The Secret to Scapegoating

Trump just said:

"But with your vote, the reign will be over. That horrible reign. In a way, it's a reign of terror, you know, it's a weak reign. It's an incompetent reign...It's a very dangerous reign."

Throughout history, demagogues have disparaged weakness in the same breath as they've decried dominance. That's the route to really effective scapegoating. You must make both contradictory assertions.

Jews get the "credit" for this. For centuries, we've heard how Jews are inferior, weak, and cowardly and that they run the world, cheat you out of your money, and devour your babies. All those things! So many things!

Lately it's been applied much more widely, and people are surprisingly cool with the contradiction. The juxtaposition of impotence and omnipotence somehow feels acceptable. Consider "elites", a word pronounced by both extreme left and extreme right with drippy contempt. The dissonant amalgam of contemptuous weakness with savage superiority feels credible. No bells ring.

Here's the basis: Self-pity and self-aggrandizement are two sides of the same coin. They fuel each other. For example, arrogance is always based in insecurity, and only the fearful become bullies. "Normal" people don't feel incessantly kicked, nor do they thirst for someone to kick. But once you're skewed, one way or the other, you'll inevitably draw in the antithesis.

So painting a scapegoat as both impotent and omnipotent bridges this psychic ambivalence. One-stop shopping, if you will. The scapegoat is more than just a problem. It represents all the problems - an integrated projection of contradictory impulses. Demagogues know this, and use it to stoke maximal hatred; to really scape the goat. The target is your despised oppressor while also a delicious outlet for your oppressive tendencies.


I always flip the camera, even when the result isn’t flattering, so I must concede that Donald Trump, himself, is often viewed by people like me as both feebly impotent and frightfully omnipotent. Being on the right side doesn't make one immune to demagoguery. Being correct doesn't mean you’re a clear thinker.

I try to avoid the trap by favoring the "impotence" framing. I want to block Trump from power not to thwart his diabolical master schemes, but for the same reason I want to keep a horse out of a hospital.