Plenty of explanations have been proposed for Trump's enduring popularity. But almost everyone has missed what might be the most important one. My column. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
US culture is an incubator of ‘extrinsic values’. Nobody embodies them like the Republican front runner, writes Guardian columnist George Monbiot
We're fucked then because the extrinsics have been CONtrolling the UK since Thatcher's "No such thing as society" and reimagining herself vocally and imagewise.
Perfectly encapsulates a societal issue - Trump is the symptom not the cause.
Seems stupidly obvious. He's the only viable American Populist. This is a global movement. Covid made it even worse as well as climate activism as especially migration.
Your column is the most important explanation for Trumps’ enduring popularity? Well: remove it than! ASAP!
Thanks a lot for that column💡 This fits to some German politicians and public figures as well. Like Merz or the FDP, which is elected by people who would never benefit from its politics.
I think this is getting closer to the truth but the binary framing is off. Everyone is affected by internal and external factors. Those who think they're only using one are denying the other. The far right claim is that external factors (ie privilege) prove their intrinsic supremacy.
America is still a widely religious country. Religion requires that you ignore or refute the facts and reality staring you in the face and instead choose ‘the man in the sky’. Once you are willing to refute facts, you are easy meat for a committed liar who says what you want to hear.
There’s a glamour thing going on as well - intrinsic values ally you with those living the same dull life as you. It’s 1066 and all that - Cavaliers (Wrong but Wromantic) and the Roundheads (Right but Repulsive).
Psychopaths are fascinating
The predatory nature of the extrinsic domination has limits because it undermines the foundations of its own dominance. Like many empires before, the US will loose it's primacy by it's own rapacity that will become far too obvious and because other countries will take measures to insulate from it.