Divide and conquer
Feel like the world is a mess right now?
If you want a great breakdown on how we got here, please take a moment to read How the Internet Fringe Infiltrated Republican Politics by Antonia Hitchens, in The New Yorker. Hitchens details how Nick Fuentes and other online influencers rode Generation Z’s wave of discontent to stoke the anger that helped put Donald Trump in the White House and then return him there.
Years ago, the late Lee Atwater – who might have been the Nick Fuentes of the Reagan era – described how conservative used code to appeal to racist voters. Today, Fuentes and his Groyper followers feel no such need. They display their racism proudly, praising even Hitler and invoking every racist trope they can to troll and enrage their foes on the left.
Their most hated foe? As one might expect, it’s Jewish people, for whom the generation of racists that Hitches profiles blames for all their problems.
Ah, to be young and naïve again.
As the parent of two Gen Zers, I do not for a moment discount the struggle that young adults feel in America today. Finding full-time employment that pays a living wage challenges even the most qualified college graduates. Student loans and high housing prices have made it next to impossible for young people to step onto the ladder that previous generations climbed to wealth. But it’s not Jews and immigrants that have extinguished the economic and social opportunities that so many Baby Boomers enjoyed in the post-WWII era.
It’s capitalist greed.
Corporate profits soar at the expense of the workers who make those profits possible. Decades of tax breaks for companies, private equity, and the wealthy ensure that nothing ever trickles down in today’s American economy. The wealthy get away with it because they have learned how to direct workers’ anger toward… other workers.
The world’s richest person – Elon Musk – buys Twitter and transforms its algorithm into a chorus of anger, racism, sexism, and hate. But not toward him. The Groypers are correct in that they got a raw deal. They just got duped into blaming the wrong people.
Hitchens reports that the Groypers are turning on Trump now due to the administration’s support for Israel and its inability to deliver the jobs and opportunities that Gen Z needs. Yet no one on the left should assume that this is good news for them.
The media algorithms that stoke right-wing anger at Jews, immigrants and trans people also stokes left-wing fury at equally struggling and frustrated people on the right for picking these wrong scapegoats. While the 99% fight, the one percent keeps taking more and more of our money and work.
If people cannot feel safe and comfortable in a society, they will turn against that society as they look for another way to survive. That’s the formula that “those with” have used for generations to keep “those without” from coming after them to get a fair share.
And we keep falling for it.