| sebastian_dangerfield |
01-13-2021 10:55 AM |
Re: Objectively intelligent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Icky Thump
(Post 530996)
|
The author stumbles into a significant point regarding Trump's ardent followers. He describes some of the rioters as "failsons" -- kids of some privilege who are aimless. Now, of course most of those cranks in the Capitol were not of privilege. But they were low rent variants of "superfluous men," a synonym for failson coined in 19th century Russian literature. Superfluous men are again typically quite comfortable, but that's not their essential defining trait. The most salient personality feature of them is a rootlessness, a lack of higher meaning in their lives. They're devoted to nothing, really. But they're not nihilists. Their lack of goals or definition is not a choice but something thrust upon them by circumstance.
I think at the core of Trumpism might be a giant failson complex. From the factory worker whose job is gone to the middle manager or even professional whose job seems meaningless, the people who were at that rally were clearly looking for some form of community, for something to belong to. (Why else be in a shitshow like that?)
I might've been misapprehending Trumpists as primarily economically fixated, and people like Adder might've been doing the same in assessing they were animated most significantly by racism. Those things are clearly part of the appeal. But interwoven with them is a definite desire to bond, to have a community, to feel like part of something bigger, with a purpose.
They might to a great extent be people who simply can't deal with the realities of 21st century life -- the ruthless rationality and logic our commoditized and digitized world has compelled us to apply in order to survive. They might not be equipped to deal with the fact that life doesn't really have any meaning. They might need structures, myths. They might need something akin to religion, or a crusade in which to envelope themselves. The loss of the their savior is the loss of a compass. They can't bear it. They'll do anything, even resort to violence, to retain the fleeting sense of meaning they derived from following this demagogue. |
