Making Sense -  Sam Harris - #224 — The Key to Trump's Appeal
Aired: 2020-11-03
Duration: 08:03


=== Half the Country Supports Him (06:27) ===

[00:00:01]  Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast.
[00:00:23]  This is Sam Harris.
[00:00:25]  Okay, well it is the day before the presidential election, and I don't know why it's taken me this long to understand this, but you be the judge as to whether this should have been at all hard to understand.
[00:00:43]  As all of you know, I've been struggling for years to understand how it is possible that nearly half of American society admires, or at least supports, Donald Trump.
[00:00:56]  I've spoken with Trump voters in search of illumination, but illumination never came.
[00:01:03]  For instance, I had Scott Adams on my podcast to explain this to me, and he described Trump as a master persuader, perhaps the best he's ever seen.
[00:01:16]  But the problem for me is that I find Trump to be among the least persuasive people I have ever come across.
[00:01:24]  Whenever I see him speak, I see an obvious con man and ignoramus.
[00:01:29]  In fact, Trump seems to be so unaware of how people like me judge a person's credibility that his efforts to appear credible, such as they are, Always make him look ridiculous, and even deranged.
[00:01:44]  So the claim that he's a brilliant persuader makes about as much sense to me as the claim that he's a model of physical fitness would.
[00:01:53]  In my world, the claim can be disproven at a glance.
[00:01:58]  And yet one thing is undeniable.
[00:02:00]  Half the country views him very differently.
[00:02:05]  Now, until a few minutes ago, I had more or less reconciled myself to never understanding this.
[00:02:12]  But, I believe at this late hour, on the very eve of the 2020 election, I have discovered a significant part of Trump's appeal.
[00:02:24]  In particular, I think I finally understand how he is supported because of his flaws, rather than in spite of them.
[00:02:33]  That really is the key.
[00:02:34]  How are all the things I find despicable in him, not merely things that people are willing to overlook, but reasons in and of themselves why people support him?
[00:02:47]  That's what I didn't understand until this moment.
[00:02:51]  Now, I have repeatedly described the man's flaws on this podcast.
[00:02:57]  To my eye, he lacks nearly every virtue for which we have a word.
[00:03:02]  Wisdom.
[00:03:03]  Curiosity.
[00:03:04]  Compassion.
[00:03:06]  Generosity.
[00:03:08]  Discipline.
[00:03:09]  Courage.
[00:03:11]  Whatever your list, he's got none of these things.
[00:03:14]  But his supporters know that.
[00:03:17]  And he's a paragon of greed, and narcissism, and pettiness, and malice.
[00:03:26]  Real malice.
[00:03:26]  I mean, this is a man who wears his hatreds on his sleeve.
[00:03:32]  And he will suddenly revile people who he claimed to admire only yesterday.
[00:03:37]  So, while he demands loyalty from everyone around him, really above all else, He is an amazingly disloyal person.
[00:03:46]  All of this is right on the surface.
[00:03:48]  So his appeal has been a total mystery to me.
[00:03:53]  But I believe I have now solved that mystery.
[00:03:56]  Again, I don't know why it took me so long, because many of these thoughts have been in my head since the beginning.
[00:04:02]  And I've certainly heard people describe some parts of this picture.
[00:04:07]  But the whole image just fell into place for me.
[00:04:11]  It's like one of those magic eye illustrations, where you're staring at a random dot stereogram forever, and then finally the embedded 3D image just pops out.
[00:04:23]  And this picture of Trump's appeal is really best understood in comparison with the messaging of his opponents on the left.
[00:04:32]  That's how you can see it in stereo.
[00:04:35]  That's how the image finally pops out.
[00:04:38]  So taking the Trump half of this picture.
[00:04:41]  One thing that Trump never communicates, and cannot possibly communicate, is a sense of his moral superiority.
[00:04:50]  The man is totally without sanctimony.
[00:04:54]  Even when his every utterance is purposed towards self-aggrandizement, even when he appears to be denigrating his supporters, even when he's calling himself a genius, he is never actually communicating that he is better than you.
[00:05:10]  More enlightened.
[00:05:12]  More decent.
[00:05:13]  Because he's not, and everyone knows it.
[00:05:16]  The man is just a bundle of sin and gore, and he never pretends to be anything more.
[00:05:22]  Perhaps more importantly, he never even aspires to be anything more.
[00:05:28]  And because of this, because he is never really judging you, he can't possibly judge you, he offers a truly safe space for human frailty and hypocrisy and self-doubt.
[00:05:43]  He offers what no priest can credibly offer, a total expiation of shame.
[00:05:51]  His personal shamelessness is a kind of spiritual bomb.
[00:05:56]  Trump is fat Jesus.
[00:05:59]  He's grabbed them by the pussy, Jesus.
[00:06:02]  He's I'll eat nothing but cheeseburgers if I want to, Jesus.
[00:06:06]  He's I want to punch them in the face, Jesus.
[00:06:09]  He's go back to your shithole countries, Jesus.
[00:06:13]  He's no apologies, Jesus.
[00:06:17]  And now consider the other half of this image.
[00:06:21]  What are we getting from the left?
[00:06:23]  We're getting exactly the opposite message.
[00:06:27]  Pure sanctimony.

=== You Are Guilty (01:33) ===

[00:06:29]  Pure judgment.
[00:06:31]  You are not good enough.
[00:06:34]  You're guilty not only for your own sins, but for the sins of your fathers.
[00:06:40]  The crimes of slavery and colonialism are on your head.
[00:06:45]  And if you're a cis white heterosexual male, which we know is the absolute core of Trump's support, you're a racist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, sexist barbarian.
[00:07:00]  Tear down those statues and bend the fucking knee It's the juxtaposition of those two messages that is so powerful.
[00:07:10]  Now, I'm sure many of you have understood this before me, but for whatever reason, this image just became crystal clear.
[00:07:21]  Needless to say, everything I've said about Trump previously still stands for me.
[00:07:26]  I consider him to be terrifyingly unfit for office.
[00:07:30]  And I consider most of his personal flaws to be public dangers.
[00:07:36]  I think because of who he is as a person, he has harmed our politics and diminished our standing in the world to a degree that might take decades to repair.
[00:07:47]  So, I sincerely hope we rid ourselves of him tomorrow.
[00:07:51]  But I believe I now understand the half of the country that disagrees with me a little better than I did yesterday.
[00:07:58]  And this makes me less confused and judgmental.
[00:08:01]  Less of an asshole, probably.