Going Up the Fool’s Gold Escalator
by Tom H. Hastings
622 words
Labeling
From his opening remarks in 2016, straight through to this week, Donald Trump labels others, whether they are immigrants from Mexico, political opponents, or entire nations. He calls them many pejorative names–rapists, animals, vermin–designed to set them apart as less than human.
Stereotyping
There is a large and corrosive gap between a heuristic–a profiling tip that indicates something or someone may need to be observed for possible misconduct–and stereotyping–deciding that someone is undesirable and is going to commit unwanted actions because of their identity. A man walks into a crowd at a speech and he’s scowling, possibly fingering a knife in its case–the idea that this man should be observed is based on logic fed by hints from similar past situations–a heuristic that is a shortcut and an efficient mental process that narrows the odds of error. Stereotyping increases the chances for mistakes.
Trump gets fed catch phrases that have been featured in past stereotyping attacks on others (looking at you, Stephen Miller) and those hate phrases find their way into Trump’s speeches, tweets, and interviews–for instance, the immigrants “poisoning the blood” of America is straight out of Adolph Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Enemy creation
Enough failures in critical thinking can turn a person or groups of people into those labeled “the enemy.” Jews and Palestinians may decide that everyone in the population who is The Other is now The Enemy. This creates a permission structure to ethnic cleansing–driving entire groups of people out of an area–or even genocide–attempting to kill all members of That Group, even children. Trump has steadfastly been working to create enemies, including entire populations from BIPOC countries–Venezuela, “Congo,” Mexico, etc.–and has resorted to a steady gusher of lies to shill his goal.
If you don’t like this sort of promotion of hatred and extreme intent to go after entire peoples, you may be next. Trump is now conflating his political opponents with enemy combatants, even threatening to use the US military against those in the US who disagree with him, calling them “the enemy from within,” even naming Congressmember Adam Schiff and “the Pelosis.” Who else? Registered Democrats? Greens?
Violence
Once the legitimacy of attacking another group is established amongst those inclined to decide, or to take action, violence is quite likely. It frequently takes time to prepare, but there are usually outliers who just decide to act now, even as individuals. Sometimes they attempt to employ their version of justification–oftentimes intending to trigger the wider violence they fantasize about. This has happened with Trump devotees who have convinced themselves that, if they slaughter as many African American worshippers at a church, they can foment the race war they dream of. For decades, some on the political left believed in Che Guevara’s theories of launching a revolution by some isolated political violence, a theory that not only didn’t work, but arguably got him killed.
These corrupt ideas persist, sadly, and we see a Trump true believer shoot as many Hispanic-looking people as he can, in that deadly fantasy of being the tripwire to achieving his racist hopes.
Vengeance
As a direct consequence of all these unnecessary but emotionally cathartic escalations, eventually into violence, all the seeds are planted to continue the sick, destructive cycle. This is the ultimate passive-aggressive expression–revenge. We hear Trump calling for that in his drumbeat of escalating rhetoric, touching on the traumas suffered by so many people, promising to be their retribution.
This is the sickness of enemy creation, destructive cycle participation, and deterioration of the human spirit. Unless we decide to break that cycle, we will contribute to it.
We can do so much better. Will we?
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Dr. Tom H. Hastings is Coördinator of Conflict Resolution BA/BS degree programs and certificates at Portland State University.
Published: Athens OH Messenger, Broward County FL Westside Gazette, Lockport NY Union-Sun & Journal
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