i understand these major shifts in worldview in terms of emotional needs, very basic needs. belonging, sex, superiority, resentment, envy, revenge. but people will rarely explain their experience in these terms. these feelings are projected outward onto the political
 
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luka

Well-known member
i understand these major shifts in worldview in terms of emotional needs, very basic needs. belonging, sex, superiority, resentment, envy, revenge. but people will rarely explain their experience in these terms. these feelings are projected outward onto the political

this seems fine but if the needs dont change what accounts for the major shifts?
 

luka

Well-known member
but i dont think that accounts for the kind of huge political upheavels we have been seeing. it's like an earthquake which radically reconffigures the entire landscape.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
sometimes the world does change around us, in ways that seem to shatter our understanding of it

an earthquake is a release of stress that has been building up for a long time
 

luka

Well-known member
i mean, i don't disagree but i am seeking personal testimonies to get a bit more understanding of it. i don't have any alt right friends outside of the forum, except my Texan friend definitely has sympathies. im sure he wouldnt identify as alt right they just are utterly sick of the hectoring identarian left which they see as condesceding, hypocritical, priggish etc
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
it's important to have some first principles, some kind of basis. without them it's easy to become unmoored.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
i am seeking personal testimonies to get a bit more understanding of it.
sure

I know some of these people in my personal life, probably not so much converts as younger people for whom it is/was their coming of age politics
 
they're both true, people's motivations are always complicated, the personal is inextricable from the political and vice versa

this is true. I suppose my point is that in terms of how people tell the story of their shifting political outlook the emotional, the personal aspects ie shifts in their individual circumstances are played down while societal change is played up. we want to present ourselves as knowledgable and rational
 

luka

Well-known member
do you gently interrogate them in a sympathetic and gentle way as i am doing here to such great effect?
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
a good historical comparison to look at is the inter-war period in Europe

massive economic, social, and political upheaval, all kinds of radical politics confusedly mixed up together

unlike now it has the benefit of having already happened so you can look back at it retrospectively
 

sus

Well-known member
Let's remember that the left and right's actual values change every year, so that people who today are seen as centrist or conservatives would have been radicals a decade or two back

And there's nothing "intrinsic" in the continuity between stances; there's rather a pragmatic history of people connecting the dots, and of demographics raising issues.
 

version

Well-known member
The bad faith and obfuscation bothers me with the alt-right. People saying stuff like "It's not racist, it's just diversity of opinion! I thought you liked diversity?".
 

sus

Well-known member
Did we abandon our party, or were we abandoned by our party? Given the empirically real movement of views on free speech, constitutionality, markets, welfare, gender, science, and media, I think it's clear the party's movement is at the very least a major player.
 
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