The left-winger's thirst for meaning, and why they identify with their oppressors.

 

The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you. Carl Jung

I opened up my social media today and noticed a liberal friend had posted a picture proclaiming her support of Kamala Harris. It had a stiletto heel shoe, something Harris appears to like as her symbol, crushing a "Make America Great Again" cap.  I doubt she understood the actual sociological significance of her post, but it profoundly illustrates the class divide, economic and social, in the USA and, basically, the disdain the left has for working class Americans. 

Edward Bernays wrote extensively about how identity affects us more than ideas.  We can assume an idea is open for debates, and, in a democratic society, people can discuss and learn from each other.  Not so easy in reality. We also have identities that have been instilled in us, i.e. our religion, our racial identity and even our social class. And politics has increasingly become as important as these primary identities.  When speaking of the divide in the USA it is political, but it goes deeper when you peel it back, it provides people, especially the left, a means to interpret everything in the world, and it is not a pretty picture entering their minds.

So in the left-winger's mind, how does their hate of Trump supporters play out?  For starters, the left are concerned with status.  Here we see the development of para-social relationships with celebrities, big-tech giants, journalists and others that can give them a sense their lives have meaning. Remember, most of the left sees religion and national identity as mundane reminders of a less enlughtened age.  Yet they need to fill that void with both hero-worship and a sense that they are in some way special.  This makes them vulnerable to brainwashing. They feel like if they follow the wealthy elitists then they too belong to the same club, though the clubs the elite belong to would toss them out on their ear if they tried to enter. You can work in a coffee shop, as an grade school teacher, or some other step low on the socio-economic ladder of American society but believe your education, even if you do serve coffee, yet have a master's degree in philosophy or gender studies, makes you an alpha in a world where most people are Omegas or even epsilons, to borrow from "Brave New World." 

So the powers-that-be can easily sway these wanna-be elitists by telling them they are smarter than anyone who supports Trump. While the hypothetical liberal public school employee may know that she has colleagues that support Trump, her identity testifies to her she is smarter than them. If she is lonely and single she can look down on her brother who supports Trump and has his own business, is married and has three kids, as an exploiter, a symbol of the patriarchy and probably a racist if truth be known.  She can only see the world as us v. them. She can be told by the media that Trump supporters want to bring back slavery and she will believe it because her identity depends on this fictional narrative. She needs to be reinforced by the elite that she is a good person, and has repented of wanting TV shows she used to love in the past but now sees as homophobic, racist and sexist, why? Because those who are at the top of her "club" have told her so.  And if she for a second questions the narrative when she realizes her sister-in-law has more education than her, and loves her kids, she must double down or risk shattering her very concept of who she is.

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Now in fairness conservatives can also see the world in an us v. them manner, but the reason they are not hateful, like their liberal counterparts, is that they seek identity in more traditional institutions such as family, religion, culture, national pride, their occupational acheivements and even fraternal organizations.  They are far less likely to seek identity in any sort of external provider such as a politician or celebrity. They may like someone like Trump, but Trump does not give them their meaning in life. In this sense one finds the great irony when a left-winger claims MAGA is a cult because it isn't.  A great illustration of this is when Trump defended the Corona vaccine and was booed by a significant part of the audience.  That was fine, and the event continued. Imagine someone at a Harris rally calling out the Democrats and their support of war.  They will not be received by others in the audience very warmly and will likely be forced out. So who are the cultists?

Now, back to the main point of my friend's post.  The Harris crowd has been conditioned to see anyone who disagrees with them as racists (especially if the person is a black Trump supporter), a sexist, someone who is probably married to their cousin, someone missing teeth, who drinks a lot of beer, is fat and dropped out of middle-school. They have to work as welders, car mechanics, farmers, factory workers, self-employed business people and the like because they are too stupid to do anything else. That is ironic as a skilled mechanic, just to name one blue collar profession,  needs at least as high of IQ as a doctor, but that is beside the point in their mind.  If a working person isn't for Trump they are forgiven and are to be treated as a child needing direction. And if someone is a doctor, teacher, dentist, owns a large business and supports Trump well, they must be closet KKK or some other distorted creation in their minds. Remember, to borrow from a Hunger Games metaphor the good guys are the ones living in Capitol City while the low-lifes live in the districts.  Few of them recognize this uncomfortable truth.

Sadly, even after the attempted assasination of Trump, there was not a de-escalation of hate-rhetoric from the left.  Many were sad that Trump survived. And have you heard many on the left give any sort of warmth to the memory of the fireman who was killed by the assasin? You have to ask why not?

So no matter who wins or loses in November, there will be no sort of "coming together" moment.  The left appears to be getting more and more angry and aggressive and their hatred for their "enemies of progress" is taking Cultural Revolution tones that will not be good for the USA in the least.  Of course this is meant to be an explanation for their behavior and beliefs. Some can be reached, especially if they are family members.  I have seen examples in my own family of people waking up and leaving the cult of wokism or the radical left.  Never give up on family and strive to deprogram others you can still reason with.