This is why I hate “the Resistance”:
This is a deeply cynical exploitation of the crimes of history to try to give their lame, shallow, playful protests a sense of historic meaning and urgency. Recognising, at some level, that it is bizarre to try to cohere a new movement around an American president who, historically and politically speaking, is not that different to other American presidents, they have to look for a way to justify their disproportionate anti-Trump obsession and emotionalism – and they do it by rebranding Trump ‘Hitler’ and therefore themselves as ‘The Resistance’. Never mind cultural appropriation – this is historical appropriation, the marshalling of 20th-century horrors to inject some depth into their childish, festival-like expression of middle-class angst.
The only thing I don’t get is what it is they are angsting about. I see folks who have literally gone of their rocker with this “Resistance” stuff but I have no idea why. Why them? Why now? Why in such a weird form?
Such is the playfulness that even history becomes their plaything. Even the Holocaust becomes their plaything. They denude these crimes and events of meaning and turn them into memes to make themselves look good. That really is unforgivable. In the process of bigging up themselves, they demean the unique barbarism of the Holocaust and fascism’s other crimes.
Absolutely. 100%. It’s very frustrating to see how easily people throw around Hitler analogies and pity themselves for living in a society that is “just like” Nazi Germany while enjoying historically unparalleled opulence, safety, and contentedness. And there’s no space for a criticism of Trump that is not loony-tunes.
“I’m worried about this policy.”
“Yes! It reminds me of when Mussolini. . .”
“OK, forget I said anything.”
The author of the linked article says the “Resisters” are motivated solely by the desire to trend on social media, but I think there’s more. This is The Hunger Games phenomenon where the better things are, the more people like to titillate themselves with imaginary horrors. I experience great embarrassment when I see a very well-to-do lady write on social media that “we live in horrific times the likes of which the world hasn’t known.” But how come the Resisters themselves aren’t seeing how ridiculous they are?
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