āFascists the world over have gained popularity by calling forth the idea that the world is rotten to the core. In āThe Origins of Totalitarianism,ā Hannah Arendt described how fascism invites people to āthrow off the mask of hypocrisyā and adopt the worldview that there is no right and wrong, only winners and losers. Hypocrisy can be aspirational: Political actors claim that they are motivated by ideals perhaps to a greater extent than they really are; shedding the mask of hypocrisy asserts that greed, vengeance and gratuitous cruelty arenāt wrong, but are legitimate motivations for political behavior. In the last decade and a half, post-Communist autocrats like Vladimir V. Putin and Viktor Orban have adopted this cynical posture. They seem convinced that the entire world is driven solely by greed and hunger for power, and only the Western democracies continue to insist, hypocritically, that their politics are based on values and principles. This stance has breathed new life into the old Soviet propaganda tool of āwhataboutism,ā the trick of turning any argument against the opponent. When accused of falsifying elections, Russians retort that American elections are not unproblematic; when faced with accusations of corruption, they claim that the entire world is corrupt. This month, Mr. Trump employed the technique of whataboutism when he was asked about his admiration for Mr. Putin, whom the host Bill OāReilly called āa killer.ā āYou got a lot of killers,ā responded Mr. Trump. āWhat, you think our countryās so innocent?ā To an American ear, Mr. Trumpās statement was jarring ā not because Americans believe their country to be āinnocentā but because they have always relied on a sort of aspirational hypocrisy to understand the country. No American politician in living memory has advanced the idea that the entire world, including the United States, was rotten to the core.ā
Masha Gessen,Ā In Praise of Hypocrisy
Whatās most upsetting about Trump isnāt the personal manias: the narcissism, cronyism, and hollow rhetoric. What chills me to the bone is Gessenās observation:Ā āNo American politician in living memory has advanced the idea that the entire world, including the United States, was rotten to the coreā.
This is a bedrock principle of his worldview, a touchstone for his apoplectic ranting and raving. He believes deeply that we are all, each of us, unprincipled and conniving, striving to best everyone else in a zero sum game, living in a Hobbesian world where the central tenet might as well be everyone for themself.
If he were just a nattering billionaire in his lonely tower, no big deal. But his embrace of a philosophy grounded on boundless nihilism and endless conflict takes us a giant step closer to totalitarianism, since there is little room for democracy, humanism, or hope in that crabbed worldview.
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