myrmepropagandist
Trump is an adept politician with an innate sense of what will sell. A sense is finely tuned to a portion of the population many of us have not much in-common with so it's easy to miss how he is appealing.
I just listened to a rambling word salad from him on abortion. And yet he managed to give an answer that would be acceptable to both the radical pro-life, people who don't care about abortion and people who think it should be legal "in some cases" 1/
myrmepropagandist
Trump's "base" isn't a monolith, that they seem to exist politically as a monolith is precisely the result of his skill in speaking to their feelings in a relatable and reasonable way ... despite the diversity of opinions in that group.
Trump fans don't have as much in common with each other as we sometimes think. The only real uniting theme is anti-intellectualism.
They were called "Know Nothings" because of the secrecy, but that name's other implications are not an accident. 2/
myrmepropagandist
"anti-intellectual" isn't just a fancy way of saying stupid. Intellectualism can be
elitist, corrosive. Productive critique is possible. Such a critique could lead to a more authentic, inclusive (effective) practice in the sciences.
Of course, this isn't what Trump offers. Not an empowering "you can know! You CAN understand the world." but rather "the people who said you didn't know aren't worth respecting (even if they are right, heck BECAUSE they are right)" It's all emotional. 3/
myrmepropagandist
More importantly his answer on abortion, rather than outline policy expressed the way republicans *feel* about abortion. He expressed religious righteousness, but also ambivalence "some women don't know they are pregnant at 5 weeks." He reaffirmed that "we are the good people" by pivoting to how Democrats are evil "HRC wants to rip the baby right out!"
This helps his audience regain a sense of moral clarity on an issue that can be morally difficult for them. 4/
myrmepropagandist
People will know and love people who have had abortions-- people will have had abortions *themselves* and still be anti-choice. They know this isn't a simple issue. The stories about women nearly dying, the little girls forced to have their rapists babies disturb pro-lifers as much as anyone. But if they can imagine that the issue is less complex: if it's about "ripping the baby out at 8 months" the distress caused by the complexity of the issue is gone. It feels good to "know" you are right.
5/
myrmepropagandist
Gotta be exhausting how Democrats keep making it complicated again.
Factually he said nothing. (Worse, he contradicted himself.) Emotionally? Ah! There he said much. He recognized the chaotic spectrum of feelings but then refocused those feelings as narrow white light, a laser-focused pure beam of righteous anger and of disgust. 5 weeks? 7 weeks? Heartbeats? Exceptions? Who knows. (who cares?) What really matters is: the other side is WRONG. We are the good people who know what is right. 6/6
S Bodzin, Real American 🇺🇸
@futurebird Sometimes I listen to his blah blah and it feels like an attempt to restore the former glory of middle school bullies who remain unable to process that the weirdos, geeks, brains, grinds, and other Others ended up running the world, while they're left paying child support and taxes.
Passenger
Anti-intellectual is indeed not the same as stupid, far from it. I think a lot of people miss that anti-intellectualism is very common in tech circles, where it takes the form of contempt for the humanities and a worship of (rather than understanding of) science.
"We've solved human civilisation!" they say, ignoring the writers who tackled the problem centuries before and warned them of the mistakes they're making.
"We've built a machine god!" they say, ignoring the researchers who understand the thing well enough to explain to them that no, they haven't.
I've noticed that a lot of this sort of tech person is also a fan of Trump (or his equivalents in other countries.)
David H. McCoy
Don’t overthink it. What he’s selling is racial superiority. People have been doing that for years.
Everything else is a secondary excuse.
In November, we will see how racist the US wishes to be. Some have shown that they are willing to be ruled by a dictator as long as he hits the Blacks(for example) more times than he hits them.
And they will be hit for that is the nature of oppression.
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