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[Reelya]

Many people seem to want an authoritarian and it drives me crazy.

That's what I was saying a while ago about the RWA (right wing authoritarian) psych test. Note here, that loyal Soviet citizens scored highly on the RWA tests. So the "R" here is about adherence to a strong social conservative government (enforced law and order, enforced morality: the old French meaning of "Right"), regardless of the rhetoric of the dominant ideology. So why no matching LWA scale for the left? Psychologists have tried to make one and failed, because Authoritarianism invariably has a right-wing bias (except for in ex-Soviet countries where it sort of works) no matter how they phrase it.

The RWA tests sound like Poe's law in action, but the sad fact is quite a large number of people in every country do literally tick yes to most of the RWA test questions. The test questions are extremely specific in the belief they're asking about. Some people on the forum thought that they were too specific and that this was a weakness. But I'd cite it as a strength of the test. Why? because we can gauge how many people actually think like that (a lot) and then do other tests to see how these beliefs affect them in other contexts.

There's another test call SDO (Social dominance orientation) and the interplay of this with the RWA test is interesting. In some multiplayer team wargame simulations, those who scored highly on RWA but not SDO always fell into line behind the high-SDO players, who invariably muscled their way into positions of power (either the leader, or the leader's chief henchman/head-kicker), then aggressively competed with other high-SDO players, usually ending in nuclear Armageddon. But when games were just RWAs (with high-SDO players deliberately excluded), there was massive military build up, but few wars. They recreated the Cold War basically. There was massive mistrust, isolationism and militarism, but low risk taking and aggression.

This fits with the idea that the RWA tests measure the "follow the glorious leader" trait, and mob psychology, but not necessarily the drive to take charge of a situation. Conversely, when the only players in the games were low-RWAs, it ended with free trade, international treaties and widespread humanitarian aid. Liberal globalism and the UN basically.

[Max™]

Wait, from reading a couple pages back, apparently they started this whole "picking who is going to be chosen for the presidential deathmatch" stuff earlier than I thought?

This is the right place to apply, isn't it?

[Shadowlord]

*clicks new post*
*there is no new post*
*several minutes later...*
*clicks new post*
*there is no new post*

* Shadowlord shakes fist at Reelya

Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.

...

P.S. I did a search for RWA test and was pointed at OKCupid. :V
https://www.okcupid.com/results/the-rwa-test/?var_RWA=-66&fromCGI=1

You're a low RWA!
9% RWA!

You scored 9% on RWA, higher than 30% of your peers.

[Powder Miner]

I tend to find the assertion that authoritarianism is inherently right-wing rather silly, because it's only right-leaning if you expressly define the right wing as being authoritarian. And, no, the existence of the RWA test doesn't disprove this, because it is in itself meant to measure along a specific axis that it was designed around. Communism is not right wing unless you go out of your way to justify it as such, the same with authoritarian socialism... unless you're working off of a scale with socialism as a basis in the first place.

Another incorrect assumption is that there's a single left-right axis; if you look at the differences between American and European politics, it can fairly easily be seen to be untrue. For the American right wing and American left wing, authoritarianism has absolutely no right wing bias... it is equally possible on both ends.

[Loud Whispers]

http://personality-testing.info/tests/RWAS/
I found this thing

Spoiler: mfw your score for right-wing authoritarianism was 69.89%. Higher scores indicate more right-wing authoritarianism. (click to show/hide)

Right-wing authoritarians want society and social interactions structured in ways that increase uniformity and minimize diversity. In order to achieve that, they tend to be in favour of social control, coercion, and the use of group authority to place constraints on the behaviours of people such as political dissidents and ethnic minorities. These constraints might include restrictions on immigration, limits on free speech and association and laws regulating moral behaviour. It is the willingness to support or take action that leads to increased social uniformity that makes right-wing authoritarianism more than just a personal distaste for difference. Right-wing authoritarianism is characterized by obedience to authority, moral absolutism, racial and ethnic prejudice, and intolerance and punitiveness towards dissidents and deviants. In parenting, right-wing authoritarians value children's obedience, neatness, and good manners.

I support restrictions on immigration, but am massively pro-free speech. Whilst I'm diversity as fuck I also want assimilation. I seek laws regulating most all moral behaviours but I don't really care much if people do, I don't give a shit about blind authority as I find useless authoritarians worthy of retirement or death, I'm all for moral absolutism, not for racial and ethnic prejudice as I'm >civic, actually tolerant because I hate a lot of people to tolerate them, I simultaneously am disapproving of degeneracy and find that when shariah squads strike cottages I am indifferent, seeing that as something not worth getting caught in a crossfire for. In parenting I value children's neatness and good manners (though I also consider this to be one of the least important values to teach - as important as it is), but from my own family culture it is the parent's job to have obedient children and it's the children's job to become a defiant adult

I don't know if that adds up to 70% but it seems plausible enough

I tend to find the assertion that authoritarianism is inherently right-wing rather silly, because it's only right-leaning if you expressly define the right wing as being authoritarian. And, no, the existence of the RWA test doesn't disprove this, because it is in itself meant to measure along a specific axis that it was designed around.

