THREAD: Domination-based culture is what the GOP is selling. -- As the Republican Party leans more and more into what seem to be impossibly contradictory positions, we need to understand Trump's base isn't about what's rational. It's about the visceral pleasure of domination. /1

It was repellent to me, when, during the 2016 primary, Trump created nasty little nick names for every other GOP candidate. Back then, the first time I heard him call Marco Rubio "Little Marco" I was disgusted. This was straight up playground bully talk. /2

One simple act would have changed everything in the 2016 primary. If Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz, who's wife Trump openly insulted, had walked over and punched Trump in the face on national television. But they did not. They took the bullying and Trump became president. /3

This is domination based culture in a nutshell. Every existing understanding of political decorum, however frayed it may have already been by decades of Fox News disinformation, went out the window when Trump went full domination culture bully on national TV. /4

Trump's domination based MAGA supporters live by a simple set of rules. One punch in the face, and Trump would have been seen as vulnerable, weak, as a clown or a fool who can't back up his words. Instead, something very different happened. /5 https://twitter.com/TobiasTheGeek/status/1297530967251443713?s=20

We look at these sitting Republican Senators and we say to ourselves, "how can you have changed your entire position so easily?" And that's only the beginning. /6

If I have seen it once, I've seen it a thousand times "What if Obama had done this?" The argument is, if Obama had done any of the acts committed by Trump he would have been thrown out of office immediately. Yes, he would have, but that's not the point. /7 https://twitter.com/CadetBoneSpurs1/status/1298487029601247233?s=20

It's time we understood what MAGA authoritarians love about Trump. The national debt is bad? Or is it good? It actually doesn't matter. Which argument gives an authoritarian like Trump the advantage today? That's the argument he'll use. If it changes tomorrow, all the better. /8

Jerry Fallwell, Jr. gets caught in a compromising sexual situation? He will be back. It is hypocritical for evangelicals to have him return? Domination culture thrives on hypocrisy, on chaos, on creating rage in those who oppose it. It's primary goal is to be *destructive.* /9

Hypocricy as the core expression of domination culture is spelled out in this thread by A.R. Moxon. Until we understand that domination in all it's forms is now the defining Republican Party "value" we will not fully understand the threat we face. /10 https://twitter.com/JuliusGoat/status/1296757904595390464?s=20

My work is about our domination-based culture of masculinity. The links between masculinity extremism and white nationalism, racism, sexism, religious intolerance, and more. It all comes down to an appetite for dominance bred through trauma by a culture of disconnection. /11

The path that got us here has been incremental, rooted in the Southern Strategy when Republican's began to build a base among disaffected Southern racists. It was dramatically accelerated when Republican strategist Roger Alles took over Fox News 1996. /12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

This is the end game. People pose the question, what would make working class Republicans consistently vote against their own interests? That's the wrong question. The question is, how do we fight a culture based entirely on dominating others? Because that's MAGA culture./13

MAGA voters don't care about what's rational. They don't care about what's coming next. They don't care about anything but Trump's "strong man" authoritarianism and creating chaos. Domination culture has traumatized them and only by traumatizing others can they feel validated /14

Trump's MAGA is not a political movement. The GOP has morphed into a constant cycle of domination-based violence aligned with white nationalist domestic terrorism, compromised frightened Republican politicians, and vast far right domestic media reach. The end game is here. /15

What each of us do next will decide the future of America. Me, I'm voting for Joe Biden and praying to God Democrats take the House and Senate. Because if we don't, I fully expect that sooner or later, Trump's Federal police will come calling on all of us. /16

For those who prefer this thread in article form on Medium: https://medium.com/@remakingmanhood/domination-culture-is-what-the-gop-is-selling-4181b2521ec6?source=friends_link&sk=c8404cd18cc40e395546c5dee4da7000 /17