I referred you to Altemeyer's novella for a particularly readable introductory overview. Not that he isn't a heavyweight in the field, but he's retired now, and the writing struck me as a bit of a swan song. But my understanding of how right wing minds work has many more sources.

I never said that t"he modern conservative [is] determined to slavishly follow the opinions of government authorities". Not sure how you might have gotten that from Altemeyer (I know it's pretty long; I can understand skimming it after a few dozen pages).

The best way to illustrate how I view the phenomenon of the followers is dramatically illustrated by Trump, and the other demagogues that want to seize the highest office in the government by sowing disaffection toward government.

The demagogue who's trying to take over a democracy is trying to seduce away their affections from the current regime.

And Trump most vividly illustrates the natural pitch of the demagogue to the RWAs, the strong man and the strong father figure (remember that American RWAs are publicly pining for Vladimir Putin's firm hand at the American helm). Only He can save us, the current (elected) government is too weak to be legitimate.

Watch Trump wield the eternal one-two punch of protection from boogeymen and a cornucopia of goodies for his followers.

It's possible to take a compassionate view of gun hoarders and survivalists and preppers and sovereign citizens: They want to be armed because they're afraid. And they explicitly don't trust the government to protect them. Those are RWAs looking for a strong leader to shelter them and lead them to the promised land.

The rest of the paragraph is quite a laundry list of stuff, but here you're getting away from the core concept of the right wing authoritarian. It's a psychology, not a grab bag of talking points. The RWA architecture heavily influences a person's predilection to take or reject one or more of those positions. Plus, many of those things are tactics, not ideas: armed rebellion and vigilantism are tools to achieve some end or scratch some itch, and I would answer that RWAs use those tactics when they're afraid and angry.

I never said that RWA "brains are improperly wired". That would be a ridiculous statement to make given the numbers of RWAs in the population. It's like saying that "lefties are improperly handed" or "blue eyes are improperly colored". Nope, I'm sad to say, RWA is a normal every day reality for a huge percentage of our fellow humans.

. I’ve heard the point of view expressed right here on the Zone that the evasion of taxes, and even smuggling in order to avoid tariffs, (which was, by the way, John Hancock’s profession) are civic virtues.

You will hear much bullshit at the HabitableZone, grasshopper. You will hear Robert Heinlein revered as a great and wise guru, and Ayn Rand as a scholar and a philosopher. Yes, grasshopper, much adolescent bullshit indeed!