Right? I get that some of middle America feels slighted, and I’m all for preventing the hollowing out of small town America, but I don’t see lying xenophobic scapegoating being the answer here. That’s how you get nationalist parties and paramilitary “cultural enforcement” groups.
Instead, I see a need to foster and fund community organizations and civil engagement. Improved infrastructure and green spaces. More affordable housing - bring people back into the towns rather than the outskirts of it. But unfortunately, oddly, for some reason, that’s not as easy of a sell as the “people be eating your pets” trope.
They think it’s “smart people’s” fault, and those college educated, holier-than-thou smarty pants folks with their big words and fancy wine-sippin’ need to be punished. I think a lot of them know they’re being misled, they just don’t really care.
They know we hate Trump, and so that’s a good enough indication that he must be the solution. Very simple-minded stuff.
In philosophy, ressentiment (/rəˌsɒ̃.tiˈmɒ̃/; French pronunciation: [ʁə.sɑ̃.ti.mɑ̃] ⓘ) is one of the forms of resentment or hostility. The concept was of particular interest to some 19th-century thinkers, most notably Friedrich Nietzsche. According to their use, ressentiment is a sense of hostility directed toward an object that one identifies as the cause of one’s frustration, that is, an assignment of blame for one’s frustration.[1] The sense of weakness or inferiority complex and perhaps even jealousy in the face of the “cause” generates a rejecting/justifying value system, or morality, which attacks or denies the perceived source of one’s frustration. This value system is then used as a means of justifying one’s own weaknesses by identifying the source of envy as objectively inferior, serving as a defense mechanism that prevents the resentful individual from addressing and overcoming their insecurities and flaws. The ego creates an enemy to insulate themselves from culpability.
Unions. Tax the rich. Enforce environmental and labor laws. House the homeless. Fund education. This is all fixable but the billionaires who own us don’t want it fixed.
Right? I get that some of middle America feels slighted, and I’m all for preventing the hollowing out of small town America, but I don’t see lying xenophobic scapegoating being the answer here. That’s how you get nationalist parties and paramilitary “cultural enforcement” groups.
Instead, I see a need to foster and fund community organizations and civil engagement. Improved infrastructure and green spaces. More affordable housing - bring people back into the towns rather than the outskirts of it. But unfortunately, oddly, for some reason, that’s not as easy of a sell as the “people be eating your pets” trope.
They think it’s “smart people’s” fault, and those college educated, holier-than-thou smarty pants folks with their big words and fancy wine-sippin’ need to be punished. I think a lot of them know they’re being misled, they just don’t really care.
They know we hate Trump, and so that’s a good enough indication that he must be the solution. Very simple-minded stuff.
Unions. Tax the rich. Enforce environmental and labor laws. House the homeless. Fund education. This is all fixable but the billionaires who own us don’t want it fixed.