US culture is an incubator of ‘extrinsic values’. Nobody embodies them like the Republican frontrunner
Many explanations are proposed for the continued rise of Donald Trump, and the steadfastness of his support, even as the outrages and criminal charges pile up. Some of these explanations are powerful. But there is one I have seen mentioned nowhere, which could, I believe, be the most important: Trump is king of the extrinsics.
Some psychologists believe our values tend to cluster around certain poles, described as “intrinsic” and “extrinsic”. People with a strong set of intrinsic values are inclined towards empathy, intimacy and self-acceptance. They tend to be open to challenge and change, interested in universal rights and equality, and protective of other people and the living world.
People at the extrinsic end of the spectrum are more attracted to prestige, status, image, fame, power and wealth. They are strongly motivated by the prospect of individual reward and praise. They are more likely to objectify and exploit other people, to behave rudely and aggressively and to dismiss social and environmental impacts. They have little interest in cooperation or community. People with a strong set of extrinsic values are more likely to suffer from frustration, dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety, anger and compulsive behaviour.
I get that, but at a certain point - you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. If we succeed in getting UBI or Single Payer Healtcare, we will do so without them, and they’ll hate us for it even as their quality of life improves. At a certain point (and IMO we’re several years past it) why is it on me to subject myself to that? I’m no spring chicken. I’ve been talking to people who disagreed with my viewpoints on social issues and politics for about 30 years. Only in the last 10ish did the folks on the “other” side of those discussions become what they have become.
My neighbor has a rotating array of hand-drawn signs in his yard proclaiming that various groups I’m either a member of or supporter of are idiots and morons who are destroying the country. He isn’t targeting me personally, but he’s got no reason to think I’m not in one of those groups, nor does he have any reason to think most of the rest of our neighbors aren’t. What conversation am I going to have with that sort of guy that will heal the country? How is that one-sided article from Cracked going to help make that better? Is there a part of the country where Democrats have yards full of signs about how much they hate Republicans? I don’t live in nor have I seen pictures of that part of the country if so.
I know that’s a lot of rhetorical questions there at the end, I don’t intend that to be as confrontational as it might sound. That cracked article pissed me right off though. If I’m being generous I’ll call it misguided.
I think you and I might be more closely aligned than we realize. I agree that there is nothing we can do now. The fascists have been too radicalized for too long. What irks me, and what pissed me off enough to write multiple walls of text yesterday, is the attitude I see from progressives that “these people are all just stupid and immoral, their beliefs and motivations are inherently evil so it doesn’t matter what they think or why they think it, there’s nothing we can do”. Like, yeah, that may be the case now, but it wasn’t always so. If the left had made more of an effort reach out to rural americans, say 30 years ago, before the mega churches and republican party had such a firm lock on the area, many of them could have become valuable allies. What we are seeing now is, in my opinion, the metastasization of a cultural disease that was left untreated. When people like myself tried to suggest that we do something though, the response was always the same “eh, fuck 'em, they’re just a bunch of assholes, what could they possibly do other than bitch and moan?” Well, now we know.
That cracked article is nearly a decade out of date now, and I admit it’s not the most helpful. I like to use it because it loosely illustrates the point I’ve been trying to make for years. Namely that what we’re seeing now is not evil for the sake of evil, but the end result of a long process of alienation and radicalization of a group that was once firmly rooted on the side of democracy and, in some cases, leftism. Thanks for reading my word salad.
Well I have to agree. I think we’re just lamenting different aspects of the same thing. I can’t argue with the meat of what you are saying here.
Not at all, thank you for expounding!