“Donald Trump, as a warmonger and manipulator, had it coming.. The fact that he survived is nothing short of a miracle. And another miracle would be if he learned the lesson”. Derrick de Kerckhove, sociologist and mass media expert, student of Marshall McLuhan and current Scientific Director of the TuttiMedia Observatory, told Adnkronos, speaking on what happened in the United States with the attack on Donald Trump.
The mass media expert tends to exclude that there are risks of political violence in Italy too: “No, I don’t think so”, he underlines, explaining however that “social media make the difference between yesterday and today, and protagonism affects everywhere”. “Maybe in Italy it’s not like that if we think about crime, but that’s not the context”, he adds.
Coming to the attack on Trump, de Kerckove recalls that the attacks on politicians “In the United States it is a tradition that dates back to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The United States Constitution was created under emergency conditions, which is why cowboys were allowed to carry guns. At that time in the Wild West, protecting yourself and your family was considered necessary.”
“While we live in ordinarily safe social conditions in most countries, in the United States the Constitution itself is invoked – and largely supported by Donald Trump – to protect not free families, but the interests of the National Riffle Association, the gun lobby that supports him. The long-standing hypocrisy of this system maintains the conditions of insecurity that serve to continue selling guns. The effect is far more dangerous than it was in the ‘Wild West.’ It causes infinitely more physical harm to the American people and brings widespread moral condemnation to the reputation of the United States.”
Is the attack a result of today’s extreme polarization? “In the big picture, no doubt, but not only – the media expert emphasizes – Despite a lot of conspiracy theories, no one knows exactly what motivated Thomas Crooks. Although a member of the Republican Party, the investigation did not reveal political motives. It could also be a typical emergency effect. It takes a lot of anger – and just as much planning – to lead a twenty-year-old boy to risk his life to try to kill a key political figure like Trump. What emerges is certainly a social effect of polarization, but the pressure of opinions is concentrated on people like this man. Violence is an effect of a weakened psyche more ready for unexpected reactions. A suggested clue could be that he was a loner persecuted by his schoolmates, but this is an almost too classic motivation attributed to most deranged people”.
According to de Kerckhove, “Donald Trump, as a warmonger and manipulator, had it coming.. He certainly trusted his security personnel, but he continues to talk and act as if nothing could touch him. The fact that he survived is nothing short of a miracle. And another miracle would be that he learned his lesson. Social media may have had an influence not only in shaping the shooter’s feelings and motivations, but also in promising him instant recognition no matter the issue. Like many terrorists who film their actions during their attacks, this person may have projected himself as a hero, saving the world from a dangerous man operating in a dangerous world, playing out a quintessentially American genre play. But that’s all speculation.”
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