And things in Oklahoma have NOT gotten any better since then.

Those that aided Hitler are deserving of a special place in hell, but Hitler would not have succeeded were it not for the masses of bigoted people eager to support a monster that gave voice to their most evil desires.

They earned the contempt and scorn history heaps on them- they have their large share of blame… and those that supported Trump deserve, and will likely get, the same fate.

Oh sure, not everyone in the South is like them. And there are those who don’t live anywhere near the South who are exactly like them. But the South is the epicenter, the fault line, it is the crater of the volcano.

I was born in the South, I grew up in the South, but I could see them clearly and could understand them precisely because I was not REALLY a Southerner. I was an anthropologist studying an Amazon tribe, the child of missionaries. I spoke the language and wore the paint but I was an outsider, and they never let me forget it. And because I was an outsider I could taste the water they swam in when they could not even imagine its existence. Unlike my fellow Southerners, I had an alternative culture I could compare them to.

I don’t blame the Germans for Hitler, a majority didn’t follow him. I don’t even blame the Germans who followed Hitler, they were ignorant and frightened and didn’t know any better. I don’t even blame Hitler, he was a madman. I blame those who aided Hitler while knowing exactly who he was and what forces he was unleashing, just because they thought they could use him to get what they really wanted; because they thought they could control him and those who followed him. Because they thought they could get rid of him when they no longer needed him.

Trump will not be here forever, but they will.

I disagree- I believe Dr. Mutz is identifying the wedge, not creating it.

The political right in this nation- and other nations- succeeds by stoking the fears of the middle class – coaxing them to blame the most vulnerable in society- those with the least political power – for their ills. Ills that have, in large part, been inflicted on them by the very people manipulating them.

The fact that the Trump voters were manipulated does not absolve them of their guilt, nor does it indicate that common-cause could be found with them “if only we could find a way to reach them”… THAT is the kind of thinking that has led far too many on the left to treat the situation far too lightly. The far right is going to war on our democracy, and all too often the left acts as if its a simple question to be settled by rational debate.

Yes, those that supported Trump were manipulated, but they were eager ‘victims’- they worked hard to allow themselves to be used. They knew they were being lied to, they knew the words of their candidate were antithetical to the foundational principles of our nation but they went along with it- reveling not in how much their candidate inspired them, but in how much their candidate horrified the left.

The manipulation only worked because they were predisposed to embrace the bigotry, the misogyny and fascism openly espoused by their candidate. There never was, nor will there ever be, common ground between us and the nihilistic bigots. There never can be – they have demonstrated their primary motivation is outraging the liberals… just google “liberal tears”…

They are not ‘misled’, they are not victims- they are the enemy, the barbarians at our gates- they cannot be reasoned with, they can only be driven back. They are a loud minority with no ideals- Good people with character define themselves by the ideals they stand for, these creatures only define themselves by the people they stand against.

Yes, the right has exploited them and used them to enrich the wealthy, but these sheep eagerly dragged the entire flock to the slaughter simply because it gave them pleasure to watch the others suffer- happy to pay with their own suffering in order to relish the suffering of others.

They are not to be pitied, they should be treated as the enemy- and beaten down in with every tool available to us within the rules of our democracy. They have been humiliated before, and if our nation is to survive they must be crushed again.

They have risen up before, but never have they been so desperate- they have openly positioned themselves on the side of treason… they have never before been so exposed, so vulnerable. They have always been, and always will be, a chronic disease of the human condition- never eradicated, but managed. If this current outbreak can be driven into remission when it has exposed itself so carelessly, then it will be a long time before it can flare up again.

And they know it…

If they fail now they will become the subject of scorn, and ridicule- “Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.”
They will be silenced once again by social norms, and be afraid to spew their venom.

If not then it is the abyss for us all- fascism does not offer you a second chance to get it right… And no forgiveness should be offered to those that are dragging us to that abyss.

Take note of those that have supported this atrocity, and make sure they own it for the rest of their miserable lives- never let them forget that they sold their souls to a mendacious narcissist, they abetted treason for no other reason than it pissed off liberals. Its not vengeance, it is self preservation- only by making an example of the bastards can we put off the next outbreak of their disease as long as possible.

Whatever is financing fascism in America is not doing it because they hate blacks. They don’t do it because they care about prayer in the schools, or abortions, or teaching evolution, or LGBT rights. They don’t even care about Mexicans or Muslims or Homeland Security. And they certainly don’t care about debunking global warming because climatologists and statists are using it to finance their careers. They are all on somebody’s payroll.

That’s the toolbox, that’s how they’re enlisting the Roseannes and Archie Bunkers and the NASCAR and C&W fans. My problem isn’t with the Mutz study. I’m sure its good science, but its looking through the wrong end of the telescope. I object to how the results are being interpreted. And how is the Mutz study being interpreted? By Liberals?

“Far too many are just flat out racist, anti-semitic, and misogynist…
About a quarter of our fellow Americans are simply irredeemable assholes.”

That’s exactly what they want you to believe. Divide and conquer.

No wonder the Deplorables hate the “Liberal Elites”. They sense this. They weren’t born that way, there are no abstract historical conditions or cultural processes that have made them that way, they have been painfully and slowly manufactured, at great expense, for decades. Sure, the propagandists and demagogues have been working on pre-existing cultural biases and realities, but they’ve had to work very hard on them to harness them for their own purposes.

I also dispute the anecdotal evidence on the conservatives in your circle. Even people who are not immediately threatened financially have been subject to wage stagnation since the Reagan administration. The productivity gains they have achieved are not being shared with them, they are being passed UP the line. That’s what the wage disparity is all about. And they can see their children do not have the same opportunities they enjoyed, and will not have the same benefits they have counted on. Even the relatively prosperous today know they are just treading water, and they could much more easily slide down the ladder than they could rise up.

The middle class has always been paid off to collaborate with the management/executive elite, and now they are finding those doors being slammed shut to them, and especially to their kids. The middle class has always felt the world owed them a living, and now its pretty clear the world has other plans. And since many in the middle class have working class roots, they know exactly how little separates them from that existence. Yeah, they’re scared all right. They are shitting bricks.

But if you’re not willing to be data driven, what about the conservatives you know? In my universe, there’s not a one who is under financial stress, just the opposite: They’ve always done well and continue to do well. And it’s equally true that every one of them is, at a minimum, conscious of being “white”, and have a noticeable tendency to parrot the stock complaints about the “fall” of the “white race”. Far too many are just flat out racist, anti-semitic, and misogynist.

ER, the reason Mutz’s study has “caught on” is because it accurately describes the real people we know. That instant analysis blaming Trump support on being economically “left behind” never did ring true to my ear, because it never seemed to match the real Trump supporters I know. It’s reasonable to suspect that explanation is self-serving, perhaps unconsciously, because it says there’s an easy answer to be found in tweaking neoliberal economic policy. Problem solved.

But the reality is that the problem is far more intractable. About a quarter of our fellow Americans are simply irredeemable assholes, and no “reaching out” or “accommodation” will ever get through to them.

I tried to watch the first episode of the “Roseanne” reboot, and turned it off after ten minutes. In another example of the dishonest propaganda that ginned-up all this bitterness and resentment, they divide up their prescription medicine and whine about the high cost and how they just can’t afford what they desperately need…and never, ever, admit that an Obamacare policy would solve their problem instantly. THeir problems are manufactured and self-inflicted for the political profit of rightwing politicians.