Donald Trump is a white terrorist. This is true both literally and on a more figurative level. As part of Trump’s coup plot, he incited his supporters to attack the US Capitol on his January 6th. It is also true that Trump and his agents have used a propaganda tactic known as “probabilistic terrorism” during and after his presidency. It promotes violence while maintaining a vaguely plausible denial.
It’s part of a larger pattern of behavior. Trump’s actions and rhetoric repeatedly underscore the threat of destruction, violence, conspiracy theories, apocalyptic imagery, and other dire consequences if he and his neo-fascist movement do not return to power. .
Trump has effectively demonstrated how white people, invented with European colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade, have functioned as forces of terror, violence, intimidation, and existential threat to black and brown people around the world. One of Trump’s favorite tactics is white victimism. His ability to frighten white people about their personal and collective safety and present himself as their protector and savior is one of his greatest powers.
As a recent fundraising email shows, Donald Trump is using his darkness and evil powers to great effect. The email begins with the ominous phrase, “I regret to inform you…”. This is familiar to too many Americans who have lost family and loved ones for their country. But those words only direct users to sites where Trump solicits donations to his fascist campaign, possibly leading to his PAC and legal defense fund as well.
For Trump and his followers to use such tactics as part of their fascist absurdity, when in reality Trump is downplaying all the best aspects of America as a nation and society. , is despicable even by his standards. Let’s not forget that this man avoided military service during the Vietnam War by having his doctors lie about non-existent bone spurs. He mocked Senator John McCain, a real war hero and Vietnam War POW who refused, as a “loser” and said, “I like people who weren’t captured.” referred to American soldiers killed in battle as “losers” and “suckers.”
But condemning Trump’s actions will never be enough to defeat him and the neo-fascist threat he represents. Trump and the current Republican Party have repeatedly shown that they do not care about human decency or virtue. They adore power above all else and delight in causing anger and disgust among their political opponents (and generally decent people).
Democrats are too eager to step into this trap and wonder why they are losing the battle to save American democracy. Renowned Republican strategist and “Never Trumper” Rick Wilson explained in a recent Salon interview:
Understanding how and why their appeals to terror, violence, and terrorism are so effective, and strategies to counter them, are part of the political campaign to stop Donald Trump and Republican fascists. and tactics must be developed.
White Americans with greater anxiety about death are more likely to support Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. More afraid of people outside.
what do we know Social psychologists and other researchers have repeatedly shown that white Americans with greater anxiety about death are more likely to support Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. “conservatives” exhibit socially dominant behaviors and are also more likely to have authoritarian personalities. People who are driven by authoritarian and socially dominant behavior are more likely to experience social change, differences, ambiguity, and social distancing outside their “tribe,” within their group, within their close family, and imaginary People outside the community are also more fearful.
Social scientists have shown that the white supremacist “great alternative” conspiracy theory is believed by a majority of Republicans and Trumpists. rooted in the fiction that it is in danger of being destroyed. Motivated by numerous violent crimes, including the massacre of 10 of his black people by a white supremacist in a Buffalo supermarket last May.
White right-wing evangelicals and Christian nationalists are the most loyal members of the Republican base and the most ardent supporters of Trump. Their religious mythology emphasizes “the end times” and other apocalyptic fantasies and magical thinking, focusing on visions of widespread destruction, death, and disaster. Some believers really want to see mass death and suffering as a sign of the coming “Rapture” and their eternal salvation.
Sociodemographers believe that premature death, suicide, homicide, crime, poverty, prescription drug abuse, and other forms of human misery and suffering actually account for more per capita “red states” than the more cosmopolitan America. We have repeatedly shown that there are more Americans. Progressive, prosperous and dynamic ‘blue’ cities and regions.
So many Trumpists and “conservatives,” especially in rural America, are so surrounded by suffering that they become hypersensitive to threats and fear of their own death. Moreover, many people living in affected red state communities falsely generalize that the entire country suffers in the same way they do. Enhanced and amplified across the right wing echo chamber.
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Because so many Americans are trapped in ideological and cultural silos and rarely communicate or come into meaningful contact with people who hold different values, the resulting impact is even more severe. Become. In a new essay for The Nation, historian Stephen Berry explains how whiteness, violence, anger and fear came together on January 6, 2021.
Comedian Jess Dweck said, “I didn’t know something could be terrifying at the same time. The riot may have been Saturnalia of Fools, but it must be taken seriously. There is an empowered minority, complaining, convinced that something has been stolen: elections, ‘way of life’, ‘birthright’, ‘lost causes’, Christmas, whatever ‘ It doesn’t matter if it gets stolen. Always it’s a defensive white male fantasy based on anxiety, helplessness and anger….
Underlying most modern American conspiracy theories is the white male fantasy, which has been tarnished and abused to justify the legitimacy of subsequent white male revenge and demonstrations of power and control. Indulge in a feeling of being dominated, dominated, or violated. There is nothing tastier in a white man’s mouth than resentment—neither a job nor a paycheck. Historian Gordon Fraser calls it “the libidinal pleasures of paranoia,” tracing the impulses from the “Illuminati Crisis” of 1798 to his 2016 Pizzagate.
Fear of white annihilation, destruction, and obsolescence in an increasingly diverse society has led the Republican Party and the larger “conservative” movement, for decades, to implement policies that have literally caused physical and emotional harm to voters. It is fueled by the methods it has advocated and enacted. As a practical matter, this perverse incentive structure works to create more white anger and despair against the “system,” “elite,” “big government,” etc., which Republicans weaponize and Redirects for black and brown people and anyone else they see. To be another person or in any way non-American.
It’s not entirely unreasonable that working-class whites fear extinction and obsolescence. For decades, Republicans have advocated and enacted policies that harmed their own voters.
This is an old American tale built on divide-and-conquer tactics and the “psychological rewards of being white.” White people with money and power know they can easily manipulate poor, working-class white people by appealing to white supremacy, racial resentment, entitlement, and fear. In Lyndon Johnson’s immortal words, “If you can convince the lowest white man that you’re better than the highest colored man, he won’t realize you’re picking up your pockets. Hell , give him someone to look down upon… and empty his pocket for you.”
In that sense, Trump and Republican Fascists are doing nothing new. Sinclair Lewis famously warned that fascism would come to America wrapped in flags and carrying crosses. It was prophetic. We can’t expect Lewis to have predicted the MAGA hat. Instead of running away from Trump and what he stands for, tens of millions of white Americans are rooting for him as their pioneer, hero, and savior. Such massive delusions are a defining feature of fascism and other destructive political ideologies and visions.
America is on the verge of self-destruction. Time is running out. Will Americans choose life or death? they will soon find out.
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