How English football violence explains Trump supporters
If you haven't read "Among The Thugs" by Bill Burford, you should.
Burford is a journalist who took a deep dive into football violence during the 1980s and 1990s. You can (as I tend to) view it as a look at politics at the most primitive, tribal level. You can also view it as a means of understanding Mango Mussolini's most vehement supporters.
The kind of organized violence that marked UK football at the time wasn't about bored, unemployed rioting youth. Some participants were on the fringe or criminals. But many, if not most of the worst of UK football fans had steady jobs - skilled trades, office jobs, management or owned their own businesses. Many, if not most, enjoyed middle-class lifestyles. That so many traveled across England and Europe for matches shows that more than a few had means.
So, why the violence? Because those who assaulted, beat and occasionally killed other teams' fans, or who trashed the cities they visited enjoyed it.
"They talk about the crack, the buzz and the fix. They talk about having to have it, of being unable to forget it when they do, of not wanting to forget it - ever. They talk about being sustained by it, telling and retelling what happened and what it felt like. They talk about it with the pride of the privileged, of those who have had, seen, felt, been through something that other people have not. They talk about it in the way that another generation talked about drugs or drink or both, except that they also use both drugs and drink. One lad, a publican, talks about it as thought it were a chemical thing or a hormonal spray or some kind of intoxicating gas - once it's in the air, once an act of violence has been committed, other acts will follow inevitably - necessarily."
"Violence is one of the most intensely lived experiences and, for those capable of giving themselves over to it, is one of the most intense pleasures. There on the streets of Fulham, I felt, as the group passed over its metaphorical cliff, that I had literally become weightless. I had abandoned gravity, was greater than it. I felt myself to be hovering above myself, capable of perceiving everything in slow motion and overwhelming detail. I realized later that I was on a druggy high, in a state of adrenaline euphoria. And for the first I am able to understand the words they use to describe it. That crowd violence was their drug."
"What was it like for me? An experience of absolute completeness."
Trump voters enjoy being bullies. They enjoy being assholes. They like confronting people for speaking Spanish, for driving the "wrong" kind of car, for being "libtards". They like calling the cops for no reason, and walking around strapped.
It's the crack, the buzz, the fix. It makes them feel strong. They like it, and they have to have more.
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