the paranoid style in american politics summary

The political paranoiac can’t stomach society as it is and thus seeks to destroy it under the guise of some looming threat: a deep state, antifa, migrant caravans, transgender bathrooms, an international pedophile ring. Hofstadter tells us that, at its core, the paranoid style uses conspiracy to engage in subversion. Hofstadter felt compelled to write because he saw a version of the paranoid style rising in his own time if January 6 has taught us anything, it’s that we are now living in the long arc of its creation.

He likened it to something being described as “baroque” or “mannerist.” The paranoid style reflected a way of seeing and doing politics, which meant that it was capable of being studied and eventually understood. Rather, what mattered most was the style part. But to be clear, the paranoid part was not a clinical pathology. He called it a “paranoid style,” and in naming it, began the process of trying to understand it - of putting it under historical scrutiny and identifying its root causes and consequences. In his “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” (1964) - the lead essay in a book by the same name - Hofstadter offered an early diagnosis of the type of conspiratorial politics that exploded on the steps of the United States Capitol. Richard Hofstadter, a midcentury American historian and public intellectual, gives us a place to start. The case for incitement is on record or as Trump adherents repeated ad nauseam during the last impeachment: “Read the Transcript!” Yet what is much harder to explain and what future historians are likely to puzzle over is exactly how we got here - how so many Americans could not only believe conspiracies as loony as #StopTheSteal and QAnon, but could also believe them so fervently that they stormed the Capitol, ransacked the halls of our highest offices, and carried out acts of hooliganism that killed five Americans and injured countless more. His son and campaign surrogate Donald Trump Jr. At a rally with thousands of his supporters, President Donald Trump told his people to march to the Capitol his people went to the Capitol. IT ISN’T ALL that hard to explain what happened on January 6.

The paranoid style in american politics summary