Some thoughts on "parents rights" - and why Conservatives focus on them 🧵

I've read a lot of posts and articles about so-called #ParentsRights.

They point out that politicians in #Canada use the phrase to:

diminish #ChildrensRights
cause or perpetuate harm to #LGBTQ individuals
gain support from religious groups
copy tactics used in the USA
demonstrate #transphobia
splinter LGBTQ solidarity
denigrate public education

All valid points - and maybe missing something?

Some thoughts on "parents rights" 🧵 /2

Consider these questions:

Would you say that it is more important for a child to be INDEPENDENT or
RESPECTFUL OF THEIR ELDERS?
Would you say that it is more important for a child to be OBEDIENT or SELF-RELIANT?
Would you say that it is more important for a child to be WELL-BEHAVED or CONSIDERATE?
Would you say that it is more important for a child to be CURIOUS or GOOD MANNERED?

Some thoughts on "parents rights" 🧵 /3

The four questions above are a proxy for measurements of an #authoritarian personality, independent of political beliefs (research shows that authoritarian disposition is not rare, and cuts across party allegiance).

But authoritarian personality is not fixed.

Some thoughts on "parents rights" 🧵 /4

The key thing to understand is that authoritarianism is often latent

People do not support extreme policies and #strongman leaders just out of an affirmative desire for #authoritarianism, but rather as a response to experiencing certain kinds of threats

when non-authoritarians feel sufficiently scared, they also start to behave, politically, like authoritarians

Some thoughts on "parents rights" 🧵 /5

#authoritarians feel threatened by people they identify as "outsiders" and by the possibility of changes to the status quo makeup of their communities

This would help explain why authoritarians seem so prone to reject not just one specific kind of outsider or social change, such as Muslims or same-sex couples or... migrants, but rather to reject all of them

authoritarians experience [the perceived threat to the status quo] as a threat to themselves

Some thoughts on "parents rights" 🧵 /6

So: why this concerted messaging, and why now?

I think it is:

much more than an attack on #LGBTQ individuals and communities
an attempt to activate latent #authoritarian beliefs - along with dire warnings about say the economy - and attract voters Conservatives would otherwise not reach
a possible precursor to a more overtly strongman - Hungarian? - style of #Conservative leadership (which fits with #Poilievre's recent change of appearance)