Excerpt - Richard Seymour on the US election and Trump redux (part one)
Politics Theory Other
Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Clearly, one of the things we learned is that in an unjust and difficult reality, you should not expect people to have joy, as they put it in Harris's electoral campaign. They need to know who it is that is to blame and who is an accurate target for their aggression. There's nothing wrong with aggression and a desire to strike back when you're suffering injustice.
And this is something that Donald Trump offers, right? He seems pissed off. He's angry. He points to enemies. He expresses frustration and annoyance. And I mean, the contrast with Kamala Harris is extraordinary in that regard. I will be your revenge. That was his thing during in spring. And yeah, I mean, Harris, there's nothing about her that would excite you.
So, you know, you get these simulated transient experiences, kind of emotional contagions like Brat Girl Summer, which has nothing to do with real joy at all. Has everything to do with a kind of nervous end of the world jitteriness, which comes out as laughter and stunning. So you need to have an enemy, obviously. You need to correctly identify the enemy and you need to offer people an alternative to revenge.
Second, just in terms of the program, it seems obvious to me that in addition to material relief that people obviously need...
The Sanders campaign, I was reminded recently, it was talking about all these material interests, sure. It was talking about healthcare. It was talking about wages. It was talking about poverty employers. It was also talking about a political revolution. So it seems to me that meaning and something that goes beyond one's immediate horizon of interest is very, very important.
If you'd like to hear the rest of this episode of PTO Extra, then please consider becoming a £5 supporter of the show on Patreon. Go to patreon.com forward slash polltheoryother to sign up.