Are we witnessing a rise in right wing authoritarianism? Look at how we treat the unemployed. [View all]

[ck4829]

Right wing authoritarianism isn't bad, it's very bad. It's not necessarily conservative, even though it is named as such because it is a trait that people who are ultra-right often have. It was the spirit, if you will behind fascism, behind the Soviet Union, behind the Latin American dictatorships of the Cold War, and more. Just look at Uganda's police state and it's "Kill the Gays" bill as I go through the list, and tell me you don't see it. It leads to some very awful things.

As I was reading though the list, I was starting to see, the long term unemployed face things like this. Read on...

1. Hostility & Fear Toward Outgroups
You know what an outgroup is, right? A group that's on the margins of society. The unemployed and the long term unemployed would definitely be an outgroup. "Lazy", parasites", "mooches", and more are the labels we have heard for the long unemployed. They're bad because they're on food stamps. They can't pay their bills, so of course their credit is going to take a ding, but because they have poor credit there is now a 100% chance they're going to steal from you, no evidence of it, but because people keep saying "I heard someone say they heard a study...", it must be true, right? Fear and hostility. Check.

2. Not-So-Healthy Ingroup Cohesion
There is a clear "Us vs Them" forming in the United States, the "Us" being the 'job creators' and the people who check on their stash in the Cayman Islands. The "Them" are the jobless, the people on unemployment benefits, the people on food stamps, and more. There are also a lot of people in the United States who think they are a part of "Us" when they really aren't. If they are a thread away from bankruptcy and if they have to choose between utilities or groceries, then they aren't "Us", you may be their waterboy, but you aren't a part of their clique, no matter what they tell you. Sorry. Not-So-Healthy Ingroup Cohesion. Check.

3. Faulty reasoning
This runs absolutely rampant in the treatment of the unemployed. First example is above with the credit being used as a hiring filter. No evidence that a person's credit reflects on their likelihood to steal, but "I heard", "There's a study", "I feel it in my gut", "It just makes sense!"; so that means the people who want a job but are going to face an extra hurdle because they can't pay their bills because they do not have a job will have to deal with this new age phrenology. And then here's another thing about faulty reasoning, a person will often have contradictory ideas. Yes, we know that the unemployed should just get off the couch and find a job even though there are five applicants to every job. But what are we going to do about cutting vicious circles that keep the jobless jobless or how about creating an employer of last resort like the Civilian Conservation Corps? Now you're a statist socialist.
One more example, a while back I did a study of what people thought about unemployment benefits and how they supposedly kept people dependent on the government. Basically, looking around for 'What % of people found work how much time before/after their unemployment benefits ended'. A lot of it was in the context that we shouldn't extend these benefits because that percentage of people find work and that people can find work, but they just want to stay on unemployment instead. What I found surprised me, everybody cited a 'study they heard', but not a single so-called statistic was the same. Zero precision, like someone threw a dart at a dartboard and instead hit a stop sign down the block. Got everything from '85% of the people on unemployment find a job (albeit miraclously (sic) in the last 2 weeks of their unemployment running out' to '90% of people on unemployment find work with in 6 weeks of running out of Benefits' and everything in between and outside of that. It was embarrassing.
Faulty reasoning. Check.

4. Profound Character Flaws
Bullying, zealotry, and hypocrisy. Encouraging that people should compete with each other in a cutthroat fashion for a minimum wage job is not a virtue. It's one of those flaws. There was a post on here about something on Facebook, mocking people for wanting an increase in the minimum wage. Because we're all sure EVERYONE on the minimum wage has the minimum skills, education, and motivation. Right? And back to food stamps, more specifically people who attack people who use food stamps to buy snack foods or buy luxuries while on food stamps. This is to people who attack people on food stamps. They cost you a fraction of a penny. You're not doing it because you're concerned for anyone's financial well-being. You're doing it so you can feel better about yourself. And that's what we call a profound character flaw.

5. Blindness To Own Failings
Everything that I've covered appears here. A lot of the people who call people on unemployment "lazy", they don't have any job security. But they think they're better. People like attacking the jobless and people on social programs because it makes them feel better about themselves, it numbs them to the fact that they could be on the chopping block. They don't really have security so they attack the lack of security or ability to advance of others. Another thing is the whole "UNION WORKERS ARE OVERPAID!", we've all heard it, I wonder if these people ever thought if they were underpaid.

It seems like right wing authoritarianism is here. It's in other areas of our culture. The question is, do we really want to see how far it can be entrenched into our country and way of life?

Here are some links explaining more:
http://mydd.com/users/paul-rosenberg/posts/rightwing-authoritarianism-and-conservative-identity-politics-pt-3-in-the-series
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1976107&mesg_id=1976107
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021258424