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[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Trump voters tend to have higher levels of “economic anxiety” than others. You can look it up. There are numerous studies on it.

As Hank put it, they have “something to lose.”

You rephrase “something to lose” as “entitlement.” I think it’s a mixed bag. I think some Trump voters think they are entitled to something. I think an equal, or perhaps greater, number of them are anxious.

Both groups are highly susceptible to racist and xenophobic messaging, as they are searching for someone to blame for circumstances beyond their control. This need to blame others also manifests itself in distrust of institutions, which they also blame.

How much of the racism within Trumpism is attributable to native long-standing racism versus racism created by recent economic anxiety? Unknown. But when people say things like, “Trumpism is primarily based on underlying racist attitudes,” they are making a gross and unsupportable generalization. They are missing a huge component of Trumpism, which is racism caused by economic anxiety. And that is a very distinct form of racism.

None of what you say here is inconsistent with what Adder said, and what Hank pushed back on, which is that Trump voters "are not the economically downtrodden. They are just white people."

I agree with you that they think they have something to lose. That's what I said too. I think it's as much about social status as economic status, but the two are obviously quite connected.