But how did he end up being at the head of the entitled bullies?
There is some kind of complicated tangent to this common storyline that I am trying to work out. How is it connected to the Revenge of the Mediocre White Man that is going on right now in DC? Could it have been seeded in the whiny punk and grunge era, germinated in gamer gate and grew violent on January 6th?
How did it end up being taken over by trust fund techbros who got richer in Silicon Valley and now think they are golden gods? How is it connected to the orange man-baby who is currently shitting all over our government? Why does this all feel weirdly like some superhero movie where the hero doesn’t show up and the supervillain gets the girl? And why is Capitalism finally to blame.
That last one first. As each cultural wave occurs, the marketplace rises up to meet it and exploit the hell out of it. This is one way the wealthy suck money from the masses - analyze what each demographic will throw money at and provide it. No matter how oppositional that gestalt might be to 1%, no matter the creed or commitment, Capitalism demands continual growth and the 1% must always make bank off it. This is one way America co-opts and muffles its citizens who join anti-establishment movements - by turning them into the consumers of their obsessions. And when making money is more important than even the darkest obsessions, you get a sociopathic NRA with an audience primed for burnishing their obsessions with armament.
Punk, Internet, Gaming, all were brought into the fold in the 90s and all those guys who thought being in a garage band would get them laid are parents with their own whiny kids.
A lot of these guys got jobs during the tech bubble, and lost them when it burst. The 90s and early 2000s were not kind to anyone who was trying to get ahead.
Changes to education and psychology also come into play here where No Child Left Behind meant you learned only what was required to make your school look good that year, so it could get funding for the next - a Republican invention. What that did in short was to reward the cut and paste knowledge you needed for the test but neglected thinking skills or basic civics.
That tied with the increase in college tuition (more continual growth for the banks) meant fewer people got a degree. College is where you really get exposed to the expanse of human knowledge, so this loss is pretty dire. Fewer jobs required a degree in the recessions that followed, so fewer folks in general went to college.
Except women, specifically black women.
You knew we’d get around to racism, because, of course, it’s America’s original sin.
Misogny too, because the movement of mediocre white men in particular hates women. And really hates being shown up by someone without white skin and a penis. Their homophobia means that penis needs to be straight, and definitely should speak English and never, never vote Democratic. Thus, a fraction of the population dismisses the rights of everyone else with glee.
Those masses exist to be ruled and used by true-blooded American white men, according to said white men. Not to be judged or bossed by those others. If education gives lesser beings that power, then it’s suspect, wrong, against the grain.
This is one reason why MAGA needs slogans to memorize, not real supporting facts for their arguments. Logic itself can’t be trusted, so using it against a MAGA is pointless.
Hence, the anger and the slow, inexorable rejection of knowledge and experience by the ruling party. If women and non-whites can have those things, then they aren’t worth having. So says the Patriarchy. And MAGA has already named its deranged narcissistic leader Daddy and fantasized about women being spanked. Don’t need much knowledge to claim power that way.
The wealthy are not immune to those feelings, in fact, the rich are filled with paranoia. Those mediocre men who have failed upward with family money are also being shown up, even though they like to impress themselves with the idea their wealth makes them book-smart. They are afraid of being laughed at, still. They know they are frauds, but can’t admit it because narcissism drowns all self-reflection.
When money is the bully and the law is the nerd, people whose emotional needs demand domination side with money. When Presidents and Supreme Court justices are Black and female, then the government must be illegitimate. The path to success for those who are less-than white men must be burned and salted. That's what Elmo is busy doing, on behalf of all the discontented bullies who worship him. And because white men protect white men, no one is speaking up.
So where are the good men now, those Not All Men men who want to mansplain and whitesplain to us on social media. When will they choose sides and take action. Because right now, I think they feel safe, and are cheering on their buds to take charge.
Update: Excellent article that dovetails with this subject :
No comments:
Post a Comment