A working paper from a pair of political scientists analyzed World Values Survey
data to trace the rise of support for authoritarianism in America to a
growing sense among white people that democracy’s commitment to giving
everyone a vote would soon erode their privilege, as the growing
population of racialized people started to vote for fairer policies.
They’re echoing Peter Thiel’s frank admission
that “freedom” (the right to amass unlimited power and wealth) is
incompatible with “democracy” (the right for everyone to vote, even the
people who will cease to sell you their blood if they can secure a wage
that allows them to keep it for themselves).
The conclusions are based on surveys of attitudes well before the Trump election, because Trump is the result of this phenomenon, not the cause of it.
One important measure that is not included in the study is the role that
inequality plays in the rise of support for racist authoritarianism.
Neoliberalism’s core tenet is that we “can’t afford” to see to it that
everyone is housed, fed, educated and cared for, and that any suggestion
that this is in reach given policies that seek broadly shared
prosperity instead of a Gilded Age aristocracy is “unrealistic,”
“socialistic” and “unworkable.”
But it seems obvious to me that any anxiety about losing privilege will
be sharpened and magnified if you believe that the underprivileged face
homelessness, hunger, ignorance and suffering due to preventable
illnesses. As security for life’s essentials has been withdrawn since
the Reagan years, the sense that we’re playing a game of musical chairs
that ends with the least-privileged flat on their asses has only
mounted. White privilege gave you a better shot at getting one of those
chairs, so losing white privilege in an age of neoliberal austerity is a
lot worse than losing it during (say), the more widely shared
prosperity enjoyed during the justice struggles of (say) 1968.
medranochav 