Making Sense - Sam Harris - November 03, 2020


#224 — The Key to Trump's Appeal


Episode Stats

Length

8 minutes

Words per Minute

121.38523

Word Count

1,027

Sentence Count

80

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

I ve been struggling for years to understand how it s possible that nearly half of American society admires or at least supports Donald Trump. I ve spoken with Trump voters in search of illumination, but illumination never came. But I believe I ve finally found the key to understanding Trump s appeal, and it s not because of his flaws. It s because of what he offers that people are willing to overlook or overlook in order to support him. And that s why they support him, because he s good at one thing: judging people. And because he never pretends to be anything more than a bundle of sin and gore, and because he is never really judging you. He can t possibly be a truly safe space for human frailty and hypocrisy, and yet he offers a total expiation of them by a kind of spiritual balm. Trump is Jesus. He s Jesus, and Jesus is Jesus fat. And now we re getting exactly the opposite message we ve been getting from the left. You re not good enough for sanctimony, you re not enough for your own sins. You're not enough enough for the other half of this image. You don t deserve to be good enough, and now you're not even enough for a good enough judgment? And now you re gonna go back to your shithole country? You're no apologies for your sins? You don't have to apologize for them, Jesus? You re no good enough? You ve got nothing but Jesus, right enough for you? But now consider the other than your own sanctimony? You can't even be a good judge of your own sin, right? You are not enough to be a Christian? You ve gotta be a Good enough for my sins? I want to punch them in the face, Jesus's no apologies, right, Jesus s no apologies? He s got no apologies. And now, Jesus' no apologies and he s got nothing to give me a place in my life, so I ll eat nothing but a good one, right here, right there, right in my face, I'll eat them in my hands, right by the face? I don t even give me any shame, I'm not enough, I don't even a chance to give you a good word to judge me that sort of thing? Let me tell you what I love you, Jesus is not enough? -- What you ve got it, Jesus doesn t have a good Jesus, does he?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast.
00:00:23.000 This is Sam Harris.
00:00:25.520 Okay, well, it is the day before the presidential election.
00:00:30.000 And I don't know why it has taken me this long to understand this.
00:00:35.340 But you be the judge as to whether this should have been at all hard to understand.
00:00:42.700 As all of you know, I've been struggling for years to understand how it is possible
00:00:47.900 that nearly half of American society admires or at least supports Donald Trump.
00:00:55.920 I've spoken with Trump voters in search of illumination.
00:01:00.280 But illumination never came.
00:01:03.560 For instance, I had Scott Adams on my podcast to explain this to me.
00:01:08.780 And he described Trump as a master persuader, perhaps the best he's ever seen.
00:01:15.100 But the problem for me is that I find Trump to be among the least persuasive people I have ever come across.
00:01:24.540 Whenever I see him speak, I see an obvious conman and ignoramus.
00:01:29.700 In fact, Trump seems to be so unaware of how people like me judge a person's credibility
00:01:36.000 that his efforts to appear credible, such as they are, always make him look ridiculous and even deranged.
00:01:44.340 So the claim that he's a brilliant persuader makes about as much sense to me
00:01:49.240 as the claim that he's a model of physical fitness would.
00:01:53.380 In my world, the claim can be disproven at a glance.
00:01:58.200 And yet one thing is undeniable.
00:01:59.620 Half the country views him very differently.
00:02:05.300 Now, until a few minutes ago, I had more or less reconciled myself to never understanding this.
00:02:12.480 But I believe at this late hour, on the very eve of the 2020 election,
00:02:19.040 I have discovered a significant part of Trump's appeal.
00:02:23.020 In particular, I think I finally understand how he is supported because of his flaws,
00:02:31.040 rather than in spite of them.
00:02:33.060 That really is the key.
00:02:34.920 How are all the things I find despicable in him,
00:02:37.960 not merely things that people are willing to overlook,
00:02:41.440 but reasons in and of themselves why people support him?
00:02:47.280 That's what I didn't understand until this moment.
00:02:50.000 Now, I have repeatedly described the man's flaws on this podcast.
00:02:57.120 To my eye, he lacks nearly every virtue for which we have a word.
00:03:02.340 Wisdom, curiosity, compassion, generosity, discipline, courage, whatever your list,
00:03:12.640 he's got none of these things.
