Article in question from CBC
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/adam-gopnik-anti-elitism-antisemitism-anti-urbanism-1.7458841
Trying to make sense of the current political storm, this article helped me.
I keep coming back to the question: what’s the end goals/motivations of Trump supporters? They know he wants to break the government and, yet, thinks it’s worthwhile. Why? Motivation will be multifaceted and we read all kind of proposition from dementia to dark gothic MAGA (as a plot from billionaires to each be king of their own techno-feudal city state). I don’t want to be naive but don’t want to be fear mongering either. Any agenda is enabled by the population and sufficient support.
This article’s take on anti-elitism as a rejection from the uneducated mass of educated immigrants because they perceive them as competition and as being responsible for their failure to achieve success… it leaves me a bit depressed because it takes effort to open up to any difference (immigrants, sexual orientation… ) and the mass of average (poorly) educated population doesn’t have the ressources to make this effort. And then the division in our population can be exploited by dangerous individuals for further pain.
How do we fight this now (and frankly forever because this weakness is intrinsic to this world, for every generation)?
It’s counterproductive to tie current populist movements to a single cause. They’ve attracted a lot of people who have different motivations.
Some of them are legit racists and antisemites. They deserve to be called out.
But there are a bunch of people who are suffering from the cost of living crisis. They can’t afford what they think they deserve (given what their parents had and their educational attainment) and they’re angry. These are the people that voted for Obama and Trump. They’re the ones who voted for Trudeau and will vote for Poilievre.
In Canada, this group includes people who can no longer afford decent housing and can’t find a family doctor.
These are legit concerns that political elites aren’t addressing. Trudeau’s collapse in popularity was (at least partially) because he didn’t seem to acknowledge the problems.
As progressives, I think we do ourselves a massive disservice when we fail to acknowledge and address these concerns.