Trumpism

I have read article after article by progressives, hand-wringing over why and how so many people from a prosperous liberal democracy came to choose such a vile, ignorant excuse for a human being as their "precedent".

While parallels with the rise of Nazism need to be treated cautiously, the following factors are common to the rise of National Socialism, and the rise of Trumpism: -

• A large proportion of the population is disaffected
• An easily identifiable scapegoat is at hand
• No credible alternative is being offered

Many point to the ludicrous excesses of the "regressive left" as a cause, which, while I agree that such excesses are indeed ludicrous, hardly explains why your average Joe or Josephine, (who barely reads or exposes themselves to the world of ideas in any medium) is turned off. Yes, the climate generated by the regressive left is not conducive to the inclusion of their white, straight, conservative outgroup, and that doesn't help, but it doesn't explain the Trumpist tantrum.

What does explain it?

The fact that nobody, until recently, gave a shit about them.

But, although giving a shit, and implementing policies motivated by giving a shit is clearly the right thing to do (given that they are intelligent, just and informed policies), and although the banishing of the lunatic fringe of the regressive right from respectable discourse is clearly fucking overdue, are these responses adequate?

I would say no.

I would say it is too late.

When the lunatics take over the asylum, it is no good hoping that more therapy will persuade them to return to complying with a rational, humane regime. No more good than appealing to reason and humanity with the brownshirts during Kristallnacht.

You cannot always persuade people that they are wrong, and when those in the wrong obtain power, the only right thing that remains for you to do is to resist them.