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Trump knew how to speak their language. Trump didn't speak my language. I'm tough when I need to be. However, I'm cut more from the intellectual cloth. I come from a white collar upbringing. You could tell me "China is eating our lunch" and I'll look at you like you're stupid. For starters, I'm kind of a nerdy person. I grew up reading alot of non-fiction, for the fun of it. You can't speak to me the way you speak to someone who works at the docks. For starters, I read about geopolitics. I expect YOU to be up to speed. Pulling that "tough guy" stuff doesn't work with me. In my home, toughness wasn't always measured by how much pain you could take. It was about how long you could endure until the job was done.
This explains why the more educated upper middle class hates hates hates Trump. He is not refined, he is a loudmouth, he speaks to the less educated classes.
You don't hate Trump because he's a racist or a Nazi (he isn't). You hate him because of his uncouth personality. You don't want him at your dinner parties. It would embarrass you and your snooty friends.
I believe the Trump phenomenon is largely motivated by a desire for male toughness, both from men and from women who love men.
Maybe one reason progressives hate Trump so much is his tough guy persona. And that might be one reason his followers love him so much.
I agree with this. People like to think they are tough, and Trump is an extension of their toughness. The reality is most people that like Trump aren't overly tough, most people in general aren't overly tough. In some ways Trump serves as a by proxy penis extension for some men, not unlike buying a brand-new shiny red convertible Corvette. For president of the US maybe it's better to have a used Dodge Truck.
I think some of the true "Trump haters" aren't able to get past the complete hypocrisy of Trump portraying a tough guy, when really, he comes from massive privilege and didn't face the hardships many if not most regular Americans have. Other non-Trump voters may see him for what he is a flashy Red Corvette, but not a suitable president of the US.
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Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA
Looks like a good read - thanks! Have you read Umberto Eco's essay on ur-fascism? Delves into the "contempt for the weak" quite a bit.
Being Danish, I'm sure you can read Swedish (the original language) at least a basic level. The posted book is the 1989 English translation of Ofstad's 1971 work. He was a professor of Applied Philosophy at University of Stockholm during the late 20th Century. He turned 18 the year the Nazis conquered his home country of Norway. I'm sure being both "racially acceptable" and under the Nazi thumb gave Ofstad a unique view of what Naziism was all about.
As for Eco, I read his "Fourteen Points of Fascism", but not Ur-Fascism. Yet I did read "Our Macho Society" chapter from James A Michener's book This Noble Land: My Vision For America (published the same year as Ur-Fascism, 1995). I also read from that same book "The Young Colonels". Those chapters (the whole book, really) implicitly addresses the fascist direction this country's been slowly moving towards since at least the late 1970s - slowly but surely.
Also helpful is J. Wes Ulm's 2010 article "What Darwin Did Not Mean: How Social Darwinism Fails Us". It focuses on the business and economic perspective, especially in light of the 2008 Financial Crisis, but it definitely shows why dog-eat-dog gladiatorial paradigms are more expensive in the long run, even if they do make boatloads of money for the managers and shareholders in the short run.
Yes, young black males killing other young black males accounts for a very large percent of murders in this country. And I think it is because of the gang drug culture, that for some reason took hold in poor black neighborhoods. When these young murderers get older, they stop wanting to kill.
Instead of trying to find the real reasons for black violence, systemic racism is blamed. So the problem can never be solved, since racism is obviously not the cause.
Blacks are more likely to resent white cops, and white cops are more likely to be suspicious of young black men. For very good reasons. (However, white cops are NOT more likely to kill black suspects, that is a myth.)
It is the drug and gang culture, where violence is the acceptable way of resolving differences. These young men prove themselves and find self worth by being violent.
You want this culture of violence to end? Stop blaming racism and stop blaming white cops. We don't know why George Floyd was killed (or died), so why did almost everyone assume it was racism?
Is that literally the only part of my post you were interested in? This is exactly why I didn't want to bring this up. I knew it would be the only thing some people want to discuss. I brought up that part, in addition to the rest of the post. What about the rest of the post? There is a reason I brought those things up too. If that was really all you wanted to discuss, why did you even bother responding to my post?
Men have no more say about anything in this country and we’re being silenced right and left and if you’re masculine traditional guy, forget it. They’re literally trying to bury you. The entire social media platforms out there just banned and silenced Andrew Tate for example. I get it he’s controversial and extremely outspoken. But they took things that he stood for and completely took them out of context. Dramatized everything and made it sound more extreme than it was. Just like they always do. Millions and millions and millions of men across this country are hungry to be allowed to exhibit their masculinity. And they Agreed with him 110% and so they shut him down. Welcome to the feminist Nazi movement of America.
This explains why the more educated upper middle class hates hates hates Trump. He is not refined, he is a loudmouth, he speaks to the less educated classes.
You don't hate Trump because he's a racist or a Nazi (he isn't). You hate him because of his uncouth personality. You don't want him at your dinner parties. It would embarrass you and your snooty friends.
I don't even relate to the snooty people. I relate to nerds and bookworm types.
By the way, I know many middle class people who voted for Trump, many who are white collar. Same persons who voted for Bush, McCain, and Romney.
I do find Trump to be kind of racist. I haven't forgotten his comments towards the Central Park 5. I haven't forgotten those "Blacks counting my money, I hate it" comment. His racially charged tweet directed at then-President Obama. His "look at my African-American over there" comment in Redding, CA. By the way, Gregory Cheadle, real estate businessman and person whom Trump was talking about at said rally, eventually grew to hate Trump.
You already know this, but likely to ensure survival at a group level.
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2. Is our contempt simply our basebrain animalist impulse's inability to distinguish between "inability to stop a bad thing" with "consciously and deliberately allowing (or wishing) for that bad thing to happen"?
I think I see what you're saying, and I'd say yes. The lizard brain is for emotion-driven/driving, quick, "fuzzy logic" (not sure if that's the right term) calculations, and is IMO characterized by self-unawareness. It does not have a goal, it is simply there: naturally selected because it works out evolutionarily more often than not, so to speak. If any Pavlovian pleasure is derived from such an impulse, it runs the risk of being self-enforcing in a sort of positive feedback loop. This reminds me of how people create their own drama because they secretly love it, or the fact that cats like to kill just for fun and play with their kill, perhaps not even eating them. The latter also serves the function of practice/honing skills. Even though it may waste energy occasionally, as long it is advantageous towards meta-stable reproduction, it is selected for.
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Which really is worse, human extinction? Or a cruel and callous future humanity (essentially a predatory reptile with an oversized brain and complex tool kit set)?
Great question. I'd say the latter. I struggle with these kinds of questions daily. The only thing that keeps me going is the potential to make universal nature a better place than we left it, from a hedonistic point of view (maximizing pleasure, minimizing pain). Or, at the very least, apply that same principle to the few things I can control.
As an aside, this forum and the country/world as a whole could use a lot more of this broad philosophical framing of modern problems.
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