This is interesting. I like the acknowledgement that trauma + failure of institutions = susceptibility to radicalization.
But I wonder where the acknowledgement of the nonwhite, nonmale demographic is in Doctorow's argument. Black people, women and other marginalized populations are traumatized daily in a myriad of ways and then are shown over and over that not only can institutions not be trusted, but the ones that exist are either the perpetrators or the enablers of the trauma. If you said to a POC, "Life is traumatic and don't trust The Man," they'd look at you like you were an idiot because they grew up knowing that. So why aren't all women and POC "radicalized?" I think there's an element missing here. It also doesn't sit well with me that the focus is on the opioid crisis, a well-known "it only matters if it happens to white people" thing.
What else is happening for radicalization to occur, I wonder? Maybe it's the belief that one "should" be protected from trauma by institutions, and is NOT.
I love your analysis! Both of us (me and Doctorow) are ignoring the way race and gender play into this mechanism. And it’s a great point that women and POC endure more oppression by untrustworthy institutions but aren’t more taken in by disinformation (to my knowledge). I’ve read that adverse childhood experiences alone don’t cause trauma. Nor do “traumatic” experiences cause PTSD. But what causes trauma is going through shit alone. And maybe white men are taken in by disinformation because they’re just now waking up to the ways institutions are set up to take from them and give to those in power and they’re processing that new reality alone. I don’t know but you bring up some great points and I really appreciate it.
OOO!! And patriarchy isolates white males and makes them think that community or needing input from others to figure things out makes them weak! So trauma + institutional failure + the emotional castration of being male in a patriarchy...
Doctorow: "And you're right that maybe if people who have been traumatized by, say, the opioid crisis and the lack of enforcement action by regulators that allowed it to kill more Americans than the Vietnam War..."
... and I stopped reading right there. Only someone who loves Big Government can think that way or write that way. Unless, contrary to what I've heard so far, people were strapped down and forced to consume opioids, the responsibility for any misuse lies entirely on each individual who chose to introduce them into their bodies.
This is interesting. I like the acknowledgement that trauma + failure of institutions = susceptibility to radicalization.
But I wonder where the acknowledgement of the nonwhite, nonmale demographic is in Doctorow's argument. Black people, women and other marginalized populations are traumatized daily in a myriad of ways and then are shown over and over that not only can institutions not be trusted, but the ones that exist are either the perpetrators or the enablers of the trauma. If you said to a POC, "Life is traumatic and don't trust The Man," they'd look at you like you were an idiot because they grew up knowing that. So why aren't all women and POC "radicalized?" I think there's an element missing here. It also doesn't sit well with me that the focus is on the opioid crisis, a well-known "it only matters if it happens to white people" thing.
What else is happening for radicalization to occur, I wonder? Maybe it's the belief that one "should" be protected from trauma by institutions, and is NOT.
I love your analysis! Both of us (me and Doctorow) are ignoring the way race and gender play into this mechanism. And it’s a great point that women and POC endure more oppression by untrustworthy institutions but aren’t more taken in by disinformation (to my knowledge). I’ve read that adverse childhood experiences alone don’t cause trauma. Nor do “traumatic” experiences cause PTSD. But what causes trauma is going through shit alone. And maybe white men are taken in by disinformation because they’re just now waking up to the ways institutions are set up to take from them and give to those in power and they’re processing that new reality alone. I don’t know but you bring up some great points and I really appreciate it.
OOO!! And patriarchy isolates white males and makes them think that community or needing input from others to figure things out makes them weak! So trauma + institutional failure + the emotional castration of being male in a patriarchy...
See, now THAT I can get behind.
This was fun :) Thanks for writing.
Doctorow: "And you're right that maybe if people who have been traumatized by, say, the opioid crisis and the lack of enforcement action by regulators that allowed it to kill more Americans than the Vietnam War..."
... and I stopped reading right there. Only someone who loves Big Government can think that way or write that way. Unless, contrary to what I've heard so far, people were strapped down and forced to consume opioids, the responsibility for any misuse lies entirely on each individual who chose to introduce them into their bodies.