What is Authoritarianism? | The Art of Political Persuasion by Robin Koerner

The Rise of Trump has been in Part a Reaction Against Cultural Authoritarianism I was recently inspired by a great book I’ve been reading, “The Authoritarian Dynamic”, to do a lot of thinking about authoritarianism. As my listeners know, I was already thinking about it a lot last year: I’ve noted the authoritarianism in the politics of Trump and that in the cultural authoritarianism of the illiberal Left, especially on campuses, where they have been trying to shut down courses and prevent attendances by speakers who do not conform to its sanctioned views. I’ve also commented that the rise of Trump has been in part a reaction against cultural authoritarianism …. and now, thanks to Karen Stenner’s book, I have a much better understanding of why that is so. In this show, I discuss what authoritarianism is, and why and when it becomes manifest in society and politics. I also discuss how it is unrelated to conservatism of either the status quo or laissez faire varieties (and indeed it is, unsurprisingly, the opposite of the latter in many respects) – even though all three (authoritarianism, status quo conservatism and laissez faire conservatism) get lazily lumped as “conservative” in the USA, leading to a huge misunderstanding of all of them. As we shall discover today, authoritarianism is motivated by a desire for sameness and oneness in the country/community/society with which one identifies. It becomes politically and culturally manifest only under conditions of normative threat (i.e. when those with the psychological disposition to it perceive that the sameness and oneness of the group, to which they tend to sublimate their identities, are threatened). Studies show that there are left-leaning and right-leaning authoritarians. Interestingly, unlike conservatives, authoritarians are not averse to change (q.v. Trump’s election) if it is change toward greater homogeneity and rootedness in the group identity. Conservatives in contrast, are happy with diversity in a society – they are just not too keen that the society, diverse or homogeneous, changes too fast. In today’s show, I put all this together and extract the lesson for libertarians and classical liberals everywhere: how do you couch libertarianism in a way that it sells to those who are most scared of it – the authoritarians. It turns out that it is easier to do in the USA, because of its history, than perhaps anywhere else… Liberty must be sold to scared Americans as the identity that unites us; that, in that sense, doesn’t increase diversity and fragmentation, but reduces it. In other words, liberty must be sold through normative reassurance… Robin Koerner, The Art of Political Persuasion http://robinkoerner.com About the Art of Political Persuasion The Art of Political Persuasion is a unique way for candidates, activists, or anyone engaged in political discourse to attract support for their candidacy, cause of position……and do so without having to make better arguments. In contrast, “The Art of Political Persuasion” takes a revolutionary approach towards political discourse by helping people with opposing points of view understand and negate the underlying forces that keep them from coming and working together on common ground to solve a mutually agreed upon common problem. If you are a candidate, activist or anyone interested political discourse and believe that it’s way past time we all started to act like adults, rather than argumentative children, then subscribe to the channel. This is cutting edge information you won’t find anywhere else………and if you are an activist of any sort, I offer a free report on my website at http://www.robinkoerner.com called “the 10 reasons your arguments fail to win support and what you can do about it right now”. Subscribe to the Art of Political Persuasion http://www.youtube.com/c/Robinkoernerpolitical-persuasion?sub_confirmation=1