Reddit mentions of The Authoritarians

If you have an Audible account, spend a credit on this:

• https://www.amazon.com/Authoritarians-Bob-Altemeyer/dp/0972329889/
  
  Altemeyer reads the book himself and does a great job explaining his life's work for laypeople. It's not a collection of journal papers and shouldn't be read with that critical of an eye, but he does go into some detail on sciency things.
  
  If you don't have an Audible account or don't want to spend $, the book is also available for free as a PDF:
  
  
• http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAuthoritarians.pdf
  
  The very superficial TL;DR is that there are just a lot of people whose personalities fall on the authoritarian side of the spectrum. And, the bullet points listed above are explained/connected (at least generally) by right-wing authoritarianism:
  
  > a personality and ideological variable studied in political, social, and personality psychology. Right-wing authoritarians are people who have a high degree of willingness to submit to authorities they perceive as established and legitimate, who adhere to societal conventions and norms, and who are hostile and punitive in their attitudes towards people who don't adhere to them. They value uniformity and are in favour of using group authority, including coercion, to achieve it
  
  There are other related concepts like self-righteousness and social dominance orientation, but for the most part this book helps "the rest of us" categorize, describe, and understand this significant fraction of people. For the practical cultural tacticians, the author also discusses his research as it relates to how to bridge the gap and foster more mutual empathy with authoritarian personalities. He also outlines the differences between authoritarian followers and leaders -- which when read with the full knowledge of what's unfolding now is sobering.
  
  As a follow up to this, I would also recommend "Strangers in Their Own Land" which touches on similar points, but comes at from a much more anecdotal and hands-on way. I'm not naturally political or unconsciously persuasive, so I really enjoy books like this that I can snap in to my tool kit and at least help shine some light on observations that often make no damn sense.

Yup. For all of the talk about "freedoms", the right wing in our country falls very fast in line when it's their guy telling them how it's gonna be. This might be an interesting read for you, if you have the stomach: https://www.amazon.com/Authoritarians-Bob-Altemeyer/dp/0972329889

Honestly, I am going to catch hell for it, but that's a part of the whole world view that Trump and those who support him come from. They want strength in a world where power is the only true law. They don't believe in laws, only power, and they see the world as a zero-sum game where there are winners and losers, and they want to be winners. Especially winners who don't have to obey the rules.

It's why discussing the Muller investigation or calling Trump a criminal doesn't change their minds, in fact it emboldens them. They aren't playing mental gymnastics, it's perfectly logical. Someone who can brazenly break the rules and forge their own path is strong, and the strong should lead. Every day in power and every day others complain about it is a day of victory over the weak who hold them back.

You can read more about it here:

https://www.amazon.com/Authoritarians-Bob-Altemeyer/dp/0972329889

And more about how obvious lies project power here:

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/31/17804104/strikethrough-lies-propaganda-trump-putin

Basically, adherence to logic, rule of law, and rationalism is a weakness in their world view, and in some ways they are actually right. They are not going to play by the rules, and at the end of the day the contest is going to come down to one of strength even if it is the strength of rule enforcement over rule breaker. That's the contest that's actually going to matter in the end.

I predict that if "we" the rational win, there is going to be a sizable amount of people who are going to internalize losing the contest as being robbed not losing, and they are going to continue to lash out violently for decades.