| I don't understand what you're concretely advocating. I agree there is a strong thread of dignity, and lost dignity. But what I see is one of the main dynamics is they think Grump is going to restore their dignity. Any bit of their current situation that chafes against their sense of dignity is written off as a product of the Other. eg "Our streets are ruined because of the socialist liberals". If they connect it to war, it's the previous war by the other guy. In their mind, Grump is going to fix those streets some time as part of a longer plan. There is no connecting the billions of dollars recently spent on war to how it could have been directly spent on infrastructure instead. Every thing that Dear Leader smashes or steals supports their dignity - because it shows Dear Leader is powerful, and Dear Leader is their leader, so his glory reflects on them. He speaks to them, telling them how special they are. What matters is not the effects from institutional damage 10-20 years out, but rather the immediate high from the wanton destruction. The strongest instance of reality-in-their-faces I can think of is Alex Pretti. Here is someone who should check all of their boxes to empathize with - blue collar, white, male, gun owner, directly helping a fellow human. Summarily killed in a gangland-style execution by a group of government-empowered thugs. Their alarm bells should be going off - this could just as easily happen to me, a massive impingement on their dignity [0]. But yet the rationalizations abound for why Pretti should be slotted into the Other camp, and how such a thing could never happen to Them. And while there seemed to be some reflection and processing after this incident, it was more of a speed bump than any sort of rude awakening. Never mind the countless other victims that only match their identity-archetype 80%, or less, and are thus written off in a heartbeat. (also, and this is a tangential point that I don't want to dominate our conversation: given the strong reaction against the use of the F-word doesn't it seem like the characterization directly chafes at their dignity? they want to believe they are supporting some new and glorious revolution, rather than the same pathetic dead-end pattern we've seen before) [0] I think this may be bumping up against the left vs right conception of dignity a bit, wherein the rightist view being killed isn't undignified per se. But it's hard for me to tell how much this is a real divide, and how much is just more rationalization. Presumably they wouldn't feel that way about their own child dying, even if "they are in a better place". |