If you listened to the media and to the Disinformation Project, you would think that only right-wing people are violent & aggressive protesters. The problem is that violent left-wing activism has cropped up frequently in the U.S. in recent years, most notably during the summer of 2020, when activists destroyed the downtown areas of major cities during protests around the death of George Floyd. And there was the attempted murder by a pro-abortionist of a Supreme Court justice after the leaking of the draft of an opinion by the Supreme Court signaling that it is positioned to overturn Roe v. Wade. Even here in NZ, we saw violence from trans rights activists at the Posie Parker rally. A new study came out over the weekend, arguing that left-wing extremism and aggression are linked to psychopathic and narcissistic tendencies.
TRANSCRIPT
If you listened to the media and to the Disinformation Project, you would think that only right wing people are protestors, haters, aggressive, phobics and have personal issues.
Remember their report at the beginning of 2022 which said:
“The most recent Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccine are highly visible, potent symbols used to push various far-right and conservative ideologies around issues such as… ‘free speech’; faith (Christian evangelical or Pentecostal); abortion; euthanasia; cannabis law reform; families and family structure; LGBTQIA+ rights, including conversion therapy; immigration; race; and gender.”
And the documentary “Web of Chaos” funded by you – via NZ on Air – “A deep dive into the world of disinformation, exploring why it’s spreading at pace throughout Aotearoa and the world, with specialists warning of striking consequences for social cohesion and democracy.”
In fact, right wing people are so problematic that if you’re a trad wife who prefers to take a traditional role in marriage, including the beliefs that a woman does not lose anything by “choosing” to stay at home and by doing so can support their family needs better”, and white, christian, into cooking with your children, on Instagram or Pinterest, interior design, knitting, children’s clothing, healthy food for children – then you’re being drawn into white nationalist ideas. Right wing. You are the problem.
The problem is that violent LEFT-wing activism has cropped up frequently in the U.S. in recent years, most notably during the summer of 2020, when activists destroyed the downtown areas of major cities during protests around the death of George Floyd.
And there was the attempted murder by a pro-abortionist of a Supreme Court justice after the leaking of the draft of an opinion by the Supreme Court signaling that it is positioned to overturn Roe v. Wade.
And even here in NZ, we saw violence from trans rights activists at the Posie Parker rally.
A new study came out over the weekend, arguing that left-wing extremism and aggression are linked to psychopathic and narcissistic tendencies.”
So the study is entitled Understanding left-wing authoritarianism: Relations to the dark personality traits, altruism, and social justice commitment and has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Current Psychology. The lead author is the head of the Educational Psychology Lab at the University of Bern in Switzerland.
Let’s have a read. The first thing the paper does is acknowledge violent protests attributed to the right – including some of the extremist individuals involved in January 6 2021 in the US.
I would add the neo-Nazis that gatecrashed Posie Parker’s rally in Melbourne, and some would argue that it was right-wing extremism present at the Parliamentary Protest against the mandates, in the final days – although surveys of political allegiance amongst the crowd actually showed that there was an even spread of right and left wing ideology present.
The paper says “In the past, authoritarianism has been dominantly investigated in individuals with right-wing political ideologies” – think The Disinformation Project – and that the notion of left-wing authoritarianism (LWA) has been met with skepticism by many researchers.
But this study argues that people with narcissistic or psychopathic tendencies are more likely to strongly endorse left-wing aggression against authority, and tend to be drawn more to certain aggressive left-wing political and social activities. As I mentioned, some of these protests included violence, clashes with the police, vandalism, looting, or other significant destruction of local businesses and communities.
Their desire to engage in these activities is not always rooted in a genuine desire for social justice, though, but rather is a way to satisfy their ego, the study suggests.
The study introduced a new term for this behaviour called the “dark-ego-vehicle principle.” “According to this principle, individuals with dark personalities – such as high narcissistic and psychopathic traits – are attracted to certain forms of political and social activism which they can use as a vehicle to satisfy their own ego-focused needs instead of actually aiming at social justice and equality,”
The study was actually made up of two studies, both of which found that “individuals who strongly endorse anti-hierarchical aggression to overthrow those in power are narcissistic individuals with psychopathic attributes and thus driven by ego-focused motives.”
The authors said – “In particular, certain forms of activism might provide them with opportunities for positive self-presentation and displays of moral superiority, to gain social status, to dominate others, and to engage in social conflicts and aggression to satisfy their need for thrill seeking,”
The study authors warned that, “minority groups should be made aware of the narcissistic ‘enemies’ from within their activist movement, as these individuals could hijack the cause thereby reducing the success of the activism in many ways.”
Narcissists pretend to be prosocial, they said, but actually tend to have “low empathy,” the authors said.
The authors said they wanted to investigate the personality traits linked with left-wing authoritarianism because the concept has been met with skepticism by many researchers and there is not a lot of research on the subject.
They said. “We were interested in the psychological factors behind authoritarianism. There is a wide range of literature and research in the field of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). However, research on authoritarianism observed in individuals who are supportive of left-wing political ideologies are still rare.”
They defined left-wing authoritarianism as a combination of three things,
- anti-hierarchical aggression or wanting to use force to overthrow established hierarchies,
- anti-conventionalism or embracing progressive moral values,
- and top-down censorship
- or wanting to use the government to suppress speech.
The authors cautioned, however, that authoritarianism can be found on both sides of the political spectrum.
Yes they can – absolutely – but when a left wing statement like this is made…
KEN – EMBED THIS https://youtu.be/J58R8ph4xE0
…the Disinformation Project is nowhere to be seen or heard. Despite the factual errors being stated. If you’re going to call yourself the Disinformation Project, deal with ALL disinformation – but of course they don’t. And that’s why they have zero credibility.
This latest study concludes that “some leftist political activists do not actually strive for social justice and equality but rather use political activism to endorse or exercise violence against others to satisfy their own ego-focused needs.”
Just one other thing – the paper referred to another study from the end of last year – by the Polarization Research Lab which surveys politics and polarisation, and their survey showed that even though most followers of both political sides reject violence, some left-wingers (that’s the blue bars – Democrat voters) are more likely than right-wingers (red bar Republicans) to endorse assaulting or even murdering their political opponents.
Let’s be clear.
There are extremists on both sides – no denying that – but until we’re willing to call out both extremities and call ALL violence, threats and vandalism unacceptable, then we’ll never solve the problem. That’s the exact point being made with this new study.
I might send a copy to the Disinformation Project.
