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I've long thought the racism-everywhere lens is too simplistic and useless. But with how the Trump regime's policies are all generally incompetent and harmful t

I've long thought the racism-everywhere lens is too simplistic and useless. But with how the Trump regime's policies are all generally incompetent and harmful to our country, yet there is still so much full-throated support based around things like deputizing fundamentalist militias to round up minorities and send them to concentration camps, it's starting to look pretty on point. And sure, there are many rationalizations like most of the targets are "illegals" or whatever. But if the people espousing these justifications weren't racist, their instinct would instead be to think "hey these blatant violations of the Constitution could easily happen to my own family" rather than to other the citizens inevitably getting swept up as an outgroup (eg "app says so").

_yb2s 1y ago
I was naive enough to believe at first that the MAGA movement was actually about the surface issues they claim to be concerned about, but in continually trying to be understanding and steelman their positions, and in also personally knowing and interacting with a lot of these people, those positions just don't hold water, especially as they have gained power and have largely stopped putting any effort into maintaining a non-racist facade. The only coherent explanation for MAGA is that of white nationalist authoritarianism, fueled by fear of losing protected race-based social status[1]. In fact, I don't think really anyone is really confused by that anymore, the only people claiming otherwise are people that personally identify as white supremacists, that see it as in their best interests to try to protect the political momentum of their movement by trying to maintain the facade of not being racist- a strategy they adopted after major losses way back during the civil rights movement in the USA. There may be a small number of people that just don't follow the news and don't know what is happening, but they aren't out defending anything online in their free time. [1] "What Makes Trump & MAGA So Cruel? A Psychiatrist Explains" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T8jF8BEeCM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T8jF8BEeCM
- mindslight 1y ago
  I with you on being naive. I internalized hard what I thought were conservative values trying to understand why the senseless Iraq war happened. Even personally thought in right "libertarian" terms coming in from ancap via cpunks. (reading Unqualified Reservations brought me back from that. Thank you Yarvin, for helping me to see the truth of the matter!) I still never got when red tribe people would say things like "Look what's going on in California", and I'd respond in agreement with actual experience, but still never managed to connect. In retrospect I guess those were merely coded invitations to start openly bashing Hispanics, made doubly ridiculous as they're the native race of that area. I do keep trying to appeal to purported conservative values, as the maggot movement basically fails every coherent single statement of them I've found. So maybe the naivety hasn't gone away, sigh.

_yb2s 1y ago

I was naive enough to believe at first that the MAGA movement was actually about the surface issues they claim to be concerned about, but in continually trying to be understanding and steelman their positions, and in also personally knowing and interacting with a lot of these people, those positions just don't hold water, especially as they have gained power and have largely stopped putting any effort into maintaining a non-racist facade. The only coherent explanation for MAGA is that of white nationalist authoritarianism, fueled by fear of losing protected race-based social status[1]. In fact, I don't think really anyone is really confused by that anymore, the only people claiming otherwise are people that personally identify as white supremacists, that see it as in their best interests to try to protect the political momentum of their movement by trying to maintain the facade of not being racist- a strategy they adopted after major losses way back during the civil rights movement in the USA. There may be a small number of people that just don't follow the news and don't know what is happening, but they aren't out defending anything online in their free time. [1] "What Makes Trump & MAGA So Cruel? A Psychiatrist Explains" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T8jF8BEeCM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T8jF8BEeCM

mindslight 1y ago
I with you on being naive. I internalized hard what I thought were conservative values trying to understand why the senseless Iraq war happened. Even personally thought in right "libertarian" terms coming in from ancap via cpunks. (reading Unqualified Reservations brought me back from that. Thank you Yarvin, for helping me to see the truth of the matter!) I still never got when red tribe people would say things like "Look what's going on in California", and I'd respond in agreement with actual experience, but still never managed to connect. In retrospect I guess those were merely coded invitations to start openly bashing Hispanics, made doubly ridiculous as they're the native race of that area. I do keep trying to appeal to purported conservative values, as the maggot movement basically fails every coherent single statement of them I've found. So maybe the naivety hasn't gone away, sigh.