SanAndreasX said:
Zkuq said:
'Because it serves them right' is the only excuse I can come up with off the top of my head, which is, of course, a terrible excuse. Also, they probably don't see it as insecurity but as confidence instead. |
You're right on both counts. A large section of the United States holds a deep seated resentment towards all 8.5 bllion other people in the world, including 150m of their fellow Americans. It's like they resent sharing THEIR planet with all of these "foreigners." And they see Trump's childishness as confidence and power.
In their mind, Canada leeches off of the U.S. military (never mind that Canada provides the U.S. military with early warning of any activities Russia might engage in) and won't buy U.S. goods, so Canada deserves to either be annexed by the U.S., taken over by China, Russia (and India is increasingly becoming a boogey-man as well), or they deserve to have their country subverted by the U.S.'s support of Alberta separatists. It's basically a cultural version of main-character syndrome. |
"a cultural version of main-character syndrome"
A succinct and diplomatic way of describing what Bonhoeffer and Cipolla describe as "stupidity".
Bonhoeffer was trying to explain the drive of the Nazis toward fanatical ignorance and cruelty... (of course) they executed him.
But the mechanics are the same, cultural main-character syndrome, and that (stupidity) drives their ignorance and cult-like belief in Nazi propaganda, and that critical thought was undesirable because it lead to questioning of the "cultural main character" narrative. And that somehow, being able to hurt people who disagree with them, and destroy things rationalize their beliefs, and that hurting others will somehow better their own circumstances; even though no one really gains from them behaving in such a way, and it in fact probably hurts everyone. Kind of like (on a more singular level) how a bully with poor grades knows they can beat up someone physically weaker than them with higher grades, and therefore they are right... even though beating up the weaker person will only result in pain and misery for one or both parties involved. Instead of harnessing their relationship to improve their own situation with their grades.
But on the cultural level, the result of stupidity is more like this: instead of people in the culture using critical thought to support policy that improves their situation, they support demagogues who aim to hurt other people (and perhaps wider than people: anti-environmental policy and attacking environmental advocates).
