Trump: An Enabling Dissenter

In Politico Magazine, Troy Campbell lays out the most persuasive reason I have seen as to why anyone should support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign:

“Today, Trump supporters voice opinions that yesterday they may have been unsure of or publically afraid to acknowledge for fear of being alone and called a “racist” or “bigot.” Likewise, today, Sanders supporters voice opinions that yesterday they may have been unsure of or publically afraid to knowledge for fear of being alone and called a “socialist.”

Decades of psychological studies help to explain this phenomenon. In one of these experiments, the famous Asch conformity trials of the 1950s, test subjects were far more likely to express a dissenting opinion, parting from the norm when asked a question, if someone in front of them did it before them, acting as the “enabling dissenter.”

Now millions of Americans are shouting these fringe beliefs from rallies, to college campuses, to endless tweets and uncomfortable holiday dinner tables. Even if Sanders and Trump fade away, they will leave this legacy behind. Long after their wild hair no longer graces the front pages of newspapers, their equally wild ideas will flow through the news and in the hearts of the masses. …

They call this phenomenon biased assimilation. If people are given a little legitimate support of their beliefs, they can deploy that against a sea of contradicting evidence. If a potentially legitimate politician agrees with a voter, that politician becomes the voter’s bedrock source. More and more debate against that politician often just makes that bedrock stronger.

Thus, with the help of an enabling dissenter, an individual can stay strong in a fringe belief. But an individual’s belief is even stronger as part of an army of enabling dissenters.”

When I was living in Virginia, I remember all the conversations we had about the role that legitimacy plays in the success or failure of revolutionary movements.

Basically, I can sit here and write articles for the next twenty years, convince thousands of readers in their hearts that my analysis is true, but the vast majority of people won’t act on their ideological beliefs unless they sense that they are being given a “permission slip” by a legitimate authority figure. This is human nature.

Ultimately, Trump’s policy papers on issues like taxes and immigration are less important in the long run than the role he is playing on the national political stage as an “enabling dissenter.” I might not like his position on taxes, but if Trump gives permission to millions of ordinary people to air their grievances, violate politically correct taboos, and act on long suppressed ideas by revolting against the cuckservative establishment then that is certainly a “Trump card” that outweighs any other reservation.

About Hunter Wallace 12379 Articles
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Occidental Dissent

23 Comments

  1. Trump is riding a wave that was already there. In recent years comment sections on news websites had become indistinguishable from Stormfront. Then the MSM began shutting their comment sections down, because they didn’t fit the narrative.

    What I do like about Trump, is how insulting he is to authority figures. Before any revolution can take place the masses must lose their respect for illegitimate authority. Trump is accelerating that process.

  2. Interesting comment on causes of revolutions.

    Admittedly, I have not given the causal factors of revolutions much thought.

    In this light, Sir, how would you, succinctly, analyze the ‘American Revolution’ & The French Revolution?

  3. something regular people can agree on here. I like to point people to Bill Lind’s talk on “Political Correctness” which is a communist concept. Video is 20+ years old but still profoundly relevant. Trump obliterates “PC”

  4. wider Overton Window, and that’s about it. HardRights and WN’s had better hope Trump does NOT get nominated and elected. They’ll be very disappointed when the usual republiscam amnesia kicks in. Best for us if he gets the nomination, terminally splits the republiscam party as the cucks desert to Mrs. Clinton, and then loses the election to Hiligula. She’ll spin the FUSA into civil war faster than a speeding bullet

  5. Haxo,

    I can’t see anything but an upside to Trump winning the nomination. As for the general election, we should reevaluate him later this year. If he cucks and tries to “pivot” away from our issues like Romney in 2012, we can always find other things to do in November.

  6. Afterthought,

    If Trump wins the nomination, he will continue to damage the GOP and make mischief until at least November. OTOH, if someone like Rubio wins the nomination, the establishment will declare victory and we will have another boring election like in 2012.

    At this point, I am pretty much sold on Trump winning the nomination, but not the general election. I can’t see any downside to it. It has been nothing but positive. Even Cruz is changing his position on immigration in a good way to outmaneuver Trump and the longer this goes on the weaker it makes the GOP establishment.

    If this becomes a Trump vs. Cruz race, the establishment candidates might not win a single primary. They would be fatally weakened by that no what happens in November.

