HoosierDaddy, on 06 March 2024 - 02:00 PM, said:
Tapper, on 06 March 2024 - 10:52 AM, said:
HoosierDaddy, on 05 March 2024 - 01:12 PM, said:
It's one thing to fall in line because you just really, really like being in power and maintaining the status quo does that. It's another thing to latch on to someone as cult of personality. It's a 251st dimensional thing for that person to be DONALD TRUMP.
Like of all people... Donald Trump?
I love Obama. LOVE Obama. That's the next closest proxy for Trump's cult of personality. However, if that fucker did half the shit Trump did he'd be in prison in two seconds and be universally loathed. Myself included in said loathing.
But the thing about western culture is that it worships and elevates individuals. Capitalism (whether viewed as the escape of poverty through hard work as the American Dream purports or seen through the lens of meritocracy in which money is the measuring stick by which we compare personal skill: Elon Musk is the richest man on Earth, therefore he is worth listening to) is one pillar, media another. We love mavericks and vigilantes in our entertainment and they're part of culture for over seventy years. When the police and bureaucrats are consistently portrayed as incompetent, it's no wonder there's a place for the NRA in people's mind.
Arguing the system is broken and working against the common man has been a part of election promises everywhere since the 60s. Combine it with a politician who claims he is going to tear the system down and/or circumvent it, rather than work through it, and you arrive at Trump. The vagueness of his language and promises enhance the appeal, as everyone can read into it what they want: he promises a restoration of former glory and wealth but from what period he leaves to the imagination. So yes, for people who are dissatisfied but don't know with what, how or why or who just imagine they're worse off than their neighbours, he appeals.
The political system in the UK and the US with its focus on electing individual representatives per district rather than voting for a party doesn't help (and therefore the reliance on individuals to find funding through sponsorship and promises to lobbyists), but it's the lesser evil. In Europe, we see a rise of the far right as well, after all.
I understand
how this figure came about and
the conditions and environment that created the opportunity for
a person to fill this role. Populism and how it rises have some good historic evidence and examples to look to and have been referred to often as clear parallels. The government is bad and we need to tear it down has always been rampant on the conservative and libertarian right.
It's the fact that Trump is just so
awful of a human being to cling on to as your savior. A
trashbag turned into sentient meaty form. Why do they lose their collective shit over this person? What is there of worth in him as a heroic persona/savior like to many of them, to ever produce the desire to cling onto him?
I don’t know. As you say, he is a terrible person with despicable views and very few morals.
Maybe that’s why; he is the (young male) fantasy of what being successful entails: a medieval robber baron, basically, taking whatever he wants, giving in to the base hedonistic instincts. Let’s say that it takes a decade or two of adulthood to learn that lust, gluttony, envy and greed are cravings rather than bringing happiness or fulfilment, and even then, many fall into their trap during a personal crisis or as the result of a toxic environment?
My 25 year old self certainly skirted that edge.
From the conservative/industry lobbying groups and career politicians I get the cynical trade off; they don’t care about the man, just about the results. If your product is (indirectly) responsible for the deaths and discomfort of thousands without causing a loss of sleep at night, why refrain from dealing with someone because of their despicable personality?
I am however deeply puzzled by the rock solid support he gets from people who pride themselves on their morality (such as evangelicals). He is proudly living a life antithetical to their beliefs yet they somehow see him not just as a means to and end, but as the second coming of Christ.
Everyone is entitled to his own wrong opinion. - Lizrad