs. It’s not without merit, but the studies cited feel a bit dated.
June 29, 2022
A thorough look at a dismal subject. At times the writing has an incredulous quality that was faintly grating; the former president is a known quantity, even when specifics On the psychology of Donald Trump: he's dangerous, he's a warped soul, but he isn't all that intriguing. There isn't enough for me, at least, to empathize with to make him interesting in that way, and he's too predictable to generate much suspense. John Dean worked for Richard Nixon, who is now, thanks to Trump, the second-most malignant and corrupt president rather than the most. But Nixon was a lot more complicated than Trump, a lot smarter, and a lot more competent.
There are an infinite number of ways people can be good, smart, and talented; those who are sociopathic, dumb, and incompetent tend to be pretty cookie-cutter. The variations come mostly from their situations and the severity of their sociopathy. Evil is not charismatic when you get a really good look at it, not deep. Hannibal Lecter is a myth. The real thing is usually not even capable of grasping the tragedies it inflicts. I once read an author describing a group of violent criminals as "nasty human weather." That's Trump. He's malicious, but so narcissistic that he can't really see anyone else clearly enough for it to be truly personal (although his vendettas seem personal, as in his monomaniacal determination to erase Barack Obama's legacy, he never really saw or understood the target of his hatred.)
When I worked in mental health in the prison system, especially when I worked in a prison psychiatric hospital, I got to know some Trump types among the inmate patients and a few among the staff. So watching the slow-motion train wreck of his birtherism, candidacy, presidency, and post-presidency has been depressing, sometimes frightening, often infuriating, usually disgusting, but never surprising.
When it comes to his followers, there is also little that's surprising and less that's interesting. They are the type that Eric Hoffer wrote about in his 1951 book The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. /book/show/1... Hoffer was writing 71 years ago at the time of this review, but he could have been documenting the MAGA movement during 2020-2022. It seems that in every time and place, about a third of people would rather have some leader, usually one they find charismatic even though others see him or her as a thuggish clown, do their thinking for them and will blindly believe and follow that leader, abdicating their adulthood. They see the world and people in terms of good or bad, a binary rather than an analog view, and yearn to be part of an in-group that enables them to look down on outsiders, who of course are defined as bad.
The area where this book disappointed me was in its promised spelling out of a solution, a way to inoculate the culture against recurrences of Trump's nearly-successful coup d'etat against his own country and against the societal factors that made it possible. There just is no way to change the personalities and worldviews of of a third of the population. The solution is to build systems that are as resistant to their attacks as possible, but how do we do that when they have enough power to operate a tyranny of the minority?
There are an infinite number of ways people can be good, smart, and talented; those who are sociopathic, dumb, and incompetent tend to be pretty cookie-cutter. The variations come mostly from their situations and the severity of their sociopathy. Evil is not charismatic when you get a really good look at it, not deep. Hannibal Lecter is a myth. The real thing is usually not even capable of grasping the tragedies it inflicts. I once read an author describing a group of violent criminals as "nasty human weather." That's Trump. He's malicious, but so narcissistic that he can't really see anyone else clearly enough for it to be truly personal (although his vendettas seem personal, as in his monomaniacal determination to erase Barack Obama's legacy, he never really saw or understood the target of his hatred.)
When I worked in mental health in the prison system, especially when I worked in a prison psychiatric hospital, I got to know some Trump types among the inmate patients and a few among the staff. So watching the slow-motion train wreck of his birtherism, candidacy, presidency, and post-presidency has been depressing, sometimes frightening, often infuriating, usually disgusting, but never surprising.
When it comes to his followers, there is also little that's surprising and less that's interesting. They are the type that Eric Hoffer wrote about in his 1951 book The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. /book/show/1... Hoffer was writing 71 years ago at the time of this review, but he could have been documenting the MAGA movement during 2020-2022. It seems that in every time and place, about a third of people would rather have some leader, usually one they find charismatic even though others see him or her as a thuggish clown, do their thinking for them and will blindly believe and follow that leader, abdicating their adulthood. They see the world and people in terms of good or bad, a binary rather than an analog view, and yearn to be part of an in-group that enables them to look down on outsiders, who of course are defined as bad.
The area where this book disappointed me was in its promised spelling out of a solution, a way to inoculate the culture against recurrences of Trump's nearly-successful coup d'etat against his own country and against the societal factors that made it possible. There just is no way to change the personalities and worldviews of of a third of the population. The solution is to build systems that are as resistant to their attacks as possible, but how do we do that when they have enough power to operate a tyranny of the minority?
May 31, 2021
With a controversial title such as 'Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers', there seems to be a general assumption that one who reads this book thinks that the former President is an 'authoritarian nightmare' and that those who agree with his agenda and logic are simply his passive 'followers'.
