There's ppl with certain character structures who, especially when they're in a bad place, are prone to internalizing guilt or claims of their "badness", and make the false equivalence that "powerful" in any way = ontologically evil reptiloid/ have some fear of power & responsibility and/or a psychological need to be the underdog.
Shrugging off or realizing something isn't about you or not taking it personally requires a certain psychological robustness that some ppl down on their luck don't have.
This is incredibly well put, and my only caveat would be that I don't think it is limited to people who are "down on their luck" (although of course this doesn't help); I think American society and to some extent global society encourage this character structure in *everybody* which is why the Republicans have embraced it so whole-heartedly.
Like, actually this is a really strong caveat: I think that genuine sexist and racist assholes very often have *exactly* this character structure.
Elon Musk is the richest man in the world and one of the most powerful living men.
And he is really clearly motivated by a *profound* inability to shrug things off or not take them personally and a genuine fear of his own power.
He responds to this by demanding a world in which his power is simultaneously never questioned but also never acknowledged.
Like, when this psychology curdles you end up with people who simultaneously have the need to be the underdog in their own narrative, while also aggressively, even violently attempting to build a world where people are constrained from calling them powerful.
Which doesn't work because if you can constrain people that way, you obviously *are* powerful and the people around you notice it.
Which in turn only creates a more frantic rejection of claims of your own power.
Not taking something personally involves a *genuine* sense that your own personal power is both just and deserved.
You absolutely cannot build this sense of self by simply demanding that people pretend that unjust uses of power are in fact innocent and harmless.
I can't emphasize this enough, besides being morally unjust it simply doesn't work.
But by the same token you cannot build this sense of self by telling people that it is virtuous to relinquish power, or that it is natural for people to hate you or resent you for your power and that it is therefore your responsibility to find ways to make them think of you as less powerful.
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