The Authoritarian Test

[Guardian]

Re: The Authoritarian Test

The only question they had for me so far is if I'm Christain.

I get the "Are you a Christian?" question A LOT where I live...and my stock response is "No, I'm just not into those new fangled religions" You should see the looks I get...definitely NOT one of the answers they were expecting.

 

[Turgon]

I ended up with a score of 84, which I was surprised about! I haven't read the thread fully as of yet, but I found this test difficult to answer properly because of the questions themselves. My highest scores were for:

6. Atheists and others who have rebelled against the established religions are no doubt every
bit as good and virtuous as those who attend church regularly.

I strongly disagreed with this statement. This assumes that people who attend church regularly are good and virtuous so how could I possibly agree with this statement. And just because a person rebels against mainstream religion doesn't neccessarily make them a decent person. Maybe just a bit more intelligent.

12. The “old-fashioned ways” and the “old-fashioned values” still show the best way to live.

Yet again, when I was thinking of this, the whole Paleolithic lifestyle was coming to mind, so I received a high score. But what the author assumes to be 'old fashioned ways & values' is much different.

17. There are many radical, immoral people in our country today, who are trying to ruin it for
their own godless purposes, whom the authorities should put out of action.

I was thinking of the psychopaths and people in power who are destroying good values. As well as just leaches in society and people who don't care and just manipulate. So is it highly authoritarian to want to see them out of commission? It's hard to not to even though we should live and let live. But if it's at the expense of other's how much lee-way should they get.

 

[Scottie]

I got 55.

 

[Keit]

Good example! A while ago Ark posted the numbers (proof) showing that Elenin is moving just like an ordinary comet. Now if Elenin came to a sudden stop, took a hard left and decided to go take a spin around Titan before heading our way again, I would change my belief that it's an ordinary comet ..and I suspect Ark and Laura would too?

Maybe that's why authoritative attitude goes hand in hand with the "right man syndrome". And it can be applied to the either extreme end of the scale, because in this case what ever "authority" these people follow, is being a projection of their own wishful thinking.

 

[Beau]

17. There are many radical, immoral people in our country today, who are trying to ruin it for their own godless purposes, whom the authorities should put out of action.

I was thinking of the psychopaths and people in power who are destroying good values. As well as just leaches in society and people who don't care and just manipulate. So is it highly authoritarian to want to see them out of commission? It's hard to not to even though we should live and let live. But if it's at the expense of other's how much lee-way should they get.

Interesting, the way I look at that question is different. The key phrase for me is "whom the authorities should put out of action." This is basically a buzzword for RWAs. The "authorities" ARE the psychopaths. Who gets judged as radical and/or immoral by our current authorities and their mouthpiece the MSM? Pretty much anyone who thinks outside the box and doesn't accept the lies we've been given by those same authorities. My guess is many of the people who judge others for their "godless purposes" and want them out of action are all RWA-oriented.

Now, if it were phrased differently, without inclusion of action by authorities i.e. PTB, I might answer that question differently. But the way it's put, it's basically asking if you would agree to get rid of people like many of us on the forum who don't conform to RWA ideology. That, for me, was the key to many of the questions and why I scored lower on the test - because of my distrust and lack of belief in authoritative figures.

 

[Guardian]

Interesting, the way I look at that question is different. The key phrase for me is "whom the authorities should put out of action."

That's exactly what I pinged on too ....i KNOW what that means because I'm one of the "radicals" psychopaths think "the authorities should put out of action"

 

[LQB]

Go here: http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAuthoritarians.pdf

The test starts on page 11 of the book. Post your scores.

Mine is 63.

scored 70. Some of those questions really had me thinking. I guess I am more authoritarian than I thought though I score close to those university students. As he predicted, there were a few items in which part of the statement seemed reasonable to me but then the other part was plain objectionable.

Same here - I got 80. I also assumed knowledge of psychopathy and a "conventional" means of dealing with. Also assumed "traditional" in the direction of "paleo".

