Authoritarian followers and authoritarian leaders--dangerous, fascinating

After WWII social scientists started studying...us...to figure out how "normal" people (educated, northern European, predominantly Christian in this case) could vote in a Hitler and end up supporting the Holocaust. Socialist Robert Altmeyer felt his and their findings were so important that he put his short book on the web in its entirety.

Authoritarian followers and leaders can be left wing or right wing, but are usually strong in their orientation. Roughly 20%ish of us are solidly "authoritarian" and many more somewhat so depending on the circumstances. For those who haven't read it already, it's very enlightening, very readable, and the link is right here.

This is a PDF link to a complete online copy of The Authoritarian ~ by Robert Altmeyer

THIS is a link to a site where Dr. Atlmeyer discusses this and provides the book link, as well as samples of the questions asked: http://www.peakprosperity.com/forum/authoritarian-robert-altmeyer/55216

PSYCHOLOGICALLY, authoritarians have these characteristics at base:

1) a high degree of submission to the established, legitimate authorities in their society;
2) high levels of aggression in the name of their authorities; and
3) a high level of conventionalism.

THIS is a sort of summarized description of (strongly) authoritarian followers from another writer. Most authoritarian followers exhibit only some of these traits to a notable degree, but some may suspect they recognize someone they know or find themselves associating with from this: 

"In turn, recurring traits that, in varying degrees, are found in authoritarian followers—a group that includes both men and women—are as follows:

They are submissive to authority but aggressive on that authority’s behalf.

They are conventional and typically strongly religious, with moderate to little education.

They trust untrustworthy authorities, exhibit prejudice (particularly against homosexuals, women and followers of religions other than their own), and are mean-spirited, narrow-minded, intolerant, bullying, zealous, dogmatic, and uncritical toward chosen authority.

They are hypocritical, inconsistent and contradictory, prone to panic easily, highly self-righteous, and moralistic.

They are strict disciplinarians, and are severely punitive.

They demand loyalty and return it.

They exhibit little self-awareness." 

This is very timely and very important. Authoritarian leaders (NOT to be confused with strong leaders) should scare the heck out of all of us, and we have way too many in public office or running for public office right now. Authoritarian followers can be counted on to vote (a virtue) and are very vulnerable to, and unquestioning of, the messages of authoritarian leaders.