[This post was updated on May 6, 2020]
Trump is white sugar
Many people fail to understand Trump's popularity because they rely on logic and reason. They fail because Trump's appeal is emotional rather than rational. Trump is America's white sugar.
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Pain and pleasure
Humans, like all other animals, survive by avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. That is how all our ancestors survived. The mechanism survived in all of us.
Slap Consulting suggests that everything in human life can be explained by the pain / pleasure mechanism of life. Every chapter in human history is an anecdote of pain / pleasure dynamics. Everything that you have done in and everything that you will do can be explained by the pain / pleasure algorithm in your brain.
The only "tricky" part in predicting individual human behavior is that humans are smart enough to turn the pain / pleasure mechanism on its head. Humans can learn to associate physical pain with mental pleasure, and vice versa. We are always responding to the pain / pleasure mechanism, but we can create different mental associations about what is pain and what is pleasure for us.
Sugar is both tasty and nasty
People like the sweet taste of sugar, and the rush or "high" it produces in the primate brain. Once you try a little bit of sugar, your brain wants more. Your brain is simply responding to the pain / pleasure trigger of life.
After the sugar high comes the low. Our bodies produce insulin to bring down sugar levels in the bloodstream. When the low sets in, our primate brains detect "pain" and crave the sugar pleasure again. The brain prompts the monkey to eat sugar again. This creates a vicious cycle of overeating that explains the obesity epidemic around us. Sugar cravings, and all other things in human life, including Trump's popularity, are based on the pain / pleasure mechanism of life.
Sugar is poisonous and addictive
Health professionals recommend limiting our consumption of sucrose (white sugar). They rely on logical and reasonable explanations of the perils of sucrose. White sugar is loaded with empty calories. White sugar ruins your health. White sugar contributes to multiple chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hyper tension, inflammation, cavities, cardiovascular disease, bad vision, weak immune system, fatigue, premature aging, etcetera.
Regardless of all these logical and reasonable explanations about quitting white sugar, people keep consuming it in record amounts. About 70% of Americans are overweight. In ten years, about 85% of Americans will be overweight. Sugar consumption has a lot to do with our collective overeating.
White sugar is one of the main reasons for the obesity epidemic spreading throughout the world. Yet people will continue consuming it. Some get hooked out of ignorance as our ancestors did in the past. Others do it knowingly because they cannot overcome the pain / pleasure mechanism of life.
Sugar tastes good and does the trick of making food deliciously appealing for the masses. You can bet that people will continue eating sugar. You can also predict that many people will continue voting for politicians who promise to sweeten their lives.
Trump as whiteness candy
Whiteness is the belief that everything "white" (anglo or northwestern European) is inherently superior to everything else in the world. We are all believers in whiteness because our culture is white. Winners get to write the history books and craft culture. Our country and our culture was founded by anglos and northwestern Europeans. Our culture is embedded in a cloud of whiteness. Our languages are "white". Our cultural dogmas are "white". Our fairy tales, including our history textbooks, are "white".
Whiteness is a sweet treat for whites. It makes whites enjoy a sugarcoated existence. Whiteness also serves as a cultural preservative, trying to preserve the socio economic privileges granted to whites by racism and colonialism.
Everything in traditional European and American culture was crafted under a whiteness lens. Everything in our traditional culture is a reflection of whiteness.
A changing world
Change is the only constant. Whiteness, like white sugar itself, is being downgraded culturally from a glorious sweet ingredient to a harmful element. Five forces are ending whiteness. Technology, science, education, globalization, and immigration are bursting the whiteness bubble.
Millions of Americans and Europeans perceive the end of whiteness, and its white supremacy corollary, as a positive sign of social liberation and economic progress. They see the socio economic benefits that a diverse and inclusive society will bring for everyone. After all, whites are a minority in the world and will benefit from the economic progress brought by everyone working together.
On the other hand, millions of Americans and Europeans perceive the downgrade of whiteness as an existential threat. In their view, downgrading whiteness means losing the privileges gained from centuries of white supremacy, racism, and colonialism. Many do not want to quit the sugarcoated experience of whiteness and white supremacy.
Sweet politics
In a globalized and educated world, there is less room for dogmatic whiteness. Technology will continue disrupting everything. Scientific discoveries will continue disproving old myths. Education will continue making question cultural dogmas. Globalization and immigration will continue bringing new ideas and perspectives. Everything will keep changing and evolving.
