The Emerging Consensus on Trump and MAGA
That the corporate media is only just starting to report.
Last week, I released on my podcast, video channel, and here on Medium my essay on Donald Trump and his followers. I explain how Trump and his MAGA minions are an example of the culture of victimhood. I am not alone in this assessment.
Yesterday, in The Guardian, Sidney Blumenthal penned a piece on how Trump and his MAGA minions are an example of the culture of victimhood.
It’s a solid, detailed analysis and worth reading. I am highly gratified to see a large-circulation publication carry an insightful philosophical treatise. The Guardian tends to be ahead of the curve on many issues, and hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Blumenthal and The Guardian have picked up on ideas that social philosophers have been discussing for awhile.
Cas Mudde, back in 2018, sounded the alarm on the emerging right-wing cult of victimhood.
Mudde regrettably decided to label reactionary right political movements “populism,” a definition I have criticized but others have adopted. But Mudde has opened a space for much discussion within philosophy about how to think about political movements and their motivations, methods, and effects.
It is important that there is discussion about politicians like Trump not in the context of trying to win an election but in terms of what politicians and their policies mean for society. Mudde is an example of someone engaging in that substantive discussion. I published another article recently on Trump, not in a partisan vein but in a philosophical one. Discussing substantive issues outside of partisan mudslinging will yield better results.
Blumenthal is following suit trying to bring these ideas into the mainstream. The corporate media needs to carry much more about experts in their fields talking about ideas and much less about political score keeping.
Yes, experts have something to say, and not always but most of the time, the experts have something to teach us. Of course, right-wingers don’t believe in experts. That’s because the experts do have something to teach people. Experts in social philosophy and political movements see through the right-wing victim act and can explain it well so that others can also start to see through it.
As Blumenthal concluded in his article, “[Trump’s] celebrity has been transformed into a passion play of victimization.” I can’t emphasize enough the importance of this insight into Trump’s movement. A consensus is emerging that Trump is the Grand Wizard of a cult of victimhood. He is the latest in a tradition of quasi-religious grifters who make a mockery of religion, politics, and society to glorify themselves for ego and profit. But saying that is not enough. We need to dig deeper and learn why Trump’s passion play of mockery is working on so many people. Don’t just condemn the con job, explain it and try to offer a better alternative. That’s the way forward.
A note on how Medium can be important
What does Medium have to do with this? Medium is an excellent platform for this type of discussion. It is a platform on which experts can share their work outside of the ivory tower and talk directly with people who can talk directly with the experts.
Many of my readers have probably not heard of Cas Mudde before. That is not their fault. Heck, I hadn’t heard of Mudde until I saw him at an academic conference. At the end of this article I’ll include some excellent articles on political victimhood. The experts’ insightful wisdom is buried in obscure academic journals that seldom are read by more than 50 people worldwide.
I mentioned once that even my least read article here on Medium is read more often than most journal articles. That’s sad. It shouldn’t be that way. People won’t find, much less read, academic journals. People might read articles by experts who publish here on Medium. That’s why I’m here.
Medium is a great place if you want to learn about something beyond “Five egg dishes you can make with a turnip twaddler” and “The top 3 reasons you aren’t as cool as me” and “Me talking about some tech gadget but mostly talking about Me” and “Let’s wring our hands about people we don’t like.” Medium is trying to encourage higher quality — and they can do more.
Experts who want to reach more than 50 people worldwide should write on Medium. I’m not being a cheerleader here, but it just plain makes sense. If you care about your ideas and want to put them on a platform where you might have your ideas seen, try Medium.
Granted, no matter how many experts write here, most people will still prefer fluff to substance, but this is where Medium can take the next step and actively promote expert articles by experts in their field. They can do more.
Then it becomes incumbent on experts to interact with readers. Those too full of themselves to bother to respond to their readers should come down from their pedestal. When readers respectfully respond to articles, the authors should respond in kind. No one has any obligation to respond to rudeness. Medium’s Respond feature could benefit from some technical improvements, but it is a much better format than most Web sites. I encourage everyone to take advantage of the opportunity.
Always forward.