I love this thread because Trump is obviously a shining example of white male privilege and mediocrity, but his Presidency also flies in the face of the American Dream that’s shoveled down our throats from the time we start school.
Study. Work Hard. Be Great. And You Will Succeed.
The fact that Trump is wholly unqualified for the job he got, the fact that he’s completely unsuited for it, contradicts that. It’s an uncomfortable looking glass for a lot of mediocre white people who’ve been given things they don’t deserve. It’s hard for them to admit that Trump is a lying fraud who has no business being President and only got there because he’s white and put on a good show because that means privilege is real. It’s right there in his orange face.
Plus, the myth of moving up the economic ladder becomes harder to believe if you admit that someone who is not qualified and does not deserve the position they hold is sitting in the chair through no efforts of their own. That would then mean the inverse is true, that you can in fact work hard and want it just as badly as the next guy and still fail.
Americans have a problem admitting that a huge component of success is luck and circumstance because we’ve been taught to believe that anyone can succeed if they work hard enough. Admitting that someone in the highest position in the land most certainly did not work for it and is clearly unqualified for it shoots a big hole through the bootstraps mentality. They can’t accept that. Accepting that would mean recognizing the necessity of welfare and free education and a higher minimum wage, so they just go along with the farce and continue to pretend that Trump is strategically disruptive as opposed to a walking disaster crashing his way through global stability.
