He has a ‘masterful ability to shift shame into blame’
A University of California Berkeley sociology professor claims in a new book that Donald Trump is “weaponizing” the shame of white rural Americans.
In “Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right,” Arlie Hochschild details her journey to “the heart of Appalachia” where, according to The New Press’s description, “a proud people in a hard-hit region suffer the deep loss of pride and are confronted with a powerful political appeal that makes it feel ‘stolen.’”
In a recent excerpt in Time, Hochschild (pictured) refers to a “pride paradox,” personified by a 40-something coal miner’s grandson, angry at the Obama and Biden administrations for being anti-coal (because climate change), who is forced into a menial job, and then reads an op-ed about him being a “deadbeat” for “not supporting his family and paying taxes the town needs for its sewer repairs.”
This individual also reads on social media and elsewhere how he allegedly is “ignorant, racist, sexist, or homophobic.”
Hochschild says this pride paradox is “central” to Donald Trump’s current candidacy, specifically his alleged “masterful ability to shift shame into blame” and convince voters to accept his “turn to the far right.”
Trump’s “anti-shame ritual” is comprised of four “moments,” according to the professor emerita:
In Moment 1 Trump says something transgressive. To take an early example, when he announced his presidential bid in 2015 he declared, “when Mexico sends its people…they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” In Moment 2, the punditry shames Trump, saying in essence, “You can’t say that! How disgraceful.” After Trump’s Mexican rapist remark, Macy’s announced that it would discontinue Trump’s menswear line. NBC—which hosted Celebrity Apprentice—announced it was severing ties “due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump.” Univision revoked its promise to air Trump’s Miss America and Miss Universe contests.
In Moment 3, Trump turns to his followers saying in effect: They hurt me. I’m in pain, as you are. I’m suffering for you. Then comes Moment 4, the most important: Trump roars back at the shamers. “If NBC is so weak and so foolish,” Trump said in 2015, “as to not understand the serious illegal immigration problem…” and he unleashed accusations against a variety of enemies—Macy’s, NBC, the “treasonous press,” the “deep state,” and the Democratic party—saying, in effect, I will protect you against these causes of your distress.
Hochschild says Trump’s ritual also includes claims such as “immigrants ‘poison the blood'” of America, that various Black Lives Matter protesters acted like “animals,” and the (repeatedly debunked) “good people on both sides” of the 2017 Charlottesville rally.
Hochschild concedes comments such as Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” and actress Bette Midler’s claim that West Virginians are “poor, illiterate and strung out” certainly give Trump an opening of which to take advantage.
But the 45th president ultimately is railing against an “imagined thief”: the “deep state, a treasonous press and an uncaring liberal left” which, Hochschild concludes, is “a danger to us all.”
MORE: Professors rally academics around ‘less bad’ candidate Trump
IMAGE: UC Berkeley
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