i talk about this a bit on the upcoming pod but the thing here is, there’s broad elite consensus that trump is king now. some of it is bc they like what he’s doing, some is bc they’re scared of his violent base, some is bc they think it sells papers, some is bc they think it’ll help them in midterms
elites understood what was at stake in 2024 and assume the election results mean normal people want trump to be king
Well I refuse to embrace that consensus at all.
i mean, same! i think it’s insane!
He essentially is
In hindsight, Trump was actually incredibly shrewd to recognize that our "elites" are in reality fragile little babies who can be bullied extremely easily
At his most basic level, Trump is a bully. And the halls of American power are filled with the most insecure losers this planet has ever seen. He's been shoving them into lockers for 10 years now and it's worked flawlessly
I think a lot of them want it to be so because of their own personal reasons. Elites want politics to be over
Unironically, I think it's group chats. Our elites are tightly connected by education, family & social ties and have back channels of communication, which have been infiltrated by far right activists. Widely reported. They are much more likely to hear from a fascist than from their constituents.
There needs to be some organizing upstream of politics at the institutional level to push elites. We've seen a little of it with Target and Tesla, but there's a lot of room to exert cultural pressure against other targets.
The point needs to be made that 2024 was a presidential election, like we've had dozens of times in the past. It wasn't a referendum on the Constitution. It didn't destroy the polis. Inconveniently for our elites, the American people are still here.
These guys are extremely thin-skinned when it comes to criticism and also extremely susceptible to flattery. Perfect combination for a bad-faith infiltrator to melt their brains.
a lot of different people, in both parties, in media, in universities, in business, in law firms, in courts, with a lot of different incentives have all basically come to the conclusion that “let trump do whatever he wants” is what’s best for them. it stinks
I was thinking about this exact thing earlier! so many are acting selfishly and totally misrepresenting what he is really doing because they gotta get those clicks or whatever. I hate it so so so much.
And I doubt very many of those people aren't White, cisgender, middle class or higher people. The funny thing about White Supremacy (not haha funny) is that the majority still feels safe under it. Throwing minorities under the bus is an American pass-time.
It's a national death sentence.
I wonder how much is predicated on them believing that even if MAGA loses power, they won't face any repercussions for supporting it. Whereas if they don't support it now, they'll inevitably face repercussions. Both because Trump is vindictive and because Democrats are spineless.
I think it’s mostly this— a degenerate twist on Pascal’s wager: if Trump stays in power they are safe only if they suck up to him but if he loses power they won’t face any punishment for sucking up to him.
There must be consequences
All they have to lose is dignity, and what do they care about that.
I think some it is fighting requires effort.
I think it's part of the elite hangover from 2020. They hated the Uprising and the gains that workers made and later anti-Israel protests and really want to stomp the proles hard back into their place.
Also deep anger that MeToo activists asked them to relinquish the right of Prima Nocta on their interns
They see Trump as this larger-than-life Willie Stark figure and not as a real person hurting tons of other real people.
I honestly think part of it is that many political journalists who wanted to be novelists but US literary culture is basically dead now except for YA lit and IDK vampire rape smut. It's all a fun story to them.
Revolutions, even/especially peaceful politically continuous ones, turn on the actions of elites Making the elites more scared of the people than if trump is a top priority.
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