Sounds like something THE RIGHT WING WOULD SAY

[Powder Miner]

LW you come from Yuroland
pls validate my edited-in statement about political axes being different in America and Yuroland

[Powder Miner]

11.93% on LW's thing by the way
AUTHORITARIANS GO HOME
(and yet, I am most assuredly not a left-winger)

[TheDarkStar]

I got 32.39% but I'm not sure how accurate it is. Lots of questions will cause bias and several ask about a few things at a time.

[Loud Whispers]

LW you come from Yuroland
pls validate my edited-in statement about political axes being different in America and Yuroland

Your edited-in statement is factually correct

There is a difference between for example European green left wing hippies who want to disband their own militaries and authoritarian american liberals who defend Obama's mass surveillance, bombing of Yemenis or rejection of voices warning of tyranny.
I actually love Obama liberals more, though whether that's due to Obama liberals being more charismatic or some secret RWA psychic link I dunno

11.93% on LW's thing by the way
AUTHORITARIANS GO HOME
(and yet, I am most assuredly not a left-winger)

Remove lolbertarian!

I got 32.39% but I'm not sure how accurate it is. Lots of questions will cause bias and several ask about a few things at a time.

To be fair it does solve the issue of whether authoritarianism is exclusively right wing by just measuring for right wing authoritarianism, no questions for example of sending people to gulags for threatening the revolution

[TempAcc]

Conservativism and Liberalism are only somehow glued to the right and the left respectively in amuricaland.
And yea, leftist authoritarianism is actualy the most commonly seen and recent one in the last what, 50 years? :v

ANYWAYS ITS TIME TO GO FULL SATAN MODE ON THIS TEST

right-wing authoritarianism was 35.23%

wat

I'm against super centralized fat government and the idea of a "OMG GREAT ALMIGHTY LEADER" figure, but I dont magically assume every group questioning the "stablishment" is sainty or worthy of praise either :v

[Powder Miner]

American liberalism and European liberalism are NOOOOT the same thing. They're nearly opposites

[Eagleon]

Authoritarianism only exists if the people that believe in the authority are considered wrong by a majority The test is biased towards the christian baby boomer generation's of what constitutes a radical belief, of course. I don't even know anyone that cares about nudist colonies, gay marriage, divorce rates, and porn, but the 'right wing' is still magically against all of those things because that's the idea liberals have of their core.

Like Powder Miner says, the truth is that the 'right wing' is a smorgasbord of issues that overlap demographically to form a strategy for the Republican party. The left wing is exactly the same - I consider myself a moderate economically, that we have periods of growth and decay and that this needs to be met intelligently rather than with ideology. I consider myself rather extreme-left when it comes to social issues, probably to a degree many supposedly in the left-wing would find uncomfortable ("Hey, furries, yeah, that's creepy as fuck, but you do what you want!") But I think that just as many democrats as republicans are completely oblivious to the impact their policies have on our economy (and I consider our healthcare, etc. part of our economy so long as doctors are getting paid), because we vote based more on party ideology than a willingness to dive deep into the problems and come out with a solution in cooperation with the best minds we can find. That's sort of an authoritarian idea if you think about it. Representative democracy literally requires authorities to act in the best interest and with the trust of the people.

 I don't know where authoritarian beliefs have shifted (I have some ideas, I just don't feel like starting that level of shit on the forum I consider to be home-base), but it's not just going to go away as atheism corrupts our children and replaces Jesus with the cybernet.

[Shadowlord]

I think the test seems designed not to determine, necessarily, whether you would support an authoritarian, but rather, to determine whether your beliefs are similar to Jack the Ripper.

The city was drowning in decay - chaos, immortality... A message needed to be sent, a message etched in blood, for all the world to see. A warning.

[Powder Miner]

I consider the Republican Party to be more diverse in its views than the Democratic Party, because the libertarians have largely shacked up with the Republicans, certain leadership figures aside, and a frighteningly large section of the populists as well.

The core of the Democratic Party is basically made of liberals, socialists (who are still liberals) and some populists.

(I'm using the four sector model here, comservative libertarian liberal and populist -- I can elaborate if needed)

[mainiac]

These tests are a little silly because they are about feelings.  Someone who personally finds atheists annoying but feels "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".  Would be counted as more RWA then an atheist who wants to ban religion.

I consider the Republican Party to be more diverse in its views than the Democratic Party, because the libertarians have largely shacked up with the Republicans, certain leadership figures aside, and a frighteningly large section of the populists as well.

The core of the Democratic Party is basically made of liberals, socialists (who are still liberals) and some populists.

(I'm using the four sector model here, comservative libertarian liberal and populist -- I can elaborate if needed)

The libertarians are a loud minority who dont set the tone of the party.  The party's core platform includes stuff like right to life and drug bans.