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When the left uses "strong" versus "weak" it reinforces the right-wing frame on the world. [1]
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Date: 2023-08-22
The other day, a DKos diary encouraged readers to label Donald Trump as “weak.” I countered this, emphasizing the fact that that’s how authoritarians classify the world—into strong vs. weak—so us stating that about Trump would just reinforce that frame. In that scenario, what a Trump supporter would take to heart would not be that he or she was wrong for wanting a strongman but that they need one even stronger! And so they’d become even more authoritarian in their mindset.
That’s beyond what is another likely outcome of such a move, which would be that many followers would simply cling more tenaciously to Trump himself and do what they could to protect him and their image of him. That defense might range from further alienation all the way to any form of stochastic terrorism, depending on the level of perceived threat.
Both of these outcomes work at cross-purposes to our ostensible goal of deradicalizing these folks.
But also, for liberals and progressives to use that frame of strong vs. weak is to adopt a more authoritarian outlook or frame ourselves. The logical outcome of that is an establishment of authoritarianism and its values by those who claim to be fighting for the values of democracy. These are mutually exclusive goals. Once you adopt authoritarian values, you’re no longer progressive or liberal. And utilizing the strong/weak frame is an entryway to that.
Another DKos diary highlighted a newly published CBS News/YouGov poll that contained this little gem: Of a bevy of options, Trump voters ranked sources of information they took to be true.
71% named Donald Trump
63% said “friends & family”
56% said “conservative media figures”
42% said religious leaders.
The author of the diary, News Corpse, stated, “Perhaps the most surprising finding in this poll is how far down the list religious leaders have fallen. . . . So the only explanation is that pastors and priests, et al, are competition for Trump, who must be revered and worshipped above all others.” I found myself taking exception to this “only” explanation, as the findings seemed to recall a point that the editor of Christianity Today has been claiming.
Russell Moore, a former higher-up in the Southern Baptist Convention, has a new book out talking about the polarization in the country but also in the church. He specifically mentions anecdotes where he’s spoken to church leaders who’ve given lessons on the Sermon on the Mount, and these pastors reported that their congregants have complained about “liberal talking points” coming from the pulpit. When the pastors would gently correct their congregants, explaining that the Sermon on the Mount is given as Jesus’s own words, the congregants maintain that the lesson is “weak” and “not for today.”
You have religious leaders committed to teaching these classic parables and lessons with congregations so polarized, so radicalized, that members don’t recognize the tenets of their own faith; and, in this environment, they’re going with the figure that doesn’t make them feel weak—indeed, they’ve picked the one who provides an escape into a fantasy of security and strength.
Even these people recognize that the values of the Sermon on the Mount resemble those of liberalism and progressivism. So why is it that some of our own, right here at DKos, similarly sneer at living these values and instead choose to take up the view that divides the world into “strong” and “weak”?
This is an object lesson of how some of our own are abandoning the values of our worldview for the sake of expediency.
I’ve asked before: is it the fact that we on the left have a “right” to be mean and so some are quick to claim this “right”? These right-wingers have been impossible to correct for the last eight years, so in a tit-for-tat we finally get to be mean back? Is this a righteous anger scenario?
I understand the desire and the temptation to satisfy that urge to get even. But it’s doubly harmful to our own cause, especially if we drink in such a viewpoint ourselves. In a way, we will have proven the right-wingers right in their fears that they will be replaced—but it would be us, newly converted to authoritarianism, championing their philosophy and taking up their banner and cause.
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https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/22/2188831/-When-the-left-uses-strong-versus-weak-it-reinforces-the-right-wing-frame-on-the-world
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