  7. Years ago, Robert Frenz, at FAEM, said that people would haf to get real cold and hungry before they’d revolt. As long as they’re fed and comfortable, they’ll remain passive victims of the system. That was Frenz’s theory. Desperation might be the catalyst for action.

  8. “…if Trump gives permission to millions of ordinary people to air their grievances, violate politically correct taboos, and act on long suppressed ideas by revolting against the cuckservative establishment then that is certainly a “Trump card” that outweighs any other reservation.”

    When did Amerindian rights come into the picture? LOL

  9. “…a “Trump card” that outweighs any other reservation.”

    Afterthought-Not war.”

    Yes. JUST THAT. With a thousand women raped in Cologne, with Europe overrun with godless Moslems, with a perverted hormone-laced former Olympian now thinking he can EVER be a ‘woman,’ while a bastard nigger trys as hard as he can, to scuttle the Second AMendment at home, while ranchers are at a standoff with FEDGOV, you DARE to say that war is not an option. let alone inevitable?

    “Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.

    The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!

    It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, “Peace! Peace!” — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

    Patrick Henry – March 23, 1775

  10. Trump can’t make America great again, unless he’s prepared to name the jew and change the demographics of the country back to a majority white nation again. That is who made it great in the first place, before it was hijacked by the zionists, and the demographics were reshuffled to create a divide and rule situation. Never in the history of man have non whites created a prosperous, advanced and safe society. If I’m wrong, please enlighten me with an example? Without white rule and creativity, it can’t be done. The zionist state of the USSR is an example of what happens to a country taken over by the jews. Death, destruction, chaos, and ultimately, complete collapse, are the inevitable results. This is the fate awaiting America, thanks to the zionist cabal who now rule the country together with a minority of stupid white people conned into believing all their lies. Sorry folks, it’s too little too late.

  11. Though I do not agree with Mr. Bird as to the implied ‘dejewification’ of America to be the cornerstone for national revival, I do agree with his scepticism of Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

    As I see it, neither Mr. Trump, nor his followers seem to be interested in the Constitution; and, after 16 years of that kind of behavior in the Executive Branch, the thought of sending another man into that office, who ‘just wants to get things done’, creates a very disagreeable premonition in me.

  12. Junius Daniel // January 7, 2016 at 5:02 pm //

    That Richard Bird isn’t me. Someone is using my name to troll, or its an error in the system. Thought I was going crazy for a second there, because I couldn’t remember writing it.

  13. Junius Daniel // January 7, 2016 at 5:02 pm //

    “As I see it, neither Mr. Trump, nor his followers seem to be interested in the Constitution; and, after 16 years of that kind of behavior in the Executive Branch, the thought of sending another man into that office, who ‘just wants to get things done’, creates a very disagreeable premonition in me”

    I agree its disturbing but its inevitable. As the West turns increasingly non-White, it will become increasingly authoritarian. Authoritarianism is the only way they will be able to hold it together, until it explodes like a pressure cooker.

  14. @Richard Bird…

    Junius Daniel // January 7, 2016 at 5:02 pm //

    That Richard Bird isn’t me. Someone is using my name to troll, or its an error in the system. Thought I was going crazy for a second there, because I couldn’t remember writing it.’

    I’m sorry to hear, Mr. Bird, that you are the victim of such roguish behavior.

    I pray it will soon come to a stop.

  15. @Richard Bird…

    ‘Junius Daniel said…

    “As I see it, neither Mr. Trump, nor his followers seem to be interested in the Constitution; and, after 16 years of that kind of behavior in the Executive Branch, the thought of sending another man into that office, who ‘just wants to get things done’, creates a very disagreeable premonition in me”

    The Real Richard Bird said…

    ‘I agree its disturbing but its inevitable. As the West turns increasingly non-White, it will become increasingly authoritarian. Authoritarianism is the only way they will be able to hold it together, until it explodes like a pressure cooker.’

    //////////////////////////////////////

    Yes, I agree with you, Mr. Bird…

    I don’t know about you, but, I feel that pressure cooking already – not only inside myself, but, in the people I know and in the air that surrounds us.

    This ‘air’ feels different than any I have ever known in this country.
    There is a sickly and toxick quality underlying it, or so it seems to me.

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