606 What drives the extreme right?

 I distinguish between the motive s of extreme right leadership and those of their followers and voters.

 Leaders:

1, honest believers in the values of the free markets they promote

2. narcists promoting themselves

3. gluttons of power

4. destroying democratic institutions to carve a path towards an authoritarian regime with them at the top

Combinations of these motives are possible.

Followers:

1.  believers in unconstrained markets that require laissez faire, to promote welfare

2.  flight from the opposite, leftist stream, which they love to hate

3.   to belong to the rightist group, to give a sense of community, as a tribe, regardless of its lies and lack of arguments

4.  to harbour a lustful revenge for presumed wrongs, ascribed to the left

5.  rejection of immigrants, out of racism or prejudice and xenophobia

6.  gullibility, in disregarding lies and nonsensical conspiracy theories

7.  taking the leader as a role model, a hero, saviour

8.  love of disorder, upheaval, the feast of rebellion and aggression

9.  fear of loss of welfare and desire for order and simplicity, even if it is unjust

10.    dumbing down, cultivation of ignorance, and disregard or even disdain for the truth as handed down by officials, the mainstream press and specialists

Perhaps the last item (no. 10) is the most ominous. It is understandable that the low educated and menial workers have a grievance for having been looked down upon or being disrespected for a long time, since the Enlightenment, in the 17^th century, but a society cannot exist without some respect for truth. I admit that literal, objective truth is debatable. Facts are often not objective but ‘theory laden’, but that is often exaggerated. They can often rest on evidence everyone can agree upon. I adopt Dewey’s notion of ‘warranted assertability’: you must come with logical coherence, ascertainable facts, how what you assert came about, and practical usefulness.

Without it, human existence goes haywire. Reason is surrendered to ‘influencers’, who vent opinions without argument.

 

What to do about this? One should not call people stupid. That will slam the door on communication, and invoke more invective and innuendo on social media. But one can press people to come with facts when they assert something, or come with an account of why what they condemn comes about. People do not indulge in the dumbing down out of lack of intelligence or knowledge. Highly educated people take part in tolerating the dumbing down out of empathy for the grievances of people, or indifference to the loss of truth.