What Liberals Don't Get About Trump Supporters and Pop Culture

[dutch508]

Star Member brooklynite (60,512 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213445187

What Liberals Don't Get About Trump Supporters and Pop Culture

[link:https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/05/16/trump-death-star-pop-culture-mutiny-bounty-curb-enthusiasm-260471|]

When President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, triumphantly invoked the “Star Wars” universe to liken the president’s reelection effort to the “Death Star,” all but ready to “start pressing FIRE,” it was both a standard display of MAGA braggadocio and a brief respite from the unrelenting, bleak coronavirus discourse.

Well-meaning liberals instantly took the bait and flooded Parscale’s replies to let him know he had, supposedly, missed the point — “Didn’t make it till the end of Star Wars, huh?” tweeted the Daily Beast’s Molly Jong-Fast. NBC legal analyst Barb McQuade plaintively (and quite reasonably) asked, “Who chooses to portray themselves as the Death Star?” (Spoiler alert, for the uninitiated: The Death Star belongs to the bad guys. The bad guys lose.)

...snip...

The real explanation is much simpler and more believable: When Parscale and his ilk approvingly identify themselves with pre-redemption Darth Vader, or Thanos, or even Dr. Evil, they surely understand those characters’ morality perfectly well. It’s not so much that Trump, et. al actively identify as “villains,” but that the behavior that makes one a “villain” in fiction—deceit, wanton rule-breaking, a willful disregard for collateral damage—is, in real life, more likely to get one branded a “winner,” provided one plays their cards right. Enron executives? Elizabeth Holmes? The steroid-juicing baseball heroes of the 1990s? Winners all—at least until they got caught.

Through that lens, everything from the Justice Department dropping charges against Michael Flynn post-guilty plea, to the president’s continued enrichment from his various hotels and business entities (to much worse) is as justifiable as the destruction of Alderaan. Rule-bound critics across the ideological spectrum can cry and moan as much as they want; the Trump administration has the power, is #winning and will do as it pleases, until they’re similarly caught red-handed. (To the extent that remains a possibility—the insulation from accountability provided by such magnificent power as the presidency is, of course, one of its most enjoyable perks.)

 

the Trump Obama administration and cronies has had the power, is #winning and will do as it pleases, until they’re similarly caught red-handed.

FIFY... 

qazplm135 (3,617 posts)

1. nothing Trumpers love to do more than say **** you I do what I want.

 

Star Member DBoon (16,174 posts)

2. This is the basis for fascism

Worship of violence and brute strength, strongman leaders above the law, winning creates it own morality. Subservience to winners is an obligation.

 

Star Member JHB (29,433 posts)

4. What freelance culture and politics writers don't get about explaining things...

Taking 1300 words to make a point that fits on a bumper sticker or two.

It's the display of intimidation, stupid.

It's the display of power, stupid.

Trump's cultists are like the people crowding around while a bully beats on some one, yelling "Yeah! Get'im!".

They like the vicarious feel of power by being "on their side", and most especially the fact that they're not the target.

 

[SVPete]

When Progs profess to understand conservatives, stupidity and hilarity inevitably follow.

[ADsOutburst]

When Progs profess to understand conservatives, stupidity and hilarity inevitably follow.

Most of the corporate media along with democratic party politicians have made it clear that we are their enemies, yet they wonder why we rally around someone who fights back against the media and democratic party politicians. In other words, people like JHB ironically almost have the correct view, but they put the wrong filter on it.

As for the article, it appears they still haven't grasped the idea that Trump hasn't broken the law. If someone is still citing the dismissal of the Flynn case as evidence of wrongdoing by Trump, that someone is hopelessly partisan, not paying attention, or an imbecile. I mean, can I assume the author is aware the law specifically gives the government the right to drop a case such as this under these exact circumstances, or would I be giving him too much credit? Oh yeah, I forgot. Trump isn't allowed to do that because [insert dumb special pleading argument here].

[freedumb2003b]

qazplm135 (3,617 posts)

1. nothing Trumpers love to do more than say f*** you I do what I want.

As opposed to obozo'ers who merely said and say "f*** you."

[ADsOutburst]

Star Member DBoon (16,174 posts)

2. This is the basis for fascism

Worship of violence and brute strength, strongman leaders above the law, winning creates it own morality. Subservience to winners is an obligation.

Hey, guys!!!! Did you know that if you take stuff Hitler said, and then cross it out with your big red crayon and replace it with stuff that sounds vaguely like stuff Trump said, Hitler sounds just like Trump?!?!?!

Of course, for actual quasi-fascists at Google, in state governments, and in courts, DU has nothing bad to say.