Thread by @1JoshGreenberg

THREAD

HOW WE GOT HERE: PART II—DEEP-SEATED DENIALISM AND CLASSISM

This thread contains excerpts from Part II of “How We Got Here.” This part addresses our country’s denialism in the face of lost lives and livelihoods among many Trump supporters.

1/15

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“Thus far, my commentary on denialism has primarily addressed a relatively short-term version of this disease: our denial of our country's current authoritarian path, and our denial that we may now be headed toward mass atrocity.”

2/15

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“However, this denialism has much deeper roots. In fact, the denialism stretches back many years, beginning with the progressive movement's denial of the existence and legitimacy of a large swath of the country.”

3/15

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“In the shocked aftermath of the 2016 election, the core lesson was about the existence of a major group within the country that had received relatively little policy attention despite having legitimate and unaddressed grievances.”

4/15

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“Progressives somehow decided that this population was not a force to be reckoned with—or, worse, was a population simply to be outnumbered and to be dismissed as morally inferior.”

5/15

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“If members of this group were not already hardened when they cast their 2016 votes, the rhetoric directed toward these individuals has probably only made them increasingly hardened, especially as it has heightened over the course of Trump's term.”

6/15

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“All told, the oversimplified and at times vitriolic name-calling and labeling toward this group has ignored the complexity of its members' lives, including their present-day suffering.”

7/15

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“When we focus on the human experience of those who support Trump, we hear a troubling story. This story is perhaps best illustrated by our country's health trends.”

8/15

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“U.S. life expectancy decreased for three years starting in 2014 —driven by rising deaths in the 25–64 age range. Even more alarming, less educated and rural populations experienced the largest relative increases in death within this age bracket.”

9/15

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“The declines in health have been associated with major economic decline, including the disappearance of manufacturing jobs, a shrinking middle class, wage stagnation, and reduced social mobility.”

10/15

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“Geographically, the spike in deaths has been concentrated in the industrial Midwest and Appalachia—both, remarkably enough, strongholds for Trump supporters.”

11/15

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“While researchers will continue to work through the complexity behind these developments, the main point seems clear: America is currently in a major state of distress, with particular regions and sub-populations getting hit the hardest.”

12/15

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“This distress is as real as human suffering gets. Amidst these realities, rather than dismissing away the lives of Trump voters, we must listen to their legitimate grievances.”

13/15

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“The animosity toward Trump supporters has been part of a broader pattern of classism. Classism—an under-recognized prejudice that has demanded attention for decades—is perhaps the last major form of discrimination to be addressed in the U.S.”

14/15

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“While the fight against classism should bind together multiple oppressed groups in our society for the purpose of a common cause, we have instead allowed classism to lay the foundation for Trumpism.”

15/15

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PS1

https://twitter.com/1JoshGreenberg/status/1313296081489260544