09-11-2016, 01:30 PM
The whole article is compelling reading, one of the best introductions of what is going on on the right. The essence of the right used to be about small government and free markets, with family values and national security thrown in for good measure.
But the rise of Trump has exploded that myth, and this is the best explanation of what's beneath it:
The article contains a hilarious (and tragic at the same time) quote from a guy who riles against government imposing fines on what's called 'rolling coal' the practice of some to tinker with their diesel trucks in order to produce an enormous belch of black smoke.
It's tragic in the sense that air pollution, especially fine particles from diesel, kills orders of magnitude more people compared to, say, terrorism.
But the rise of Trump has exploded that myth, and this is the best explanation of what's beneath it:
Quote:The core of the ethnonationalist perspective is that a country’s constituent groups and demographics are locked in a zero-sum struggle for resources. Any government intervention that favors one group disfavors the others. Government and other institutions are either with you or against you.This one quote shows what angry white guys mean when they talk about government overreach - Vox
What FOX and talk radio have been teaching the right for decades is that native-born, working- and middle-class whites are locked in a zero-sum struggle with rising Others — minorities, immigrants, gays, coastal elitists, hippie environmentalists, etc. — and that the major institutions of the country have been coopted and are working on behalf of the Others.
Here’s my favorite Rush Limbaugh quote, from back in 2009:
Quote:We really live, folks, in two worlds. There are two worlds. We live in two universes. One universe is a lie. One universe is an entire lie. Everything run, dominated, and controlled by the left here and around the world is a lie. The other universe is where we are, and that’s where reality reigns supreme and we deal with it. And seldom do these two universes ever overlap. … The Four Corners of Deceit: government, academia, science, and media. Those institutions are now corrupt and exist by virtue of deceit.
That’s how they promulgate themselves; it is how they prosper. That is the right-wing media’s message, delivered with relentless consistency: Government has become an agent of the Others. That’s what ethnonationalists mean when they talk about big government — not that government is exceeding some libertarian theorist’s notion of constitutional limits, but that government is on the wrong side, backing the wrong team.
From an ethnonationalist perspective, government overreach is when government tells people like me what to do. The proper role of government is to defend my rights and privileges against people like them.
The article contains a hilarious (and tragic at the same time) quote from a guy who riles against government imposing fines on what's called 'rolling coal' the practice of some to tinker with their diesel trucks in order to produce an enormous belch of black smoke.
Quote:But to diesel owners like Corey Blue of Roanoke, Ill., the very efforts to ban coal rolling represent the worst of government overreach and environmental activism. "Your bill will not stop us!" Mr. Blue wrote to Will Guzzardi, a state representative who has proposed a $5,000 fine on anyone who removes or alters emissions equipment. "Why don’t you go live in Sweden and get the heck out of our country," Mr. Blue wrote. "I will continue to roll coal anytime I feel like and fog your stupid eco-cars."
It's tragic in the sense that air pollution, especially fine particles from diesel, kills orders of magnitude more people compared to, say, terrorism.