Go high
Irony stretched to the breaking point – a Facebook rant (sorry, I instantly forgot who posted it so can’t link) about how pathetically unelectable the Dems are, because all the people who spoke last night – Cory Booker, Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren among others – never struggled a day in their lives, so how can they possibly lure voters away from Trump?
What universe is this? Trump is the one who inherited millions. Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Warren grew up working class. Cory Booker’s parents were IBM executives, but I don’t think we should be assuming that even comfortably middle class black kids grow up with zero struggle, especially compared to rich white kids.
People seem to confuse Trump’s incredible vulgarity with his being somehow working class and not privileged and representative of the struggling masses, and the striking unvulgarity of Booker and Obama and Warren with silver spoon births. That’s ridiculous. Trump is indeed a boor, and ignorant, and profoundly trashy – but that’s not because he ever had to “struggle” – it’s because that’s what he’s like.
Trump is like every shitty, exploitative boss working class people have ever had. He treats them as a means to end, and he’ll do no differently if he’s elected. Why can’t people see this? HE’S the asshole who ships manufacturing work overseas. HE’S the asshole who holds their job hostage and coerces them to work off the clock. HE’S the asshole bribing officials to get around irksome safety regulations.
I used to think the most difficult thing was to convince people they are wrong. I’ve changed my mind about that; you can do it, if you take the right approach, and are patient. Part of it is to get them into a mindset where admitting they were wrong is, in itself, a virtue, because that marks them as rational and open-minded, persuadable by facts–this is something that most people believe about themselves anyway, so you’re playing to the self-bias there.
But the almost impossible thing is to get someone to admit they’ve been fooled, hoodwinked, snookered. At that point, even admitting you got taken doesn’t seem like a virtue, because it calls your very judgement into question–how can anyone be certain you’re not being taken in again? Con men even use this reluctance as a means of maintaining control over their mark, and keep them from reporting to police. Being conned is seen as shameful.
This is the basis for the resilience of Trump’s fanbase in the face of the facts; admitting that he’s a charlatan means that they are not just mistaken–it makes them chumps. So no matter how absurd, how blatantly dishonest, or how repulsive he gets, cognitive dissonance forces them to just double-down and invent conspiracies to explain away the discrepancies.
Freemage, that is a most excellent analysis. May I copy and paste it elsewhere, or is it by chance shareable on Facebook?
I made it easy for you, Pieter.
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2016/guest-post-the-influence-of-revenge-of-the-nerds/
I had the feeling it might fly solo. Thank you.
I saw that post. The ranter even called Michelle Obama a “carpetbagger” and I was all, “Whaaaaa?”