What the Baraboo High salute really means....

[certainot]

The photo of the Baraboo High School boys giving the nazi salute in Wisconsin says a lot about authoritarianism and fascism, according to the Sex On the Wrong Brain (SOWB) theory of human behavior.

Hitler wrote that the salute evolved from a greeting signaling “See, my right hand is empty! I’m unarmed! I come in peace!” Sure thing, Adolph.

Some of the high schoolers may be young budding authoritarians and fascists. Some were just going along to be part of the class, and some may have felt intimidated. Research into authoritarians suggests both environmental and genetic (ref below) factors may be involved in determining their susceptibility to authoritarianism. 

But what motivates authoritarians has been narrowed down to an increased need to avoid uncertainty. Authoritarianism in groups and populations is commonly compared using the UAI, or Uncertainty Avoidance Index. They need certainty more than liberals do.

The authors of “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition” (2003, Jost, Kruglanski, Glaser, Sulloway) studied a wide range of theories and research addressing authoritarianism:

The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and justification of inequality and is motivated by needs that vary situationally and dispositionally to manage uncertainty and threat.

According the Sex On the Wrong Brain theory, the irrational need for certainty may be caused when impatient satisfaction-demanding reproductive energy is associated with parts of the brain that are supposed to be patient and objective.

Thought processes that are supposed to be logical and fact-based are hurried to reach premature conclusions. Thinking is like unwanted foreplay. That sex energy wants quick easy answers and finality to end the thinking. It wants certainty.

But the universe is complicated and infinite. Nature is a constant source of uncertainty. There are no quick easy answers and the irrational need to avoid uncertainty only produces stress and fear.

To ease the fear authoritarians are drawn to leaders and alternate realities that offer order and structure, that simplify the complex, judge the world in black and white absolutes, and impose conformity and predictability. Nature’s uncertainties must be controlled or destroyed.

The pleasure of certainty

Authoritarians have to use creativity to create certainty. They need alternate facts to deny the truth and rationalize the irrational. That’s when some of that misdirected sex energy escapes to the creative parts of the brain, where it was supposed to go in the first place, and finds freedom and satisfaction.

That is the reward for ignoring reality and accepting the lies. For authoritarian leaders certainty is the currency of power, more valuable than gold and more important than truth.

But how does that reproductive energy get misdirected in the first place?

One thing you can say for sure about those boys in the photo is they are overwhelmingly right handed. Statistically maybe 1 in 10 was born left handed but the southpaws may have decided to use their right hand on this occasion. Or maybe they had long ago converted to right handedness to avoid bullying or just to fit in. A few didn’t salute, maybe they were left handed.

That’s the problem. Without sex education, by default, the vast majority of those boys just spent 6 or 8 frustrated years learning sex with the tool hand, the sword and hammer hand, the hand most connected with the practical, logical, and problem solving functions of the brain.

So did most right handers, but whether it's environmental or genetics, authoritarians must have a low tolerance for sex on the wrong brain.

What that salute really means is, “I’m a right handed masturbator!”



xxxxxxx

‘‘Obedience to traditional authority:’’ A heritable factor underlying authoritarianism, conservatism and religiousness  —  Steven Ludeke a,⇑, Wendy Johnson b, Thomas J. Bouchard Jr

Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Religiousness, and Conservatism are different measures of a single underlying trait.

[tblue37]

1. I posted a thread about the difference between the way those boys' "freedom of expression"

was treated and the way two other kids' freedom of expression was handled by their school:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211471940

[certainot]

2. i suspect there are rw radio blowhards in wis and maybe even nationally who

would make excuses for those baraboo scumbags but they all spent years since kaepernick knelt attacking him and anyone else who did - questioning their patriotism and generally being racist assholes

talk radio's a big reason these examples of double standards and hypocrisy are normal now