Psychologists surveyed hundreds of alt-right supporters. The results are unsettling.

[MrScorpio]

By Brian Resnick@[e-mail] Updated Aug 10, 2018, 11:42am EDT

The white supremacists marching at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year were not ashamed when they shouted, “Jews will not replace us.” They were not ashamed to wear Nazi symbols, to carry torches, to harass and beat counterprotesters. They wanted their beliefs on display.

It’s easy to treat people like them as straw men: one-dimensional, backward beings fueled by hatred and ignorance. But if we want to prevent the spread of extremist, supremacist views, we need to understand how these views form and why they stick in the minds of some people.

It’s important because they’re not going away. This weekend in Washington, DC, a second Unite the Right rally will convene. No one is really sure how many white nationalists will attend, or if the counterprotesters will greatly outnumber them. But they plan to meet in front of the White House to once again put their beliefs on proud display.

Last year, psychologists Patrick Forscher and Nour Kteily recruited members of the alt-right (a.k.a. the “alternative right,” the catchall political identity of white nationalists) to participate in a study to build the first psychological profile of their movement. The results, which were released in August 2017, are just in working paper form and have yet to be peer-reviewed or published in an academic journal.

That said, the study uses well-established psychological measures and is clear about its limitations. All the researchers’ raw data and materials have been posted online for others to review. Meanwhile, Forscher and Kteily are working on an extended, more rigorous version of the survey, which will pull from a nationally representative sample of Trump voters. (Read more about their plans here.)

So while last year’s survey is a preliminary assessment, it validates some common perceptions of the alt-right with data. It helps us understand this group not just as straw men but as people with knowable motivations.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/15/16144070/psychology-alt-right-unite-the-right

[davsand]

1. If they aren't ashamed then publicize their pictures.

Let public response to them demonstrate the norms of behavior. If that response is negative maybe it will quell further outbursts. After they start facing job loss, loss of status, or loss of friends maybe then they'll learn to STFU.

If I go out and protest my local conservative Republican congressman I accept there might be repercussions. Let these asshats face it too. Take pictures of EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Post them everywhere. Over and over again. We will know who they are from this day forward. Hold them up to scrutiny and scorn. No violence needed. Let public scorn take care of the problem.

March as much as you want little nazi. Show your ass and your impotent rage just as often as you like. I got my camera right here.



Laure

[erronis]

2. Totally agree. Since our lives are becoming public, let's show these cowards' faces

The helter-skelter system of LE throughout the US (from villages to towns to counties to states to federal) make sure we can't coordinate identification of the hate-mongerors (or the rest of us....)

Of course, in the south they may take advantage of this lack of information coordination. CORRECTION: most of the country (NYC, CHI, LA, etc.) also use lack of coordination to perpetrate their assaults on society.

KUDOS to cellphone videos, ProPublica, DU, TPM, TheGuardian, etc. These are what are trying to keep us honest.

[loyalsister]

3. Implications for thinking about our responses

The question about "evolved" state of various groups is extremely important and warrants some self reflection. It is what measured the callousness underneath the behaviors. I am becoming very cautious of applying the concept of "evolved" as a claim of my own group superiority. We are in danger of visiting the kind of damage we fear on a different group and perpetuating and amplifying hate.

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[Hortensis]

5. Look up authoritarian right to get properly scared.

These nice people are a lot more what this huge, fascistic threat looks like. Good conforming grooming and well tended front yards and cars are far better clues than tattoos and faschie haircuts.