The Angry Librarian

I have this idea about the psychology of politics in America. Maybe it’s not too original but here’s how I see it. Political movements and shifts can be accurately predicted based on which party has been trying to tell people how to live their lives. In the US, the losing party is often the one telling people what they can and can’t do. The losing party loses because it was being “the angry librarian,” insisting you keep your voice down.

In America this is particularly true because the US is so strongly rooted in values of Freedom, anti persecution, anti oppression (at least in theory). The initial reason settlers came to America was literally to avoid being told what they can and can’t do. Having that narrative as the cornerstone of America’s national identity for 250 years has had certain effects on its people. Most notably: there is no greater Boogeyman than he who tries to limit your freedom. And when voters catch the slightest whiff of that Boogeyman, they run the other way.

I think this trend originally started several decades ago. Picture conservative Republicans in the last few decades of the 20th century. The party was heavily influenced by the Evangelical Christian community. As far as I understand, Republicans spent a lot of energy constantly telling Americans that they can’t smoke pot, can’t marry if they’re gay, can’t have abortions, etc. And over time, many Americans grew sick of their restrictive tendencies. This gave rise to liberals as we know them today. It ultimately paved the way for the Obama coalition to gain power with its socially liberal policies.

Similarly, once they were in power these same liberal democrats started using their influence to tell Americans what they can and can’t say, which opinions they can and can’t have and everything else that falls under the umbrella of political correctness and “woke culture.” This helped give rise to the Trump coalition as we know it today. Trump supporters responded very well to a candidate that stood in direct opposition to the “intellectual elite,”  which began putting way too much pressure on the average citizen who just wants to be left alone.

Now that liberals are doubling down on promoting political correctness and many right-wing sources are being actively censored online, I predict Trump’s base to grow in size and influence. So liberals should start to ask themselves: do we continue pushing the envelope so we can feel morally superior? Or do we want to win?

Okay, now what’s the psychology behind this? Well it’s natural for human beings to group together based on mutual support of an idea. But it’s just as natural and much easier to group together based on mutual opposition to an idea! And almost nothing is
easier to oppose than the “hall monitor” or the “angry librarian.” Sadly, I’ve seen countless groups of “friends” band together based on a shared attitude of dislike or distrust towards others. And it happens with way less resistance than bonding over a shared positive sentiment does. More often than not, “fuck that guy”, “fuck that slut” or “fuck those people” works its magic on our hardwired herd mentality much quicker than “great guy, honestly.”

Just think about how easily people spark up vibrant conversation about hating
Donald Trump as soon as someone drops the name. People have been bonding over their
hatred of the president since before he took office. Maybe there’s enough hate there to dethrone the guy. Maybe it’ll backfire. We’ll see.

Filip, again.