Thread by @1JoshGreenberg

THREAD

HOW WE GOT HERE: PART VIII—THE FUNDAMENTAL ORIGINS OF EXTREMIST HATE AND THE CONDITIONS FOR DEMAGOGUERY

This thread contains excerpts from Part VIII. This part addresses the need to understand the social origins of extremist hate.

1/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“To understand how we arrived at our present circumstances—and how the progressive movement may have done better in forestalling this scenario—we also need to more deeply examine the origins of extremist hate.”

2/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“Hate does not arise in a vacuum. Hate arises from known conditions, especially severe inequality, which predispose certain populations to extremism. It is these conditions which make a population vulnerable to exploitation by a demagogue.”

3/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“In this fashion, we must recognize Trump followers for what they are: they are also victims. Their interests do not align with those of Trump or his elite friends, but they have been groomed into blind loyalty for his cause.”

4/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“As I make these observations, let there be no doubt: even if hate has understandable origins, those who commit acts of hate remain accountable for their behavior, and those acts must still be denounced and stamped out from our society.”

5/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“It remains a problem, nonetheless, that progressives have engaged in little advocacy to address the structural roots of hate or even to mitigate hate after it has taken hold.”

6/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“Not only have progressives failed to respond to hate with love in the course of our political discourse, but they have not drawn attention to the fundamental determinants of hate in our policy discussions.”

7/18

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“This fact also helps to explain why merely writing off Trump supporters as ‘hateful’ misses the point—for widespread hate, or even widespread tolerance of hate, is primarily an expression of more complex social ills.”

8/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“In the end, when we use the common threads of unity to address the common threads of oppression, we build a much more resilient society.”

9/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“If we wish to keep xenophobia from burning, we must not only win the moral battle against hate but also achieve economic justice for all. Only then will we liberate ourselves from the kindling that allows bigotry to inflame our society.”

10/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“Although this imperative unfortunately requires a much longer timescale than we have in the middle of the current crisis, the short-term response to hate must nonetheless be grounded in an understanding of its long-term causes.”

11/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“In the effort to move our country away from the brink of violence or to mitigate the damage of war, we must continue to employ humanistic, empathic strategies.”

12/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“Before closing this discussion of hate, I wish to emphasize two key clarifications. First, our society also contains ‘raw hatred’—that is, hate simply for the sake of hating, quite possibly with no discernible underlying social cause.”

13/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“There is a distinction between the raw strand of hate in our country and widespread, extremist hate. Extremist hate tends to have more discernible social explanations.”

14/18

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“Nevertheless, it is the existence of raw hatred that seeds extremist hate. It is the presence of hateful ideas—peddled in the interests of demagoguery—that allows other vulnerable members of the population to be radicalized into hating as well.”

15/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“Second, it may not even be the case that all of Trump's supporters are truly hateful. All that is necessary for atrocity is a ‘critical mass’ of extremist supporters and enough others who show indifference toward extremism.”

16/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

“These indifferent supporters are supplemented by indifferent opposers—that is, citizens from across the political spectrum who, although they may not support Trump, also are not sufficiently outraged by violence against Black Americans.”

17/18

medium.com/@1JoshGreenber…

18/18

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