Of course, there are plenty of people who disagree with both premises, or at least one of them, so this book most likely would only be one that would precipitate a great deal of dissatisfaction for them by no later than page 4. Although this book is set up as a treatise on social psychology, the polemic vibes resonates strongly throughout the whole text.
However, for those who would agree with either premise, or the one or two people on the planet who are neutral on the subject, this is a general overview of how the concept of 'authoritarianism' plays itself out in real life, and how people can willingly turn over their will and their life to the agenda of another human being who seems 'forceful', even in a society that purports equality for all and is protected by a constitution that supports liberal democracy. Sometimes repetitive, the authors cite various data and surveys that show what kind of attitudes lead to being an authoritarian, or to follow one who is, and how the authors believe this kind of dynamic played out throughout the Trump administration.
I found the writing engaging enough in tone for me to want to see what would be said next. The book is not a flaming-caps rant against the former President, nor is it a dry textbook that one falls asleep to during an all-nighter cram for one's Psychology 301 midterm, and instead seems to strike a happy middle that holds its own throughout. A good book, but probably not one that is for those who believe in what Trump the man stands for, and definitely not for those who believe that the 2020 election is a hoax and the former President is Trump45.
Of course, there are plenty of people who disagree with both premises, or at least one of them, so this book most likely would only be one that would precipitate a great deal of dissatisfaction for them by no later than page 4. Although this book is set up as a treatise on social psychology, the polemic vibes resonates strongly throughout the whole text.
However, for those who would agree with either premise, or the one or two people on the planet who are neutral on the subject, this is a general overview of how the concept of 'authoritarianism' plays itself out in real life, and how people can willingly turn over their will and their life to the agenda of another human being who seems 'forceful', even in a society that purports equality for all and is protected by a constitution that supports liberal democracy. Sometimes repetitive, the authors cite various data and surveys that show what kind of attitudes lead to being an authoritarian, or to follow one who is, and how the authors believe this kind of dynamic played out throughout the Trump administration.
I found the writing engaging enough in tone for me to want to see what would be said next. The book is not a flaming-caps rant against the former President, nor is it a dry textbook that one falls asleep to during an all-nighter cram for one's Psychology 301 midterm, and instead seems to strike a happy middle that holds its own throughout. A good book, but probably not one that is for those who believe in what Trump the man stands for, and definitely not for those who believe that the 2020 election is a hoax and the former President is Trump45.
February 6, 2021
Like everything else written by Bob Altemeyer, this book shows incredible insight combined with humor, scientific acumen and, in this case, eerie prescience. The power of understanding authoritarianism is on full display in this book. John Dean, a Goldwater conservative and White House counsel to Richard Nixon, first identified the problems presented by neoconservativism as authoritarian in nature, writing about it in his book, "Conservatives Without Conscience," and bringing Bob Altemeyer's work the far greater attention it deserved. Altemeyer, and Dean's behest, wrote the stunning work, "The Authoritarians," which certainly changed my life.
Trump's foibles are all deftly explained in "Authoritarian Nightmare," and more interestingly, the willingness of people who support him to continue advocating positions that are unquestionably un-American, right down to dispensing with 'trivial' things like the Constitution and democracy itself when the ends justify the means, e.g., continuation of white leadership, and eliminating abortion. They predicted the rejection of the election results and the call to action that led to the violence and death at the Capitol. They noted that even in the face of insurrection and sedition, Trump authoritarian followers would continue their support for Trump, as they had throughout his presidency, ignoring treason just as they had ignored his daily outright lies, because it confirmed their biases.
The one thing missing from this book is the 'why' behind the existence of such a large proportion of humanity with an authoritarian follower bent. I believe it to be a protective mechanism that arose in response to bloodthirsty despotic leaders like the ones portrayed in Rank's "History's 9 Most Insane Rulers." Like a penchant for sweets, this adaptive behavior may have been beneficial at one time, but now it is killing us.
Trump's foibles are all deftly explained in "Authoritarian Nightmare," and more interestingly, the willingness of people who support him to continue advocating positions that are unquestionably un-American, right down to dispensing with 'trivial' things like the Constitution and democracy itself when the ends justify the means, e.g., continuation of white leadership, and eliminating abortion. They predicted the rejection of the election results and the call to action that led to the violence and death at the Capitol. They noted that even in the face of insurrection and sedition, Trump authoritarian followers would continue their support for Trump, as they had throughout his presidency, ignoring treason just as they had ignored his daily outright lies, because it confirmed their biases.
The one thing missing from this book is the 'why' behind the existence of such a large proportion of humanity with an authoritarian follower bent. I believe it to be a protective mechanism that arose in response to bloodthirsty despotic leaders like the ones portrayed in Rank's "History's 9 Most Insane Rulers." Like a penchant for sweets, this adaptive behavior may have been beneficial at one time, but now it is killing us.
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