To keep it short the reason why some people are ok with authoritarianism is because most structures that we deal with on a daily basis are authoritarian.
Here is evidence that shows a significant amount of people are ok with authoritarianism:
This should be concerning.
And the thing is that it makes sense once you look at what are the most common systems that people interact with the most.
A clear example would be the Boss-Worker relationship. The boss creates a set of objectives/tasks for the worker and the worker sees them out. Rarely does the worker get the chance to set the higher level direction of what they are supposed to be doing with their time leaving them obedient to the boss and their demands.
Another example would be some Parent-Child relationships. Some parents treat their children as people that should show absolute respect towards them just because they are the parents not because they have something that is of value to the child (experience).
Even in the places where we do make democratic decisions those are usually made in ways that are supposed to be supplemental to authoritative decision making. An example would be how we don’t vote on decisions but instead how we vote on others to make decisions for us.
Once you add up all the experiences that someone has throughout their whole life you will see that most of them come into direct contact with authoritarian systems which means it makes that kind of way of thinking familiar and therefore acceptable.
Unlike democracy which is an abstract concept and something we only really experience from time to time.
If we want people to actually stop thinking authoritarianism is ok then we as a society are gonna have to stop using these kinds of systems / ways of thinking in our daily lives.
People are okay with allowing things they imagine benefiting from the same way they’re ok with prohibiting things that don’t affect them.
Banning abortion is okay because they’re not going to do abortion. Banning tiktok is fine because they don’t use tiktok. Eating the rich is good because they’re not rich. Getting rid of capitalism is good because they’re not benefiting from it and so on.
It’s quite rare for a person to be for or against something only because they think it’s the right thing to do even if it ends up hurting them as an individual. In my view the only way to arrive at something even resembling a moral truth is by imagining that you’re then going to be placed in that society but you wont know into which role. For example if you know there’s a chance you’re going to spawn as a black person then you’re probably not going to advocate for something that disadvantages blacks but equally you might spawn as rich aswell so you shouldn’t be too excited about getting capital punishment for it either.
Does eat the rich really mean capital punishment for them? I thought it was just a meme way to say expropriate and redistribute their resources.
It’s not uncommon for people to call for their beheading with a guillotine aswell. Some are jokin, some are not. I think it’s safe to assume they would take their opposition literally in a equivalent situation instead of giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Guillotine yeah I am sure some mean that literally. But eat the rich is clearly a metaphor I think. I don’t think people saying this are actual cannibals. But it would be an interesting poll to hear what people actually mean. If there are a lot of people who are actually wanting to kill people I would be more prone to oppose that language since I don’t support capital punishment (much less extra-judicial killings).