I agree wholeheartedly that women on the Right gain personal psychological cohesion by aligning with what looks to the rest of us like a misogynistic nightmare of subservience. To do so answers deeply embedded insecurities about who they are in themselves and in the world. This mostly takes place below consciousness, which is why arguing with facts is ineffective. Until white women on the right are able to understand the nature of their own experience in the world, their own expectations, their own blind spots, and to do so in humility and compassion knowing that everyone else, Right and Left, must address the same personal process, they are likely to stay clamped to the identify politics that ratifies their sense of self and supports their subconscious needs.
Yep. There are material benefits too, I think; the women Darby talks about all made money (through monetizing online content) or gained material support (housing, help in job searches) from far right networks.
Yes, my comment is dumb! What I mean is that I don't really think they are motivated by money specifically. I think economic motivation, whatever inchoate 'I am being cheated' nonsense--is way below the psychological wage.
I still have to question what they really GET outside of feeling something like a sense of superiority or whatever. As far as I can tell they get a hate community--or a sense of one, though I suspect these aren't the kind of people that have your back under tough times. It's still irrational because elevating vicious people to power over you is always irrational. Just because you and yours are the chosen at the moment there's no guarantee you will stay that way. It's not that they have opposing principles, rather they have no moral principles. It's basically the same as joining the mafia except you are paid in emotions--you don't even get a Cadillac.
I agree wholeheartedly that women on the Right gain personal psychological cohesion by aligning with what looks to the rest of us like a misogynistic nightmare of subservience. To do so answers deeply embedded insecurities about who they are in themselves and in the world. This mostly takes place below consciousness, which is why arguing with facts is ineffective. Until white women on the right are able to understand the nature of their own experience in the world, their own expectations, their own blind spots, and to do so in humility and compassion knowing that everyone else, Right and Left, must address the same personal process, they are likely to stay clamped to the identify politics that ratifies their sense of self and supports their subconscious needs.
Yep. There are material benefits too, I think; the women Darby talks about all made money (through monetizing online content) or gained material support (housing, help in job searches) from far right networks.
But that's not extra money from being racist particularly --that's just 'this is a group I know, they did something for me.'
If racists are giving you money for being racist, I think it’s reasonable to see that as profiting fairly directly off racism.
Yes, my comment is dumb! What I mean is that I don't really think they are motivated by money specifically. I think economic motivation, whatever inchoate 'I am being cheated' nonsense--is way below the psychological wage.
well, I think it can depend. there's a powerful psychological oomph to having a group of people give you a bunch of money though.
You should give this a read if you haven't already!
Z Generation: Into the Heart of Russia's Fascist Youth
by Ian Garner
https://a.co/d/daAuf1I
Women in Higher Ed contributors frequently touch on this subject. Two free links here.
Our reporter Lois Elfman reviewed Dr. Wendy K. Z. Anderson's Rebirthing a Nation: White Women, Identity Politics and the Internet (University Press of Mississippi, 2021) https://www.wihe.com/article-details/197/new-book-explores-the-role-white-women-play-in-perpetuating-racism/
Former editor Kelly J. Baker (who's here on Substack too!) with reflections on the Women's March and white women voters of the 2016 election: https://www.wihe.com/article-details/66/the-gender-politics-of-white-supremacy/
thanks!
I still have to question what they really GET outside of feeling something like a sense of superiority or whatever. As far as I can tell they get a hate community--or a sense of one, though I suspect these aren't the kind of people that have your back under tough times. It's still irrational because elevating vicious people to power over you is always irrational. Just because you and yours are the chosen at the moment there's no guarantee you will stay that way. It's not that they have opposing principles, rather they have no moral principles. It's basically the same as joining the mafia except you are paid in emotions--you don't even get a Cadillac.