This essay is a return to the “Unified Theory of Fascism Series”. I took several weeks to address other topics in my weekly blog posts, and will now be continuing with this series for several weeks more. In-text links in this article refer to arguments presented in other articles in this series. References to works by other authors are cited in APA format.

Earlier essays in this series mentioned how conspiracy theories function as “grievance narratives” that appeal to the neurotic authoritarian by providing him with a means of externalizing his feelings of social and economic frustration. Individuals with authoritarian tendencies tend to undergo a “split” between the elements of the psyche, so that the id and the ego ally against the learned values of the super-ego.

It is this subjugation of the super-ego that makes it possible for an individual to profess belief in wild conspiracy theories, or to engage in acts of extreme violence. The incongruity between conspiracy theory narratives and everyday life is subjugated within the neurotic’s mind and constitutes a form of denial. Those issues may be referred to as “secondary dissonance”, because the neurotic authoritarian engages in a steadfast refusal to acknowledge those concerns, as doing so may threaten his ability to maintain belief in the social movement that provides his steady diet of grievance narratives.

Click here to read the remainder of this essay at the Otter Globe & Intelligencer website