 

[Nawd]

Re: The Authoritarian Test

Oh that's funny! I might have to add it to my pile of responces.

-No I'm still working all of that stuff out (turn head, avoid gaze)

-Nope, I'm still studying all of that (turn head, aviod gaze)


:D

The only question they had for me so far is if I'm Christain.

I get the "Are you a Christian?" question A LOT where I live...and my stock response is "No, I'm just not into those new fangled religions" You should see the looks I get...definitely NOT one of the answers they were expecting.

 

[Tina]

I scored 38. I put in zero for two questions because the wording didn't make much sense to me.

 

[Thomas Alan]

Re: The Authoritarian Test

Oh that's funny! I might have to add it to my pile of responces.

-No I'm still working all of that stuff out (turn head, avoid gaze)

-Nope, I'm still studying all of that (turn head, aviod gaze)


:D

The only question they had for me so far is if I'm Christain.

I get the "Are you a Christian?" question A LOT where I live...and my stock response is "No, I'm just not into those new fangled religions" You should see the looks I get...definitely NOT one of the answers they were expecting.

I haven't been asked about this recently, but my answer might be a simple "Yes". FOTCM members are Paleo Christians, Christians in the truest sense.

Mac

 

[go2]

I got to thinking about the test as I was caught in freeway traffic this afternoon. Is this a test to determine if I am an authoritarian or an authoritarian follower type? I might be a little bit authoritarian, but I sure haven't been a follower. This imbalance wasted a lot of time in the underbrush. Today, it serves to follow sometimes and to lead sometimes. It is the struggle for balance of the useful traditions with new ways of consciously engaging the events of life; that has become the focus of effort.

 

[Nawd]

Re: The Authoritarian Test

I haven't been asked about this recently, but my answer might be a simple "Yes". FOTCM members are Paleo Christians, Christians in the truest sense.

Mac

Try explaining that to anyone else. :)

 

[Aliana]

I got 73. I think the results can be misleading, due to the interpretation factor (as noted by Altemeyer) - especially if you consider pathology when answering this test. Of course I could have interpreted the questions from the point of view of an authoritarian (like: when it's written "perversion", they probably understand it as homosexuality, unmarried sex and the like), which probably would have lowered my score.

Everyone should have their own lifestyle, religious beliefs, and sexual preferences, even if it makes them different from everyone else.

I had to moderately disagree here. What if your "sexual preferences" are pedophilia or sadism? Involves physically or psychologically hurting others?

The “old-fashioned ways” and the “old-fashioned values” still show the best way to live.

I suppose the old fashioned way is referred here to the way of the US protestant "forefathers". But some people might understand it otherwise according to their own background.

Our country will be destroyed someday if we do not smash the perversions eating away at our moral fiber and traditional beliefs.

I don't agree with "smashing the perversions", since it doesn't work that way, but it's obvious that "our country" (and the world) is being destroyed partly because of a lack of true "moral fiber" and moral values. The thing is my personal understanding of moral values is certainly quite different from the understanding of it by right-wing authoritarians.
[....]
In short, not so easy and clearcut.

I scored a 63 - for many of the same reasons most people have mentioned previously . Knowing what we know about our pathological world, I could not answer these questions in the way that Altemeyer probably assumed a low RWA would. When I really thought through the questions and their ramifications; i.e. if I were to agree that everything should always be totally open - then we would continue to have chaos and more of what we have now! I assumed Altemeyer meant "old fashioned and traditional values" to be the fundie-kind, but then what about Paleolithic values?? Changes the whole interpretation of the question/answer.

 

[SolarMother]

I scored 70. My 'paleo values and knowledge' kept entering into my perceptions.

 

[Mr.Anderson]

37...On the question of "Traditional Values" I was thinking, yeah like paleo, but I new that Altemeyer was not thinking of that so I disagreed.