Alex Danco: The Freud Moment - You could draw a line from all of America’s divisiveness and much of the culture wars down to ego vs. superego.
America’s egotistical bent doesn’t mean we lack a conscience: we carry around a ton of guilt, as part of the cost of letting egos run wild the way we do. The narrative of “the coastal elites want to tell you what to feel guilty about; we won’t let them” is effective for a reason: because we are collectively guilty of so many things, from climate change to police brutality and everything else. The Trump candidacy figured out how to exploit this better than anyone else: in a complex and interdependent world, everyone is basically guilty of everything. And when that’s true, no one can say “you should feel guilt” without sounding hypocritical. It’s a perfect judo move, because not only does it neutralize the superego’s ability to effectively level any criticism, it opens the door for the ego to go be as offensive as possible.