Ordinary fascism

I have written yesterday about an article that a friend of mine posted on a social network (here). The article claims to explain the racial and anti-homosexual prejudices as the result of lower cognitive ability and general intelligence. It is also claimed that this prejudices are channeled via supporting conservative and authoritarian ideologies.

Ironically, the article itself presents an example of the phenomenon that it claims to investigate: it effectively affirms the existing among "liberal/progressive" community prejudice that the people supporting conservative ideologies or right-wing parties are less educated and less intelligent. This prejudice is particularly strong in the overwhelmingly left-wing academic communities, the members of which, by virtue of their higher level of education, consider themselves intellectually superior to the typically conservative "blue collar" public.

A few additional comments
1. The article discussed is essentially fascist in nature (or as a minimum extremely prejudiced). Indeed, one could conceivably obtain a very similar text by taking an article from a Nazi-time research journal and replacing the references to "conservative/right-wing ideologies" by "Jews/Communists/Liberal democracies", and the references to "lower cognitive abilities/intelligence" by references to "inferior race/scull shape".

2. It is quite embarassing that my friend posted such an article in a public forum, and that it is overlooked by most and even "liked" by some.

3. I admit the possibility that the article might be itself a part of another scientific experiment, similar to Milgram experiment or Standford prison experiment (or perhaps my friend is conducting such an experiment): the authors might have on purpose posted an extremely prejudiced peace of work in order to see the public reaction, and demonstrate how the prejudices similar to those, that have been historically discredited within various kinds of authoritarian/conservative ideologies, quite successfuly continue to exist under the disguise of  "liberal/progressive/left-wing" (See my other post on non-liberal and non-progressive nature of many things called "liberal" and "progressive".)

New racism

Here is what passes nowadays for "research"... Those who are not blinded by either ideology will have difficulty setting this apart from the "research" conducted by Nazi scientists and others in the similar strain:
"Despite their important implications for interpersonal behaviors and relations, cognitive abilities have been largely ignored as explanations of prejudice. We proposed and tested mediation models in which lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of contact with out-groups. In an analysis of two large-scale, nationally representative United Kingdom data sets (N = 15,874), we found that lower general intelligence (g) in childhood predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via conservative ideology. A secondary analysis of a U.S. data set confirmed a predictive effect of poor abstract-reasoning skills on antihomosexual prejudice, a relation partially mediated by both authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact. All analyses controlled for education and socioeconomic status. Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit underappreciated, role in prejudice. Consequently, we recommend a heightened focus on cognitive ability in research on prejudice and a better integration of cognitive ability into prejudice models. "

While it is to be expected that lower intellectual abilities  and inabilities to distinguish "the shades of gray"  make it more likely for individuals to adopt extremist ideologies, the claim that extremism is limited to the conservative and right-wing ideologies is precisely what is terribly wrong with modern "intellectuals".

An unbiased person has no difficulty pointing out many instances of the "liberal" and "progressive" intolerance towards different opinions, religious convictions, policies etc.

Added later:
Perhaps, my my point will be clearer, if I point out the similarity of this research with the concept of "untermensch", which has earned a rather gruesome reputation throughout the XXth century.

Quiz: Which part of the political spectrum do you belong to?

Please answer "yes" or "no" to the following questions:

1. If everyone owned a gun, this would make people safer, because everyone would be able to protect himself/herself.

2. Every country should be allowed to have a nuclear weapon to defend itself from aggression.

3. High taxes and government regulations harm the economy and limit our freedom.

4.The internet content should be completely free from any government sensorship and regulations.


If your answers are "yes/no/yes/no" - you are a conservative (support Romney).

If your answers are "no/yes/no/yes" - you are a "progressive" (support Obama).

If your answers are "yes/yes/yes/yes" - you are a libertarian (support Ron Paul).

If your answers are "no/no/no/no" - you are a either a communist or a fascist (support your Leader)

If you have any different combination of answers - your political views are in contradiction with your views on economy.

If you have doubts about answering "yes" or "no" to at least one of the above questions - would you like to write an article for this blog?

A comment:
Obviously, logically questions 1 and 2, as well as 3 and 4, should be answered in the same way. Libertarian and communist/fascist views are the consistent ones. The former take the personal freedom to extreme, while the latter deny any freedom at all (for the sake of the common good, of course).