tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post6370245370745724319..comments2024-03-13T04:57:22.459-04:00Comments on Understanding Society: Trumpism Dan Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15953897221283103880noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-80299143444296539432017-04-01T17:07:26.958-04:002017-04-01T17:07:26.958-04:00Does sociology offer any suggestions on how to com...Does sociology offer any suggestions on how to combat this? As the beliefs of the right-wing populists are not rational, rational discussion will probably be unavailing. Besides, when conservatives are confronted with information showing that their beliefs are wrong, they often double-down - believing their false beliefs even more strongly. Would discussing shared positive values work?Michael Licitranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-23980220656645881112017-02-16T01:34:14.250-05:002017-02-16T01:34:14.250-05:00I'm curious whether you think it's possibl...I'm curious whether you think it's possible that Trump's appeal had more to do with a rejection of a mutually reinforcing neoliberal and neoconservative trade and foreign policy that gutted the American working and middle class, rather than an embrace of racism, xenophobia and misogyny? <br /><br />Specifically, per your excellent post on <a href="http://understandingsociety.blogspot.com/2008/07/moral-economy-as-historical-social.htm" rel="nofollow">Moral economy as a historical social concept</a> is it possible to view Trumpism as a kind of peasant revolution in which "peasant communities are aroused to protest and rebellion when the terms of the local subsistence ethic are breached by local elites, state authorities, or market forces"?Caitlinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-69900807745075188242017-02-03T11:30:35.522-05:002017-02-03T11:30:35.522-05:00Not mentioned is the fact that post-WWII Nazis set...Not mentioned is the fact that post-WWII Nazis settled in the U.S. quietly with the permission of the State Dept. I grew up in Northern Illinois and they were in all professions, including teachers, who openly harassed me for being of Polish ancestry. http://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/November-2016/Chicago-Nazi-Party-1978-Skokie-March/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-9251771655748599612017-01-31T09:56:52.729-05:002017-01-31T09:56:52.729-05:00A much-needed analysis and reflections to understa...A much-needed analysis and reflections to understand better these challenging times. Many thanks!Greetings from Colombia.Karem Sánchezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09318914994136650743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-60145941828073702702017-01-30T17:40:09.663-05:002017-01-30T17:40:09.663-05:001. This phenomenon is shared among Western countri...1. This phenomenon is shared among Western countries.<br />2. It is characterized by antagonism to elites. <br />3. There is a great diversity of political history in these countries. <br />4. The most obvious concentration of elites in every country is its universities. <br />5. Unlike politics, intellectual fads show an amazing homogeneity across counties. Thornton Hallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11402495641975262697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-28618925720525991702017-01-30T16:07:50.111-05:002017-01-30T16:07:50.111-05:00Your piece is Long on relating populism <=> ...Your piece is Long on relating populism <=> Trumpism. Woefully short on "how we got here". <br /><br />Too bad... I was looking to a philosopher of social science to sort out the independent variables that created the conditions that appear to me to have been developed over time. In my perspective and as best I can determine it began under Reagan who was the first to capture whatever was going on. I looking back before Reagan it seems that the event which might have triggered the U.S.'s movement toward increasing populism was the implementation of the civil rights act in '64. That act promoted right wing populism in the former confederate states to increase and extended into the rural mid-western states it appears -- which are traditionally conservative enclaves (rural values, "individualism", close-knit small (more isolated), far less racially and culturally diverse communities). <br /><br />So from a layman's study of the independent events or conditions that lead to Trumpism today I would have to say it begins with the post-civil war southern Jim Crow ascendency which was never countered nationally by national laws to prevent them or national outrage --- racism thus existed on a national scale if not practiced as openly and obviously as in the former confederate states.<br /><br />If we ask why this was the case, and we're realistic about it, then it must be said that it appears to go right back to the compromises made to form a "cohesive nation"... e.g. the constitutional convention which allowed a nation to form under major compromises born of vagaries that have never actually sorted out or ever resolved, and indeed allowed to persist for 100 years after the Civil War. Longtoothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08844066558431822440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-24631621597625081022017-01-30T07:46:55.691-05:002017-01-30T07:46:55.691-05:00Good as far as it goes but you need to elaborate a...Good as far as it goes but you need to elaborate about how this sort of politics promises benefits to the working class that it has no intention or ability to deliver. Workers are fooled into thinking they will get something out of all of this beyond satisfaction about their prejudices.Doug Korty dougkorty@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05917776988908917362noreply@blogger.com