Tuberville: “We built China - the American taxpayers. We built the Middle East. We built Europe. So now it’s time they help us build back our country after we’ve helped them so much, and that happens to be with tariffs.”
The theory is that all real progress is made by the West, and that non-West places like China and the Middle East have succeeded only because of the West's benevolence. And that all real progress in the West is really achieved by Americans, and places like Germany and France and Denmark have succeeded only because of America's benevolence. And that all real progress in America is really achieved by Caucasian males, and non-whites and women have succeeded only because of Caucasian male benevolence. And somehow that extends to heterosexual Protestant Caucasian males with guns.
Interestingly (well, it's interesting to me), there's a
Horseshoe Theory thing going on here. There's certainly a portion of the far left that attributes all
evil in the world to the West, and particularly America, and particularly heterosexual Caucasian American men. As I'd observed back in my college days, "If a child kicks a dog in rural Thailand, somehow it's my fault." - there'd be some story about the how East India Tea Company had disrupted traditional lifestyles in the region leading to poverty, or how US trade practices had led to exploitation of Thai farmers, or something something American diet led to malnutrition . . .
But either way, only heterosexual Protestant Caucasian American males have any real agency, and the rest of the world has only a certain amoral cunning (if you're on the far right) or a generous pastoral innocence (if you're on the far left).
Most people take pride in the accomplishments of their group. There's nothing wrong with that, but it can be exploited to convince them that therefore the rest of the world owes them. For a narcissist, of course, that attitude comes naturally.
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