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unhinged
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'there's popular mobilization and activism, but in every self_destructive directions. it's taking the form of unfocused anger - hatred, attacks on one another and on vulnerable targets. really irrational attitudes - people mobilizing against their own interests, *literally* against their own interests. supporting political figures whose goal is to harm them as much as possible. we're seeing this right in front of us - you look at the television and the internet, you see it every day. that's what happens in cases like this. it is corrosive of social relations, but *that's the point*. the point is to make people hate and fear each_other, look out only for themselves, and not do anything for anyone else.
so take donald trump. for many years, i have been writing and speaking about the danger of the rise of an hones and charismatic ideologue in the united states, someone who could exploit the fear and anger that has long been boiling in much of the society, and who could direct it away from the actual agents of malaise to vulnerable targets. the dangers, however, have been real for many years, perhaps even more so in the light of the forces that trump has unleashed, even though trump himself does not fit the image of honest ideologue. he seems to have very little of a considered ideology apart from *me* and *my* friends.
he got huge support from people who are angry at everything. every time trump makes a nasty comment about whoever, his popularity goes up. because it is based on hate and fear. the phenomenon that we are seeing here is 'generalized rage.' mostly white, working-class, lower-middle-class people, who have been cast by the wayside during the neoliberalism period. they've lived through a generation of stagnation and decline. and a decline in the functioning of democracy. even their own elected representatives barely reflect their interests and concerns. everything has been taken away from them. there is no economic growth for them, there is for other people. the institutions are all against them. they have serious contempt for institutions, especially congress. they have a deep concern that they are losing their country because a 'generalized they' are taking it away from them. that kind of scapegoating of those who are even more vulnerable and oppressed, along with illusions about how they are being coddled by the 'liberal elites,' is all too familiar, along with the often bitter outcomes. and it's important to bear in mind that the genuine fears and concerns can be addressed by serious and constructive policies. many of the trump supporters voted for obama in 2008, believing the message of 'hope and change.' they saw little of either, and now in their disillusionment they are seduced by a con man offering a different message of hope and change - which could lead to a very ugly reaction when the imagery collapses. but the outcomes could be far more hopeful if there is a real and meaningful program that genuinely inspires hope and does promise seriously to bring about badly needed change. the response instead is generalized anger at everything.' - noam chomsky
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