Why some people see Donald Trump as a hero, not a bully:

So, let’s start from this point: Donald Trump is not a hero. He’s a bully.

Heroes, after all, defend the weak and marginalized against the strong and the vicious. Bullies pick on the weak and the marginalized to the benefit of the strong and the comfortable. Much like his racism, Trump’s bullying is textbook.

None of which changes for a second the fact that lots of Americans seem to think of Trump as a hero anyway. And since at least part of my job is to think about things that don’t make sense, here’s my take on why the “Hero Trump” people think the way they do.

The Hero Trump people have engaged in what can be called “privilege inversion.” Basically, they have convinced themselves that liberals and minorities have created a world in which it is substantively worse to be a white person, especially a male white person, than to be “Other.” From their point of view, political correctness and its associated practices – trigger warnings, language policing, etc. – have made victims of those who are otherwise assumed to be privileged. Thus, white people, especially men and especially Christians, are actually the abused minority group in America, victims of the PC police and a culture that regularly mocks their values and their goals.

Please don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying this has happened. I am NOT saying white male Christians are martyrs or that the PC police run the world. I AM saying that a whole lot of Trump’s supporters think this way. Hence his being an asshole makes him a hero: as Barry Goldwater once put it (in a very different context), “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! … moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”

In the Trumpette worldview, the erosion of privilege makes one a martyr. Trump is King Canute (look it up!) heroically standing against the tide, and his supporters seem to believe that – unlike Canute – Trump can hold back the waves.

http://politicalprof.tumblr.com/