A Personality Assessment of Online Haters

Narcissism: a personality disorder where there is a persistent pattern of grandiosity, fantasies of unlimited power or importance, and the need for admiration or special treatment (gosh, that sounds familiar)

Psychopathy: a neuropsychiatric disorder marked by deficient emotional responses, lack of empathy, and poor behavioral controls, commonly resulting in persistent antisocial deviance and criminal behavior (also familiar)

Machiavellianism: a personality trait characterized by interpersonal manipulation and associated with specific patterns of emotional and social cognition skills (hm, there seems to be a pattern here) 

Poland

A small study of people in Poland who posted online hate regarding the 2018 Olympics suggested that those people tended to score higher than usual on one personality assessment. That assessment, the Dark Triad questionnaire, assesses narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism. The researchers found that hate commenters scored high for psychopathy but not other traits associated with disruptive behavior.

One of the study's limitations is that it was based on characteristics of sports fans, not the general population. Also, the data may not be generalizable to other, more diverse societies than Poland's. This kind of research needs to be expanded and verified. However, such research could help shed light on what is part of the forces that are tearing American society apart and what is leading millions of people to support autocracy and distrust of democracy and the rule of law.

The authors concluded: "Considering a reported increase in online hating (Blaya, 2019), predictions are that online hating behavior will become even more and more severe. Results of the present study are one of the first steps in broadening our understanding who the online haters are, which, in turn, may help identifying the best strategies for psychological interventions for haters, and creating counter-hating strategies."

One can only wonder what America's former Hater-in-Chief would score on the Dark Triad and whether any counter-hating strategy would ever faze that ferocious beast.

Germany

A 2021 paper indicated that predictors for participation in hate speech include being exposed to it. The researchers commented on the the correlation between personality and online hate: 

The association between users’ personal characteristics and uncivil participation was overall relatively weak. In line with prior research about dark personalities’ uncivil behavior, we found that psychopathy and Machiavellianism increased self-reported uncivil participation (RQ1), whereas narcissism did not. When participants scored one scale point above average on the dark triad, they were roughly 20% more likely to engage in uncivil participation. This modest effect size could also explain why other studies with fewer participants failed to find a link between the dark triad and uncivil participation intentions.

So, maybe doing online hate begets more online hate. If so, it's probably best to avoid it and prevent it when possible.

RINO Wars Continue Ideological Cleansing and Truth Denying

Former congressman Denver Riggleman

Opposed QAnon, got voted out of office

The fascist GOP (FGOP) remains intolerant of internal dissent. Dissenters in power are removed from power. One example is Denver Riggleman, former republican congressman from Virginia. He incurred FGOP ire for publicly condemning QAnon and engaging in other unacceptable behaviors. The New York Times writes:

It was Oct. 2, on the floor of the House of Representatives, and he rose as one of only two Republicans in the chamber to speak in favor of a resolution denouncing QAnon. Mr. Riggleman, a freshman congressman from Virginia, had his own personal experiences with fringe ideas, both as a target of them and as a curious observer of the power they hold over true believers. He saw a dangerous movement becoming more intertwined with his party, and worried that it was only growing thanks to words of encouragement from President Donald J. Trump.

“Will we stand up and condemn a dangerous, dehumanizing and convoluted conspiracy theory that the F.B.I. has assessed with high confidence is very likely to motivate some domestic extremists?” asked Mr. Riggleman, a former Air Force intelligence officer. “We should not be playing with fire.”

Mr. Riggleman is a living example of the political price of falling out of lock step with the hard right. He lost a G.O.P. primary race last June after he officiated at the wedding of a gay couple. And once he started calling out QAnon, whose followers believe that a satanic network of child molesters runs the Democratic Party, he received death threats and was attacked as a traitor, including by members of his own family.

The undoing of Mr. Riggleman — and now his unlikely crusade — is revealing about a dimension of conservative politics today. The fight against radicalism within the G.O.P. is a deeply lonely one, waged mostly by Republicans like him who are no longer in office, and by the small handful of elected officials who have decided that they are willing to speak up even if it means that they, too, could be headed for an early retirement.

“I’ve been telling people: ‘You don’t understand. This is getting worse, not better,’” Mr. Riggleman said, sitting on a stool at his family bar one recent afternoon. “People are angry. And they’re angry at the truth tellers.”   

Now he says it “gives me shivers” to be called a Republican. He hopes to show that there is still a way to beat back the lies and false beliefs that have spread from the fringe to the mainstream. It is a heavy lift, and one that depends on overcoming two strong impulses: politicians’ fear of losing elections and people’s reluctance to accept that they were taken in by a lie.

Mr. Riggleman summarized his conversations with the 70 percent of House Republicans he said were privately appalled at the former president’s conduct but wouldn’t dare speak out.

“‘We couldn’t do that in our district. We would lose,’” he said. “That’s it. It’s that simple.”

There you have it, the rank and file are angry at truth tellers. And FGOP leaders, e.g., Cruz, Greene, McConnell, are either also angry at truth and reason, or too afraid to stand up for it. For the ones in fear, re-election is more important that standing up for facts, truths and reason. For the rest, they are self-interested or truly deceived.

