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Aggrieved white men are a threat to democracy -- history tells us we can't ignore them
The American South, apartheid South Africa and Germany in the 1930s: One demographic caused destruction and chaos
By Bernd Reiter
Political Science Professor, Texas Tech
Published December 14, 2024 5:45AM (EST)
In the 2024 presidential election, some 60 percent of white men voted for Donald Trump, making this group his strongest block. Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro garnered about the same amount of support from white men, in 2018. In Argentina, 64 percent of Argentinian men voted for Javier Milei. Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in Hungary is mostly supported by men, even if precise data iis hard to come by. Other far-right parties in European countries, including German AfD, the Austrian FPÖ, the Italian Fdl and the French National Rally (formerly the National Front), are all made possible by aggrieved and latently angry white men.
For many white men in Western societies, demographic and cultural shifts challenge a social hierarchy in which they once held sway. Isabel Wilkerson argues that this “loss” is not material but psychological — a fear of diminished power over groups they once dominated. Ashley Jardina explains that some aggrieved white mean fear being replaced, leading them to form a new, white men, group identity. Arlie Hochschild found that many of them experience a sense of "Stolen Pride."
History has shown that when aggrieved white men form a collective identity and start to see themselves as a group, they are prone to react violently and can pose serious threats to democracy and peace.
After the U.S. Civil War in the 1860s, white men in the American South reacted violently to Black enfranchisement, instituting Jim Crow laws and lynching more than 3,000 Black Americans over the ensuing decades to enforce racial hierarchy. In South Africa, white Afrikaners, feeling humiliated after their final defeat in the Boer War in 1902, imposed apartheid to retain dominance over Black South Africans.
(snip)
More: https://www.salon.com/2024/12/14/aggrieved-men-are-a-to-democracy--history-tells-us-we-cant-ignore-them/
By Bernd Reiter
Political Science Professor, Texas Tech
Published December 14, 2024 5:45AM (EST)
In the 2024 presidential election, some 60 percent of white men voted for Donald Trump, making this group his strongest block. Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro garnered about the same amount of support from white men, in 2018. In Argentina, 64 percent of Argentinian men voted for Javier Milei. Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in Hungary is mostly supported by men, even if precise data iis hard to come by. Other far-right parties in European countries, including German AfD, the Austrian FPÖ, the Italian Fdl and the French National Rally (formerly the National Front), are all made possible by aggrieved and latently angry white men.
For many white men in Western societies, demographic and cultural shifts challenge a social hierarchy in which they once held sway. Isabel Wilkerson argues that this “loss” is not material but psychological — a fear of diminished power over groups they once dominated. Ashley Jardina explains that some aggrieved white mean fear being replaced, leading them to form a new, white men, group identity. Arlie Hochschild found that many of them experience a sense of "Stolen Pride."
History has shown that when aggrieved white men form a collective identity and start to see themselves as a group, they are prone to react violently and can pose serious threats to democracy and peace.
After the U.S. Civil War in the 1860s, white men in the American South reacted violently to Black enfranchisement, instituting Jim Crow laws and lynching more than 3,000 Black Americans over the ensuing decades to enforce racial hierarchy. In South Africa, white Afrikaners, feeling humiliated after their final defeat in the Boer War in 1902, imposed apartheid to retain dominance over Black South Africans.
(snip)
More: https://www.salon.com/2024/12/14/aggrieved-men-are-a-to-democracy--history-tells-us-we-cant-ignore-them/
I actually still have the below mag issue (tucked in a file cabinet) that came out in 1993, just over 30 years ago -
It came out as a commentary to a movie - "Falling Down" that was released that year -
The above-linked article mentions Isabella Wilkerson's latest book (2020) - Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which I have considered getting to read.
I think much of this has factored into this past election - part of a cycle.
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A "younger" Michael Douglas! 
(true)
