Re: <nettime> What is the meaning of Trump's victory?

[Scot Mcphee <scot.mcphee@gmail.com>]

From: Michael Gurstein (mailto:gurstein=40gmail.com)
Reply: Michael Gurstein (mailto:gurstein=40gmail.com)
Date: 21 November 2016 at 14:22:25
To: nettime-l=40kein.org (mailto:nettime-l=40kein.org)
Subject: Re: What is the meaning of Trump's victory=3F

> The emerging explanation for Trump seems be of the misogyny or racism of
> a significant portion of the US population. That may or may not be true
> (I rather think that a portion of those voting for Trump were
> racist/misogynist but by no means all).

Everyone voting for him was certainly able to (at least) overlook his rac=
ism and misogyny however. And I=E2=80=99m pretty sure there is a substant=
ial population of the USA who cannot and will not have the privilege to o=
verlook his outrageous fascist principles and white supremacist rhetoric.=

=C2=A0
> If (and I know how difficult it is) we were able to remove the obnoxious
> personality of Trump from the circumstance many of us would be
> celebrating unreservedly at the shattering of the ideological hegemony
> that has been strangling popular developments throughout the world.

Not every movement that simply opposes the current ideological hegemony c=
an or should be celebrated just because they mouth some platitudes about =
wealthy city elite classes and the neo-liberalism which they purportedly =
represent. What they propose to replace it with, and how they will go abo=
ut the replacement, are also critical details. The NSDAP was also, quite =
famously, anti-capitalist, despising international finance, and identifyi=
ng it as being aligned purely with the interests of a cosmopolitan urban =
elite which was to be destroyed. What was its final results=3F A global w=
ar that killed more than 50 million people, a massive deliberate industri=
al scale genocide, and the division of Europe (if not the entire world) b=
etween two competing, and utterly controlling, hegemonies in whose shadow=
s we all still live.

The rhetorical form of the demagogue cannot be judged for its populist co=
ntents: it must be judged on its results alone.

S.

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