Distinct item content does not prove scales measure generalized authoritarianism.

Evidence

I would not be surprised if some factor analysis showed that the F and D Scale items did, after sufficient mashing in a computer, load on different factors. The tests appear different in many ways. (For one thing, the D Scale statements strike me as being less zany overall than the F Scale items.) But that would still not prove that the D Scale measures ”a generalized authoritarianism independent of a particular ideological content.” It would just show it measures something forcibly different. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 2599