Policies, which if they were implemented, would actually hurt the very population which put the person in office, hence sado-populism, sadism the administration of pain , the deliberate administration of pain.
Timothy Snyder Speaks, ep. 4: Sadopopulism – YouTube
These are policies that are deliberately designed to administer pain, to add to the total amount of pain in American society.
Timothy Snyder Speaks, ep. 4: Sadopopulism – YouTube
If you hurt people you create a resource of pain, of anxiety and fear which you then direct against others.
Timothy Snyder Speaks, ep. 4: Sadopopulism – YouTube
That’s how sadopopulism works: the government makes you hurt, and then you want somebody else to hurt more.
Timothy Snyder Speaks, ep. 4: Sadopopulism – YouTube
If, in the long run, the way that you govern is by hurting people who don’t mind being hurt because they think other people are hurting worse, what you will tend to do is take the vote away from people who expect more from government, what you will tend to do is try to suppress the vote and keep the vote down to the people who accept that government can do nothing except for administer pain. And then that moves you away slowly from democracy.
Timothy Snyder Speaks, ep. 4: Sadopopulism – YouTube
On one level, a poor person, unemployed worker, or opioid addict who votes away health care is just giving money to the rich that they do not need and perhaps will not even notice. On another level, such a voter is changing the currency of politics from achievement to suffering, from gain to pain, helping a leader of choice establish a regime of sadopopulism. Such a voter can believe that he or she has chosen who administers their pain, and can fantasize that this leader will hurt enemies still more. The politics of eternity converts pain to meaning, and then meaning back into more pain.
Snyder, Timothy. The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (pp. 272-273). Crown/Archetype.
The electoral logic of sadopopulism is to limit the vote to those who benefit from inequality and to those who like pain, and take the vote away from those who expect government to endorse equality and reform. Trump began his administration by naming a voter suppression committee with the mandate to exclude voters from federal elections, evidently so that an artificial majority could be constructed at the federal level in the future, as is already the case in some states.
Snyder, Timothy. The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (p. 274). Crown/Archetype.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
“Wilhoit’s Law” about conservatives keeps getting credited to the wrong Frank Wilhoit.
Their cruelty made them feel good, it made them feel proud, it made them feel happy. And it made them feel closer to one another.
The Cruelty Is the Point – The Atlantic
If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.
President Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ: ‘Convince the Lowest White Man He’s Better Than the Best Colored Man’
There were the border-patrol agents cracking up at the crying immigrant childrenseparated from their families, and the Trump adviser who delighted white supremacists when he mocked a child with Down syndrome who was separated from her mother. There were the police who laughed uproariously when the president encouraged them to abuse suspects, and the Fox News hosts mocking a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub massacre (and in the process inundating him with threats), the survivors of sexual assault protesting to Senator Jeff Flake, the women who said the president had sexually assaulted them, and the teen survivors of the Parkland school shooting. There was the president mocking Puerto Rican accents shortly after thousands were killed and tens of thousands displaced by Hurricane Maria, the black athletes protesting unjustified killings by the police, the women of the #MeToo movement who have come forward with stories of sexual abuse, and the disabled reporter whose crime was reporting on Trump truthfully. It is not just that the perpetrators of this cruelty enjoy it; it is that they enjoy it with one another. Their shared laughter at the suffering of others is an adhesive that binds them to one another, and to Trump.
The Cruelty Is the Point – The Atlantic
