outlook magazine - The Website
15 October 2017
There Is A Psychological Reason Why Right-Wing Supporters Are Openly Uncivil, Abusive And Misogynistic
Ashok Swain
A lot has been written about loutishness and vulgarity of Hindutva
supporters in public discourse, particularly in social media. Most of
these votaries are anonymous or unknown trolls, but there are also some
well-known personalities who are openly expressing communally
provocative and utterly offensive views. These Hindutva supporters are
not always with low level of education nor their threats and abuse
limited to only the social media space of Twitter, Facebook and
WhatsApp.
For my criticism of Hindutva politics, I have been
regularly abused by some Indian origin academics working in various
parts of the world. I have studied or worked with some of them before
and have even helped them professionally. Even in Sweden where I live,
some of them send me nasty emails accusing me as traitor and even have
complained to Indian authorities. It is pretty extraordinary behavior by
highly educated academics when you think about it.
It is a fact
that most of the academia hold a liberal- and left-to-the-centre views.
Left-wingers lean towards compassion, egalitarianism, and
individuality, whereas right wingers have a tendency for order, and
tradition. Higher level education usually promotes social liberalism and
openness to ‘other’ ideas and views. A recent survey finds out eight out of ten university lecturers in the UK are liberal or hold left-wing views.
In
the social sciences and humanities, it is difficult to even find
right-wing academics. Not only people with left-leaning views opt for
academic career, the academic environment also generally does not show
genuine affection to people with rightwing views. It is quite common
that the right-wing politicians are considered to be physically more
attractive to electorates than those on the left. However, as a study finds out,
though right-leaning scholars are better groomed, the left-leaning
scholars are considered to be even more attractive in academic circle.
Recently, scientific studies
have confirmed that people with conservative views tend to score low in
intelligence. People with low intelligence are attracted to socially
conservative ideologies as it tends to offer structure and order. They
also tend to interact less with other racial, religious or ethnic groups
as they find it emotionally taxing and mentally draining.
Unfortunately, many of the features of the socially conservative
ideologies further contribute to prejudices against other groups,
creating a vicious cycle. This is what India’s rightwing revolution has
witnessed in recent years. Only a person with low intelligence can
sincerely believe his or her religion is in danger with having 80
percent of majority in a country and with 70 years of uninterrupted
control over country’s political and economic power.
In general, conservatism and intelligence are negatively correlated, but it does not mean all rightwing conservatives are stupid and all left leaning liberals are smart.
Of
course, there are exceptions. Though much less in numbers, there is a
smaller group of highly educated Indian academics and intellectuals not
only support right-wing socially conservative views but also quite open
about their anti-minority prejudices in their writings as well as while
expressing their views in social media. Often, they are not only
offensive but also abusive about minorities and their socio-religious
customs and practices. In spite of being aware of the history and
diversity of the country, they regularly use highly controversial and
clearly manufactured facts and figures to promote Hindutva brand of one
leader, one religion, one language India. They openly support regime’s
anti-democratic intolerance towards dissent in the name of promoting
order in society. In the name of national security, they even do not
hesitate to brand women and children of fleeing Rohingya refugees as
terrorists.
It is not unexpected from right-wing supporters with
low intelligence to be openly uncivil, abusive and misogynistic.
However, when these blinkered views are expressed by highly educated
rightwing academics, it can only be explained by their political
psychology. Several studies by political psychologists have come into
the conclusion in the last one and half decade that the rightwing conservatives and left-leaning liberals are different people at the level of personality and psychology.
Being their cognitive styles
are quite different, evidence from a number of laboratories around the
world using a variety of methodological techniques have led to almost
definite conclusion that rightwing people have a huge negative bias.
The
right-wing social conservatives are psychologically more acclimatized
to threatening and repulsive incitements in their environments. They
have increased epistemic need for order and certainty and intolerance
for any change, and suffer from existential concerns such as perceptions
of danger and being highly sensitive to threat. Thus, a major part of
the right-wing political philosophy in India asks for strong military
even at the cost of human rights violation, tough law and order even it
leads to innocent minorities and Dalits being killed or jailed, and
opposition to ‘outsiders’ even if they are innocent civilians fleeing
from persecution. Negative political psychology of a few highly educated
rightwing academics and intellectuals, however, helps in giving a
semblance of legitimacy to a low-in-intelligence rightwing mob to
incessantly occupy the public discourse with their bigoted and
misogynistic beliefs and notions.
In taking a critical approach
as left-leaning liberals do towards the social order and political
authority needs sophisticated and abstract thinking. On the other hand,
as John Stuart Mill had written in way back in 1861 to adhere to
conservative ideas does not require much intellectual agility or
imagination as it works towards upholding tradition and status quo.
Unfortunately, an increasing number of academics and intellectuals in
India, who even do not suffer from negative bias have succumbed to the
trend of taking a mental rest and joining the right-wing revolution of
people with low intelligence.
The writer is professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, Sweden.