Why be a Trumper? It's fun to be racist
How could people who, in big slices of their life, seem half-normal support Donald Trump? How, physically, do they get themselves to a rally? And through a rally?
There's a good word in philosophy: overdetermined. That's when you have more than enough causal factors for a given outcome. Did the ding-dongs, the ho-hos, the twinkies, or the Entemann's make me pack on those 20 lbs.? Sorry, brother, the belly was a bit over-determined: you have a number of causes to unwind.
The support Trumpers have for their man is overdetermined by a deplorable basket of causes: low-information, sexism, epistemic closure, etc.
But I think there is a subjective aspect we can't overlook. Being racist -- or sexist -- is at some crude level: Fun. Racism brings a whole universe with it, not just what Germans might call a Weltanschauung (a world-view), but also a battery of jokes, debating tactics, nonsense pieces of trivia, a way of ordering the world, dividing us from them. It's a gross pleasure to put others down, to analyze things in simple terms, to moan about why the blacks are always complaining, or I bet it was a Mexican who cut me off on the high way.
Most decent people understand their indecent side and put it away, either from higher ethics or from a set of social norms, of not being the one who farts at the dinner party. But Trump has given the flame exposure and has fanned it. His supporters can wallow in their racism. They can indulge their jokes everywhere -- with so many targets: Mexicans, blacks, Asians, Jews, etc. -- and their racism is not just a set of in-house memes, it's also a bonding mechanism for other deplorable assholes. Almost like the password for the world's most stank club-house. Add a open-ness to conspiracy theories and, wham!, you have ten hours of a day clicking links and talking shit on message boards and grousing over lousy beer.
We've all seen photos of Trumpers yelling at rallies. I've wondered to myself: don't they have anything better to do? Go jogging? Learn some French? Watch some Turner Classic Movies? Build model airplanes? Cook? Learn about Bonsai?
I think a lot of them don't. They're stupid and bored and Trump, and the whole little bubble of racism around them, gives them something to do.
Am I excusing them? No. I'm trying to understand them. And understanding them just increases my contempt for them. Deplorable was the word. We get the government we deserve, and I wish all these jackasses the worst.
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I'll never be able to wrap my mind around all the time and energy devoted to hating people I've never met though.
On edit: Except Dick Cheney of course!
