Bob Altemeyer Quotes

So do fundamentalists believe in majority rights or minority rights? The answer is, apparently, neither. They'll pull whichever argument suits them out of its file when necessary, but basically they are unprincipled on the issue of school prayer. They have a big double standard that basically says, "Whatever I want is right.

Bob Altemeyer

• Believe
• Prayer
• Argument

Authoritarianism is something authoritarian followers and authoritarian leaders cook up along themselves. It happens when the followers submit too much to the leaders, trust them too much, and give them too much leeway to do whatever they want--which is often something undemocratic, tyrannical and brutal.

Bob Altemeyer

• Leaders
• Authoritarianism
• Tyrannical

Dogmatism is by far the best fall-back defense, the most impregnable castle, that ignorance can find. It's also a dead give-away that the person doesn't know why he believes what he believes.

Bob Altemeyer

• Ignorance
• Defense
• Believes

Once dogmatism turns out the lights, you might as well close up shop as a civilization and pull up the covers as a sentient life form. You get nowhere with unquestioning certainty. It's thinking with your mind wide shut.

Bob Altemeyer

• Life
• Mind
• Civilization

Nothing shows lack of conscience better than bold-faced lying.

Bob Altemeyer

• Shows
• Conscience
• Lack

I have never said authoritarians are pathological.

Bob Altemeyer

• Pathological
• Authoritarians