Trump is a Tulpa
Are any of you guys fans of The X-Files? If so, maybe you'll remember a past episode in which Mulder and Scully encounter a Tulpa, a thought-form, a monster created from the beliefs of others. I want us to keep this creature in mind as we discuss Trump's latest horrible utterance about 'shithole' countries ...
Trump's animus towards the people from 'shithole' countries can come as no surprise. It's awful, yes, but anyone who has watched his campaign rallies before the election or who has been paying attention since then to his many racist remarks - who can forget his defense of the neo-nazis of Charlottesville - already knows Trump is a racist.
As disturbing as this is ... and I find it obscene the way Republicans have danced around this fact ... there is something else that is just as disturbing. That thing is that Trump is only president because he was voted for by people who like his racism, people who share it.
Trump is a kind of creation, an assemblage of the beliefs of Republican voters, an avatar to go forth into the world for them and make their beliefs manifest. And let's not pretend that those beliefs sprout from the righteous financial worries of the 'forgotten man'. Those beliefs are grown in contempt for the other people and the very world around us - they result in the desire to punish the poor, to keep women in their place, to use the environment as just a consumable product, to exclude racial/ethnic minorities, etc.
We can and should try to hold Trump accountable for what he says and does, try to get rid of him. But we have to own up to the fact that he is not some lone malefactor that we can eventually banish to make everything better. We have to face the fact that perhaps a third of our voters - Trump's base - have brought the Trump monster to life with their own deep beliefs, and they will not be as easy to make disappear.
Trump's animus towards the people from 'shithole' countries can come as no surprise. It's awful, yes, but anyone who has watched his campaign rallies before the election or who has been paying attention since then to his many racist remarks - who can forget his defense of the neo-nazis of Charlottesville - already knows Trump is a racist.
As disturbing as this is ... and I find it obscene the way Republicans have danced around this fact ... there is something else that is just as disturbing. That thing is that Trump is only president because he was voted for by people who like his racism, people who share it.
Trump is a kind of creation, an assemblage of the beliefs of Republican voters, an avatar to go forth into the world for them and make their beliefs manifest. And let's not pretend that those beliefs sprout from the righteous financial worries of the 'forgotten man'. Those beliefs are grown in contempt for the other people and the very world around us - they result in the desire to punish the poor, to keep women in their place, to use the environment as just a consumable product, to exclude racial/ethnic minorities, etc.
We can and should try to hold Trump accountable for what he says and does, try to get rid of him. But we have to own up to the fact that he is not some lone malefactor that we can eventually banish to make everything better. We have to face the fact that perhaps a third of our voters - Trump's base - have brought the Trump monster to life with their own deep beliefs, and they will not be as easy to make disappear.
posted by crystal | 9:59 AM
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