Anyone who regularly follows politics, as I’m certain most UT students do, is likely familiar with a new phenomenon in public discourse. As domestic opposition to the Bush administration grows, many on the political left – rightly or wrongly – seem to be calling those on the political right “fascists.” Unquestionably this word is meant to sound an alarm and incite activism in a largely dormant population, yet it does not carry the ominous clout it once did.
To fully understand the significance of the accusation, it is necessary to revisit our grandparents’ generation. To this generation fascism was an immediate threat to humanity, a force that required tens of millions of lives to crush. It then makes sense, after fascism’s defeat in World War II, that professionals from all fields would contribute all they could to prevent fascism from ever rising again.
Psychology was no exception. In what I believe is the most fascinating contribution to the anti-fascist cause, Theodor Adorno and his colleagues attempted to construct a personality test capable of predicting one’s potential for fascist beliefs. A test was constructed, the F-Scale, that could supposedly detect “authoritarian personalities.” According to Adorno, this breakthrough enabled fascists to be rooted out before they rose to power.
With the recent resurgence in accusations of fascism, the tool of the authoritarian personality test is simply too perfect to ignore. Using the F-Scale on prominent political pundits and players on the right may indicate whether the left’s claims are prophetic warnings of a dark future or opportunistic scare-tactics. The F-Scale uses nine subcategories of personality; one’s inclination to each subcategory indicates a greater likelihood of an authoritarian personality.
To begin with, conventionalism, authoritarian submission and authoritarian aggression are some warning signs. The first two deal with one’s tendency to submit to authority figures and tradition while the latter means an aggressive attitude towards those disliked by authority figures.
A strong sense of conventionalism and a commitment to tradition permeates the thought of Rush Limbaugh. Widely renowned for his family values, Limbaugh extols his Christian morality to such an extent as to say that the United States Constitution is only valid for a society abiding by traditional morals.
Needless to say, those that don’t agree with these traditional morals than become the subjects of authoritarian aggression. Ann Coulter has called for public flogging for juvenile delinquents. She also spoke in favor of the invasion of Muslim countries in order to “convert them to Christianity,” using the supposed “success” of past efforts in Japan and Korea as a precedent.
The F-Scale also singles out power and toughness as well as destructiveness and cynicism for potential authoritarian personalities. Lucky for us, Bill O’Reilly fits the bill across the board. Incensed over a San Franciscan protest over military recruiting, O’Reilly proposed that the city of San Francisco be barred from receiving federal funding and protection. This clearly shows O’Reilly’s excessive emphasis on identifying with those in power. Regarding destructiveness and cynicism, they are meant to evaluate a general hostility, one that may label, as O’Reilly does, the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) the “most dangerous organization in the United States of America.”
A final sign of authoritarian personality is an exaggerated concern with respect to sexual activity. Right-wing political activist Pat Robertson immediately comes to mind here. According to Robertson, accepting homosexuality is the last step in the decline of civilization. Taking it a step further, he foreshadows a future of hurricanes, earthquakes, terrorist bombings, meteors, and tornadoes for the society that accepts homosexuality.
In our age of political correctness, it is rare for anyone to explicitly advocate fascist policies. Nevertheless, this group of right-wing political pundits, heard regularly by millions of Americans, are shockingly bold about it. After reviewing some of the best-known right-wing ideologues by the F-Scale, it appears that current accusations by the left are somewhat justified. This does not mean that the United States will be transformed overnight into some Orwellian dystopia. But it does mean that, according to valid psychological authorities, the potential for fascism exists in major players on the political right.