8 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: Trump and the Folklore of Capitalism
They don't. That's the problem. I'm sure there's a few who actually blinded themselves to feel good about their choice but most of them just wanted someone to validate their own perspectives. Many of them are genuinely racist, or might-makes-right, or full blown Nazis. And we just didn't notice b\c we wanted to believe in the good in people. And they knew they had to keep their thoughts secret.
His cult didn't come from nowhere. He was just their permission. These are all the racist uncles we were trying to keep in the corner finding a banner to unite under.
Not to mention stuff like Cambridge Analytic finding ways to create more of them.
Comment by Khatib at 23/01/2025 at 05:33 UTC
14 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Everyone forgets how Trump got his *REAL* start in politics. Fox News had him on multiple times a week to rant about the black guy in the Whitehouse being a secret Muslim spy and saboteur who faked his birth certificate.
Trump's actual chance at politics didn't start at The Apprentice. It didn't start in his failed joke of a run in 2000. It started with obvious lies and open racism writ large by the biggest propaganda outfit in America. Because a black man succeeded. That's where Trump's support came from. That's how he got attention. That's why they love him. It's always been the racism first.
Comment by indigo945 at 23/01/2025 at 08:42 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
The article argues differently, that racist or reactionary views were not what drew most people to Trump:
One reason so many ordinary Americans have embraced Trump and his super-rich allies, despite scant evidence most voters endorse many of their reactionary views, is that they can directly draw on America’s “great reservoir of emotionally important social symbols”, and especially the symbol of “the American Businessman”. That symbolism has evolved in response to Americans’ sense that “the system” –as Trump’s populist rhetoric repeatedly echoes– is rigged. Yet, it continues to resonate with many of them.
I think it's a much more interesting analysis than the commonplace "well, they're all racists!". Because of course many of them are racists, but that doesn't explain what draws them to Trump so much. Trump doesn't even make that many racist speeches - more like a slip of the tongue here and there. His appeal lies elsewhere.