William Lindsey Sep 29, 2024

People focus on Hitler and Nazi leaders and the atrocious lethal lies they told to justify the mass murder of Jews.

But they should focus also on the willingness of very many people to believe those lies, to cheer and assist as their Jewish neighbors were rounded up and sent to their deaths.

The problem is never just the Hitlers, the Nazis. The problem is us, many of us — our propensity to stigmatize and hate.

#Trump #Republicans #Hitler #Nazis #immigrants #BloodLibel #PoliticsofHate
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@wdlindsy

Thing is, these guys, mostly white males, are seeing their position of preference in society eroded. While most people see the lessening of deference to their priviledged status as a good thing, they are horrified by the prospect of competing on a more even playing field. So, they are easy targets for the hate merchants who promise them they are in fact superior and being unfairly deprived of their rightful place in society.

Sep 29, 2024 at 11:59pmWeb
Show threadWilliam Lindsey Sep 30, 2024
@mastodonmigration Yes, that definitely plays a role, and the gender breakdown we see in the pro-Trump vote as polls expose that tells us this, for sure. I ask, though, why according rights to people long denied them — in this case, women — erodes the rights of the rest of us — in this case men. I agree that a lot of men have chosen to view women's reception of rights in that zero-sum way. But I don't think this is an accurate assesment on their part of what's happening in the world.
Show threadMastodon MigrationSep 30, 2024

@wdlindsy

Take a workplace example. Let's say a very mediocre lazy white male is the foreman of a crew containing women, blacks and Hispanics. He works alongside them, albeit as their boss, and knows that some of them would do a much better job of running the crew. He now feels threatened that it is not just white guys that can be foremen.

Show threadWilliam Lindsey Sep 30, 2024
@mastodonmigration Yes, and interestingly enough, I see just that very thing repeatedly as I walk in my neighborhood, where the hard work of maintaining and repairing streets, cutting trees or limbs from trees, putting on new roofs for houses, and so on, is done almost exclusively by Hispanic men working with a white man as their foreman. And it is very apparent to me that that white man is often mediocre and lazy as he lords it over those hard-working Hispanic men.