It’s not vice-signaling because that’s only a tactic, same with ragebait. Nihilism is too broad and contradicts with the bible-thumpers that also engage in this. It’s like what Sartre describes in the “anti-Semites” excerpt. I really think there is a coherent phenomenon that encapsulates this. I think the best way I can describe it personally is ‘bloodsport politics’ but words are kinda failing me here. I might already know it even and could just be having a brain blip
Grievance politics. It’s like the flip side of libs who get off on poor people in red states getting poorer because they didn’t
blue hard enough.
yeah i had a hunch it was ressentiment-adjacent, but I feel like there’s just a je ne sais quoi being dropped here. i think it is literally the Sartre quote that I can’t fit in there because it feels like a fundamental piece of what I’m grasping that my brain can’t entirely link to ressentiment
Yeah, it’s a subset of grievance/resentment politics that’s devoid of any real agency. Gaining anything for your group is irrelevant, it’s just how hard you can “own” another group you think has slighted you.