🧵 "Please, think whatever is easiest. Indulge in your laziest ideas and basest prejudices....."

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Will Stancil
@whstancil
One thing you see a lot on here is people pointing out the contradictions in the putative views of Trump’s GOP. COVID is a Chinese plot but also a hoax. The insurrection was antifa but also a tour of patriots.
5:09 PM · May 28, 2021

Unrolled thread here
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1398431238973792259.html

One thing you see a lot on here is people pointing out the contradictions in the putative views of Trump’s GOP. COVID is a Chinese plot but also a hoax. The insurrection was antifa but also a tour of patriots.

What people need to understand is that these contradictions aren’t a SYMPTOM of Trumpism.

They point to its very core - its emotional, psychological appeal to millions of America. The ability to sustain these contradictions is why Trump was elected, how his movement exists.

Ultimately what Trump offers - what fascism offers - is a philosophy of total emotional and psychological indulgence. Believe whatever makes you feel best. Live your politics examined.

Don’t want to take credit for the insurrection, but want to claim its dead as your martyrs? Go ahead! Say it! The Capitol was attacked by antifa but Ashlii Babbit was a hero patriot.

Hate China, but annoyed by the scolding liberals and their masks? Call the coronavirus a Democratic hoax - and at the same time, a deadly foreign bioweapon.

Voters aren’t drawn to Trump’s politics because of a specific policy view or really even an ideology. They’re drawn to them because those politics say:

“Please, think whatever is easiest. Indulge in your laziest ideas and basest prejudices. There are no rules.

Save one.”

“You must support the leader. You cannot abandon the leader. Support for the leader absolves you of the burden of rationality and the sin of inconsistency. Indeed, faith in the leader can be proven by embracing irrationality and rejecting consistency. Prove your faith.”

That’s why Trumpism and fascism reliably attract the worst and the weakest, the dumb, the selfish, and the cowardly. It’s an endlessly flexible vessel for their worst vices, willing to forgive anything and let them do anything in exchange for loyalty to the strongman.

The mistake American political thinkers keep making is to try to link Trump to preexisting ideology. There are ideas associated with Trumpism, of course, but THEY are the symptom: what happens when you let people indulge in whatever fleeting hate takes their fancy.

You can’t understand Trump’s rise without looking at this deeper psychological appeal. This is his promise to his voters, it’s why nothing his movement says or believes makes sense, and no one seems to care.

It’s also why we can’t triangulate or maneuver his supporters away from him. They don’t really want any of what we’re offering, anyway - they want the freedom to do and think whatever they feel at any moment, something no liberal of any description could ever promise.

[Wounded Bear]

1. I blame religion for lots of societal ills...

It takes religious devotion to the inexplicable to carry such paradoxical beliefs in tandem.

Rational people won't carry two divergent doncepts. They train themselves not to.

[SCantiGOP]

2. A majority thinks that Jan6

was actually left wing rioters and the Democratic Party is responsible for the Capitol takeover.
A majority don’t want any investigation of that.
These two concepts cannot both be true at the same time.

[Iggo]

3. Hey! That's how religion works!

[LastDemocratInSC]

4. Nihilistic hedonism?

[LakeArenal]

5. I blame violent white fearful mostly men.

Hate and fear the other.

I think faux religious leaders, fake legislators and media for perpetrating the insane ideology that should get no press and no credibility from any of those mentioned.

[lame54]

6. Antifa and BLM are responsible for 1/6 but...

The "lock 'em up" republicans don't want to investigate

[Comfortably_Numb]

7. Stupid traitor magats summed up perfectly in the piece

“ That’s why Trumpism and fascism reliably attract the worst and the weakest, the dumb, the selfish, and the cowardly.”

[I_UndergroundPanther]

8. They want to

Abuse power,abuse people,abuse everything and not be held accountable for it.

All the freedom, all the control and none of the responsibilities.

[Midnight Writer]

9. This is why we, as Democrats or as liberals, need a counter to the RW disinformation machine.

When you only hear one side of the story, that is the side you believe.

I'm not a big consumer of RW media, but I can tell you what is going on there because it is everywhere.

I would have to bury my head in the sand to avoid it.

But to get the counter view, to find the truth and context behind their claims, I have to seek it out at places like DU and others.

There are no purely "liberal" outlets on radio and TV, at least in this area.

There is FOX, Newsmax, OANN, Sinclair, Rush (still broadcasting from beyond the veil), Hannity, Levin, and a host of others spreading truly outrageous bullsh*t 24/7.

I can't understand why we have ceded all this space to Right Wingers.

[nuxvomica]

10. This is very enlightening

Any time I argue with a Trumper, confronting them with facts, I get the same response like, "Well that's my opinion and I have a right to my opinion." Often slipping in "God-given" before the word "right." The "you have a right to your own opinion but not to your own facts" argument never lands on them. But I've also been saying this sort of epistemological "freedom" is not the disgraced former president's only appeal. They swallow this philosophy because they see him as someone who commits the worst acts freely without consequences and they want that same state of grace. It seems powerfully magical to them. And until he's convicted of something the spell remains unbroken. I don't think the impeachments, though necessary, did anything but reinforce this notion, because he skated on them like everything else in his life. The most serious blow was not losing the election but losing his Twitter platform. I think that consequence harmed the magic more than anything. He really needs to be put behind bars to end this.

[Xoan]

11. Stupidity isn't a bug ...

it's a major feature.

[Retired Engineer Bob]

12. Just returned from my Freeperville trip to hell

They have a hot topic, The Unvaccinated Will Inherit The Earth. Vaccine Caused ADE (Antibody Dependent Enhancement) Will Wipe Out Billions

Over 200 replies.

The gist of the OP, the vax will kill over 2.5 billion people. Among the 200 replies are several giving thanks to Donnie Two Scoops for delivering the vaccine that will save millions.

Reminds me of Schrödinger's cat.