Toxic echo chambers like Fox News, Breitbart and dozens of other slander, hate and lies factories keep the delusion pressure on. Mainstream republicans stay united in their irrational fear, anger and distrust. Fascist echo chambers are where the most comforting lies, slanders, emotional manipulation and crackpot motivated reasoning are to be found. Maybe that's mostly why some or most on the radical right now refuse to even hear truth tellers any more. Inconvenient facts and truths are too discomforting to be tolerated.

This truth bears repeating: Sometimes it takes moral courage to face and accept inconvenient facts, truths and sound reasoning. 

That kind of courage is in critically short supply in the FGOP.

Republican Intransigence is Explicit

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday that senate republicans will oppose the infrastructure bill that Biden is working to put together. McConnell flatly stated that the bill “is not going to get support from our side.” So much for compromise and bipartisanship. At least the democratic party does not have to waste any time trying to reach across the vast partisan gulf to see if any republican senators might be interested in cooperating. 

Forbes magazine summarized the situation like this: “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday pledged to wage a brutal, partisan fight over President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, the latest sign that Democrats will likely have to resort to reconciliation in order to get it through Congress.”

There you have it. The fascist GOP (FGOP) is going to wage a brutal, partisan fight. What a non-surprise.

Polling indicates that the public is generally supportive of fixing infrastructure and certain tax increases to pay for it. One recent poll indicated that: 

• Democrats were 41 points more likely than Republicans to support the $3 trillion infrastructure plan funded by tax increases on high-earners and corporations, 73% to 32%.

• 57% of voters say they’d be more likely to support Biden’s infrastructure plan if it were funded by tax increases on those making over $400,000.

• 47% of voters say they’d be more likely to support the $3 trillion proposal if it were funded by increases to the corporate tax rate.

Another source commented on the proposed size of the spending bill: “Notably, respondents were polled on funding for a $3 trillion infrastructure plan, whereas Biden is reportedly planning $4 trillion of spending in two parts, and debuted the $2 trillion first part on Wednesday.”

So, once again, the FGOP leadership opposes what most Americans are willing to support. Disconnects between the republican leadership demands and public opinion desires seem to be happening with some frequency. That has been the case for some years now. 

Maybe more people will start drifting away from the FGOP as they come to realize just how self-interested republican elites and donors are at the expense of everyone else and the public interest. That point has been made here before and, because some things just bear repeating, I'm making it again.

Finland's Defense Against the Dark Arts

CNN reports that Finland, a country under relentless Russian propaganda dark free speech attacks,[1] is learning to defend itself. The dark arts self-defense program the Finnish government has developed is being taught to school children and adults.

CNN writes:

The initiative is just one layer of a multi-pronged, cross-sector approach the country is taking to prepare citizens of all ages for the complex digital landscape of today – and tomorrow. The Nordic country, which shares an 832-mile border with Russia, is acutely aware of what’s at stake if it doesn’t.

Finland has faced down Kremlin-backed propaganda campaigns ever since it declared independence from Russia 101 years ago. But in 2014, after Moscow annexed Crimea and backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, it became obvious that the battlefield had shifted: information warfare was moving online.

As the trolling ramped up in 2015, President Sauli Niinisto called on every Finn to take responsibility for the fight against false information. A year later, Finland brought in American experts to advise officials on how to recognize fake news, understand why it goes viral and develop strategies to fight it. The education system was also reformed to emphasize critical thinking.

This ain't Finland: Not surprisingly, America is a completely different kettle of multicultural fish. Americans generally do not believe they are susceptible to dark free speech. Political partisans generally do believe the political opposition definitely is susceptible. Most on each side firmly believe the other is deluded, deceived and/or just plain lying.

In commenting on the CNN report, Steven Novella at Neurologica makes this sobering point:

In 2012 the Texas GOP had this in their platform:

Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

They literally opposed teaching critical thinking because it might challenge fixed beliefs and authority figures. This attitude is likely not uncommon, just rarely so explicitly stated. What I fear is that any move to teach media literacy in the public schools will be fraught with political manipulation and pushback. It can easily be presented as an attempt to promote one political view over another. The challenge is essentially to teach politics in a politically neutral way. It can be done, but it is tricky. It’s a perilous path that seems to have a high likelihood of failure. But we need to try – we need, in fact, to make it a priority.

What Novella describes is an attitude that is common on America's political right. It accords with a belief by some social scientists, e.g., Johnathan Haidt, that most conservatives highly value respect for authority. Apparently, that conservative moral foundation or core value is so powerful that it can and does lead some conservatives to actually believe that critical thinking skills are subversive. But, one arguably can consider wrecking false beliefs and undermining partisan loyalty with facts, truths and sound reasoning to be subversive.

If nothing else, the human mind with its moral-emotional functioning is a strange, fascinating beast, to say the least. The question is whether the beast can control itself enough to maintain modern civilization and long-term human well-being. That is an open question. If past performance is an indicator of future returns, prospects don't look so good at the moment. What could change that bad prognosis is getting serious about building defenses against the dark arts, even if the risk of failure is high.

Footnote:
1. Dark free speech: Constitutionally protected (1) lies and deceit to distract, confuse and demoralize, (2) unwarranted opacity to hide corruption, and inconvenient truths and facts, and (3) unwarranted emotional manipulation (i) to obscure the truth and blind the mind to lies and deceit, and (ii) to provoke irrational, reason-killing emotions and feelings, including fear, hate, anger, disgust, distrust, intolerance, cynicism, pessimism and all kinds of bigotry including racism. (my label and definition)

B&B orig: 5/31/19; DP: 6/3/19