Change is the only constant. Some perceive social change as positive and some perceive it as negative. Politics is the fight over power between those who promote social change and those who want to conserve the status quo. Liberals try to extend privileges. Conservatives try to conserve privileges.
Along came Trump
Trump positions himself as a sweet defender of whiteness. Those trying to preserve the status quo and conserve existing privileges rush to the sugar high that Trump offers to the masses. Trump is a master at keeping things sweet and simple.
Trump opponents resort to complicated arguments about why Trump is wrong and bad for America. Trump fires back with a sweet simplicity.
People are afraid of complex changing times. Trump sells the sweet comfort of "knowing" that everything will be alright provided that people follow him and remain loyal. Not unlike Jesus Christ, Trump explains that he knows the world better than anyone else. To be saved, all you have to do is abandon reason, suspend disbelief, and follow him.
The vast majority of Trump supporters, if not all of them, are devoted Christians. Just like they believe in JC for the spiritual salvation, they believe in Trump for American salvation.
Trump is a sweet defender of the virtues of whiteness. Trump and conservatives fight the five forces ending the global cult of whiteness. These are technology, science, education, globalization, and immigration. Trump attacks all of those and anything else getting in the traditional cult of whiteness.
Betting on sugar and betting on Trump
Remember that all humans are programmed to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Regardless of the perils of consuming sucrose (white sugar), people will keep consuming it because it tastes good and makes them feel good. The same goes for Trump.
Trump opponents fail because they focus on logic and reason. Trump opponents insist that Trump is evil and dangerous to American democracy. They point to all the signs of autocracy and what happened on January 6th, 2021. They keep going on and on, explaining the perils of another Trump presidency.
Trump opponents do what health professionals do when explaining the detrimental health effects of white sugar, overeating, obesity and so forth. They focus on logic and reason. These logical and reasonable warnings persuade some people, but not the masses. Reasonable and logical arguments are not universally effective. Many people, if not the vast majority, will continue going for the pleasure of easy sugar fixes to the complexities in their lives. Regardless of how logical and reasonable the advice to the contrary may be, most people will opt for easy pleasure over perceived pain.
People will keep consuming sugar because it feels good and pleasurable. Sugar gives us a "high" to cope with the pain of life. We are social creatures and look into what others do. We figure that if others are eating sugary stuff, so can we. Culture has taught us to celebrate special occasions with sugar and so be it. You only live once and so on and on. We always find clever ways to rationalize our pleasures.
It is not that Trump supporters are "bad" or "evil". Those are labels based on opinions. It is simply that all Trump supporters, as well as all Trump opponents, are storytelling primates (humans) controlled by the pain / pleasure mechanism of life. Logic and reason alone are never sufficient to combat or alter the pain / pleasure connections in a human brain. Emotions are necessary to change these connections.
Fear and greed
The two key emotions to change our pain / pleasure mental associations are fear and greed. People quit sugar when they become afraid of its ill effects. Similarly, people quit Trump when they become scared of his politics. For example, Trump lost the 2020 Trump elections because the majority of voters feared for their lives under Trump's bizarre handling of the COVID19 pandemic.
People quit sugar when they fear being fat and sick. People opt for healthier alternatives when they feel the pleasure of weighing less and being healthier. Again, life is all about the pain / pleasure.
Even believing in god is a simple matter of pain and pleasure. People believe in god when they are afraid of living in hell--be it during this life or during an imaginary afterlife. People believe in god when they seek the pleasure of living in heaven--be it in this life or the "next".
Similarly, people make Trump their king when they fear liberals, minorities, immigrants, and social changes. People make Trump their king when they seek the pleasure of traditional white supremacy and the cult of whiteness.
So long as people associate Trump's opponents with pain, and associate Trump with pleasure, they will continue being attracted to Trump like ants are attracted to sugar. Conversely, if people can associate Trump with nasty white sugar that makes you ugly and sick, people will quit Trump.
In the end, everything we do is controlled by our pain / pleasure mental associations. Reasonable and logical arguments are not enough to change minds. Emotional associations (fear and greed) to pain and pleasure are the key to change human minds.
What do you think?
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