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Hot take: Underappreciated reason some people voted Trump is the visceral appeal of contrarianism and being an “independent” thinker. Attraction to this broken way of thinking doesn’t follow traditional party lines.
But it is the intellectual philosophy of Trumpism. https://twitter.com/rubinreport/status/1324396221566382080
But it is the intellectual philosophy of Trumpism. https://twitter.com/rubinreport/status/1324396221566382080
You’ll see a higher percentage of these folks into fad diets—my bet is Rubin has been Paleo at some point. Higher percentage of vaccine resistance—I’d bet Rubin has voiced skepticism about them. It’s easy and empowering.
This is a function of not wanting to feel like other people control you. Think for yourself! Sure, ok.
But when “I won’t believe it because most people do, I’m free!” becomes your guiding principle for what to believe?
But when “I won’t believe it because most people do, I’m free!” becomes your guiding principle for what to believe?
Another typical feature of this way of thinking is wanting to get a rise out of people, because this is a way of knowing you are right. Are others hurt by your assertions? Are they angry? Shocked? Then you must be on to something.
The “best” version of this—I say best very guardedly—is someone like Nassim Taleb, in part because he’s diluted his contrarianism with other criteria for establishing good beliefs. But again, my bet: Taleb is prob vaccine skeptic and prob fad diet.
At any rate, there’s a lot of “Why Trump?” handwringing going on, and I’ve found that in many cases this does a lot of explanatory work and should be a part of the conversation. /x
Addendum: I am not up on the hip slang, but I believe admiring being “based” is related to this?
