What is clear, from the discourse around the murder of the United Health CEO, is that the majority of people in America are on the same page. We are sick of the rich benefiting, literally, from the deaths of the general population. We are sick of being exploited. We are sick of seeing the wealth of the top 1% rise and rise and rise, and we want a cut of that which we have worked so hard for.

And so the people voted in the most smug of that 1% – a man born with a silver spoon in his mouth, well known for not paying the workers he hires, who simps for dictators and billionaires. (sad sigh)

In Chris Voss’s book “Never Split the Difference”, he tells a story early on about the fallacies in human logic. He talks about starting one of his classes on negotiation with a scenario where he pairs off his students. One has $10, and the other is trying to negotiate for some portion of that money (remember, only one of these people actually has $10 in hand). What he found was that, even if the person without the $10 will win out by even getting $1, it is common for those people to still negotiate for more and reject the low $1 offer for nothing. He concludes that people value the idea of fairness much more than just getting something.

I mean, personally I think the scenario is dumb, because if I encounter a random person on the street with $10, it would just never occur to me to feel entitled to any part of that money. But, I digress.

This idea makes a lot of sense when you look at some Trump voters who focus so much on illegal immigrants as the culprit of the economic crisis, even though billionaires are raking in more and more money. They think the billionaires earned it, while the illegal immigrants are just leeches. The reality is billionaires are taking more and more of the benefits of our increased productivity while giving less and less back, and illegal immigrants often pay into the system via taxes without actually getting any of the benefits, such as social security or medicare. The power of Trump and alt-right media is that they are experts at appealing to people’s emotions while offering them nothing. One of my biggest take-aways from Chris Voss’s book is that people want to be heard and understood above all else, and if you do that – people will often accept just about anything afterwards.

The Democrats offered much better solutions to the problems people experience, but they were not good at making people feel heard. The Republicans offered nothing for the actual people suffering, but were very good at making people feel like they were heard. People think if they feel heard, then that person who heard me must obviously care. The sad reality is, especially in the US’s highly individualistic culture, in many areas of life from health care to transportation to education – just because someone heard you doesn’t mean they give one damn bit about you.

Quick note on Chris Voss’s book: it reminds me how even the best concepts are, in the US, colored with an individualistic, capitalistic lens. I’d much rather be in a situation where I can be candid with someone else, and they can be candid with me, and we trust that we will look out for each other and find compromises that benefit both. Perhaps in hostage negotiations (the world where Chris Voss comes from) that is not possible, but it really sickens me how our capitalistic world is one where to do well, everyone must play spy and manipulator on each other because there is no trust. In a capitalistic for-profit-above-all-else world, there can never really be trust.

For those who are interested in discussions about why so many minorities voted for Trump, details of the grifts and lies of the manosphere, and such things, here are some podcast episodes I personally liked:

Why minorities voted for Trump: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-it-could-happen-here-30717896/episode/why-did-non-white-people-vote-for-238566421/

History of Masculinity Grifters:
Part 1: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-one-the-history-of-american-229964685/

Part 2: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-two-the-history-of-american-230759500/