He has a ‘masterful ability to shift shame into blame’

A University of California Berkeley sociology professor claims in a new book that Donald Trump is “weaponizing” the shame of white rural Americans.

In “Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right,” Arlie Hochschild details her journey to “the heart of Appalachia” where, according to The New Press’s description, “a proud people in a hard-hit region suffer the deep loss of pride and are confronted with a powerful political appeal that makes it feel ‘stolen.’”

In a recent excerpt in Time, Hochschild (pictured) refers to a “pride paradox,” personified by a 40-something coal miner’s grandson, angry at the Obama and Biden administrations for being anti-coal (because climate change), who is forced into a menial job, and then reads an op-ed about him being a “deadbeat” for “not supporting his family and paying taxes the town needs for its sewer repairs.”