It's worse than you think

America really does hate the EU

I’ve had many attempts at trying to figure out just what Trump is up to. Is there a strategy? A set of goals, consistent or otherwise? An overarching narrative?

This is about drawing inferences from what the MAGA cult says and, for the most part does. Previously, I noted a number of key aspects/beliefs/actions of the new religion:

1. Immigration is wrong

2. So is free speech

3. So is the rule of law

4. Most, if not all, government functions are unnecessary

5. Vaccination is a terrible idea

6. Racism is ok

7. Expertise is despised

8. Putin is a good guy

9. Climate change is hoax

10. Fairness is for wimps: DEI in all its guises, even when it merely asks for fairness, is to be crushed

11. Pro cancer

If you thing number 11 is contentious, take a look at the original piece.

With each day’s announcements and actions it’s time to think again about this list - to revise and add to its contents.

Rippling through many (all?) of the 11 commandments: hatred of liberals. It probably deserves becoming number 12. Coming in at number 13 is another, related, hatred. Loathing of all things European.

Political rivalry, disagreement and actual hatred of opponents is not confined to America of course. But, “You disagree with me, you reveal yourself to be a liberal, so therefore I hate you” has become the dominant form of political expression by the ruling administration in the US.

There has always been an undercurrent of mutual distaste - straying occasionally into hatred - in American politics. There are countless examples of Democrats and Republicans revealing tribal loathing of the other. Equally, we could cite examples of bi-partisan agreements and actions. What is new is that the idea of bi-partisanship has been interred in concrete in a manner akin to the way the Mafia disposes of an opponent.

A long time ago in a galaxy far away, US TV dramas hinted at the chasm between Democrats and Republicans, more than hinted at their mutual visceral loathing, but, eventually, concluded with a message of hope, if not actual reconciliation.

Those days are long gone. Mutual distrust is one thing but hatred is the new thing. And it’s not just the way in which MAGA detests anyone in America who is not a signed-up devotee. The newest new thing is the loathing they have for all things European.

European liberals, according to Trumpists, are responsible for a lot of America’s ills, not least wokeism. MAGA cultists hate the fact the fact that they have for decades been paying for Europe’s defence but are equally upset about what they imagine Europe’s liberals have been doing to the U.S.

We used to think that MAGA’s distrust of Europe stemmed from the EU’s social-democratic ethos and the fact that it stood for fuzzy notions of cooperation and trust between nations. But fear and loathing (one follows from the other) of Europe has reached a whole new level.

In a recent Substack, Noah Smith takes on someone who acts as a sort of MAGA public intellectual. We might think that trying to intellectualise the cult is akin to putting lipstick on a pig and, in this particular case, there just ain’t enough lipstick in the universe. But maybe someone has to try.

Noah begins:

N.S. Lyons is a popular essayist in the “national conservative” tradition. His Substack, The Upheaval, is recommended reading, even though I agree with less than half of what he writes. He is well-read and well-informed, he integrates information from across many domains, and he isn’t afraid to think deeply about the big questions of history in real time. Reading him will help you better understand the beliefs of the modern Right.

Lyons makes some big claims, notably that the world’s ‘never again’ policies and institution built after WW2 led to liberal over-reach. Noah extensively quotes Lyons but here is the money shot:

Instead of producing a utopian world of peace and progress, the open society consensus and its soft, weak gods led to civilizational dissolution and despair. As intended, the strong gods of history were banished, religious traditions and moral norms debunked, communal bonds and loyalties weakened, distinctions and borders torn down, and the disciplines of self-governance surrendered to top-down technocratic management. Unsurprisingly, this led to nation-states and a broader civilization that lack the strength to hold themselves together, let alone defend against external threats from non-open, non-delusional societies. In short, the campaign of radical self-negation pursued by the post-war open society consensus functionally became a collective suicide pact by the liberal democracies of the Western world.

Lyons sees the anti-Nazi project as one that denies the bonds of faith, family and ‘above all’ the nation. Lyons thinks the ‘anti-Nazi’ era, is, with the rise of MAGA, over. You can find cultists who would prefer neo-Nazi rule rather than the liberal agenda, particularly DEI.

Faith, family and the nation are now able to reassert themselves and will provide all that we need for peace and harmony.

Where to start? First and foremost, there still some of us who think peace projects are actually quite a good idea. If you dissolve the structures built around the idea that killing each other is a bad thing, we will probably end up killing each other again. The MAGA belief system, if it dares to confront this logic, simply argues that more guns, babies and faith are sufficient for world peace.

Second, over-arching theories about why society turned out the way it did are, by construction, simplistic and, therefore, wrong. The list of things that have gone wrong is a long one - so is the list of achievements. Why things look the way they do is not a simple story. But, according to the cult, all of the world’s problems are caused by liberals, particularly European ones.

We might, alternatively, think about the layers of complexity built into our economies and society, principally by technology. Nothing works any more, perhaps, because nobody knows how anything works: at the very least, that thought will lead a lot of people into anxiety, if not depression.

There is a giant crashing sound in all rich economies - particularly the US - as well-off people reach their financial and material goals. The noise is caused by the weeping and wailing - profound disappointment - of those who were led to believe that material success would result in enlightenment and joy. The rich collect art, houses, cars and boats but know nothing about deriving contentment, let alone joy, from any of them. Instead they become disappointed, bitter, angry and full of hate. Just what is the billionaire to do next?

Just think about this paradox: the world’s richest man delights in a Maoist-Trotskyite desire to burn everything to the ground, such is his anger at the way the world has let him down.

More generally, there are many potential explanations for why the world looks the way it does. And there are plenty of explanations yet to be discovered. It really isn’t all the fault of the EU.

Lyons has plenty of other stuff on his Substack - I took Noah’s advice and had a look. Lyons worldview isn’t just about the way the post WW2 world order led to the rise of wokeism. He reserves particular - and spectacular- hatred of European liberals for the ways they try, apparently to subvert American democracy. The particular sin, apparently, committed by Europeans is the way in which they collaborate, in multiple ways, with the deep state in the U.S. to keep MAGA at bay.

Anyone with a nodding acquaintance with Europe’s inability to run a bath, let alone mount a concerted attempt to subvert American democracy, will find this argument laughable. There is also the small matter of the outcome: if Europe really has been trying to support America’s deep state, it has been spectacularly unsuccessful. Trump is, once again, in the White House.

Like most writers who have a simple theory of everything, the MAGA pseudo-intellectuals take one or two unconnected facts and correlate them - inferring causation - with something they don’t like about the way the world works. And to pursue their own populist causes. These are not new tricks of course.

MAGA cultists are particularly upset by Europe’s attempts to rein in the tech giants . This ‘assault on freedom of speech’ is morally offensive and threatens the value of tech bro share options. So digital sales taxes and protecting children from the ravages of social media are cast as assaults on basic human rights. The dishonesty and intellectual paucity are obvious. All these ideas were rehearsed in JD Vance’s infamous Munich speech.

The depth of MAGA hostility towards Europe should not be underestimated. J D Vance will shed no tears if the EU breaks up.

Much has been written about how the EU must rise to the historic opportunity/threats it now faces.

European defence funded by common debt. Maybe even the U.K. finally reversing some of the more damaging aspects of Brexit. This all needs to happen. Otherwise, MAGA will be delighted by how Europe falls apart.