Authoritarian development requires unusual clusters of converging childhood experiences

Evidence

Most parents, for example, are not as restrictive as Hugh’s but also not as white-knuckled permissive as Lou’s. In-groups may have been identified, but less strenuously than they were in Hugh’s family. But not many families deliberately jack up the children’s social consciousness, as Lou’s did. Unconventional behaviors and strange friends from different backgrounds are moderately accepted but hardly welcomed. Religion is present, but it does not dominate daily life. And so on. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1053

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the vault’s claim that authoritarianism is far-right specific (Cooper, Whitehead & Perry) and to childhood determinism debates; the ‘best products of a kind of childrearing’ framing parallels Altemeyer’s earlier chapter claims about RWA origins.