00:03:13.980 But his supporters know that.
00:03:17.780 And he's a paragon of greed and narcissism and pettiness and malice, real malice.
00:03:27.620 I mean, this is a man who wears his hatreds on his sleeve.
00:03:32.380 And he will suddenly revile people who he claimed to admire only yesterday.
00:03:36.400 So while he demands loyalty from everyone around him, really above all else,
00:03:41.980 he is an amazingly disloyal person.
00:03:45.760 All of this is right on the surface.
00:03:48.560 So his appeal has been a total mystery to me.
00:03:52.760 But I believe I have now solved that mystery.
00:03:56.620 Again, I don't know why it took me so long,
00:03:58.960 because many of these thoughts have been in my head since the beginning.
00:04:01.880 And I've certainly heard people describe some parts of this picture.
00:04:07.360 But the whole image just fell into place for me.
00:04:11.740 It's like one of those magic eye illustrations,
00:04:14.480 where you're staring at a random dot stereogram forever,
00:04:18.800 and then finally the embedded 3D image just pops out.
00:04:23.460 And this picture of Trump's appeal is really best understood
00:04:27.140 in comparison with the messaging of his opponents on the left.
00:04:32.380 That's how you can see it in stereo.
00:04:35.000 That's how the image finally pops out.
00:04:37.940 So taking the Trump half of this picture.
00:04:41.220 One thing that Trump never communicates,
00:04:43.980 and cannot possibly communicate,
00:04:46.740 is a sense of his moral superiority.
00:04:50.080 The man is totally without sanctimony.
00:04:54.060 Even when his every utterance is purposed towards self-aggrandizement,
00:04:58.640 even when he appears to be denigrating his supporters,
00:05:02.700 even when he's calling himself a genius,
00:05:05.540 he is never actually communicating that he is better than you,
00:05:10.200 more enlightened, more decent,
00:05:13.000 because he's not, and everyone knows it.
00:05:16.140 The man is just a bundle of sin and gore,
00:05:19.540 and he never pretends to be anything more.
00:05:22.820 Perhaps more importantly,
00:05:23.680 he never even aspires to be anything more.
00:05:28.280 And because of this,
00:05:30.020 because he is never really judging you,
00:05:32.600 he can't possibly judge you.
00:05:35.580 He offers a truly safe space
00:05:37.880 for human frailty,
00:05:40.180 and hypocrisy,
00:05:41.500 and self-doubt.
00:05:42.980 He offers what no priest can credibly offer,
00:05:46.080 a total expiation of shame.
00:05:50.920 His personal shamelessness
00:05:52.880 is a kind of spiritual balm.
00:05:56.860 Trump is fat Jesus.
00:05:58.980 He's grabbed them by the pussy, Jesus.
00:06:02.000 He's I'll eat nothing but cheeseburgers if I want to, Jesus.
00:06:06.100 He's I want to punch them in the face, Jesus.
00:06:09.480 He's go back to your shithole countries, Jesus.
00:06:13.580 He's no apologies, Jesus.
00:06:16.900 And now consider the other half of this image.
00:06:20.740 What are we getting from the left?
00:06:23.400 We're getting exactly the opposite message.
00:06:27.680 Pure sanctimony.
00:06:29.400 Pure judgment.
00:06:31.480 You are not good enough.
00:06:34.220 You're guilty,
00:06:35.680 not only for your own sins,
00:06:37.720 but for the sins of your fathers.
00:06:40.260 The crimes of slavery and colonialism
00:06:43.160 are on your head.
00:06:44.760 And if you're a cis, white, heterosexual male,
00:06:48.540 which we know is the absolute core of Trump's support,
00:06:52.240 you're a racist, homophobic,
00:06:54.980 transphobic,
00:06:56.540 Islamophobic,
00:06:58.180 sexist,
00:06:59.060 barbarian.
00:07:00.680 Tear down those statues
00:07:01.760 and bend the fucking knee.
00:07:05.180 It's the juxtaposition of those two messages
00:07:08.380 that is so powerful.
00:07:10.420 Now, I'm sure many of you have understood this before me,
00:07:14.660 but for whatever reason,
00:07:17.180 this image just became crystal clear.
00:07:21.340 Needless to say,
00:07:22.280 everything I've said about Trump previously still stands for me.
00:07:25.440 I consider him to be terrifyingly unfit for office.
00:07:30.760 And I consider most of his personal flaws to be public dangers.
00:07:36.140 I think because of who he is as a person,
00:07:39.120 he has harmed our politics
00:07:40.700 and diminished our standing in the world
00:07:43.040 to a degree that might take decades to repair.
00:07:46.220 So, I sincerely hope we rid ourselves of him tomorrow.
00:07:51.600 But I believe I now understand the half of the country
00:07:53.860 that disagrees with me
00:07:55.060 a little better than I did yesterday.
00:07:58.500 And this makes me less confused and judgmental.
00:08:01.820 Less of an asshole, probably.
00:08:04.140 Which is always progress.
00:08:16.220 Yes, sir.
00:08:23.220 Yes.
00:08:25.040 So...
00:08:25.500 You