Asmongold, Palestine, and Western Chauvinism
I came upon a clip from the day of writing in which streamer Asmongold says that he "doesn't care" about the genocide of Palestinians because they "have an inferior culture," citing Islam as the reason for the inferiority. Obviously, this is an insane, very right-wing, supremacist point of view.
I tuned in to Asmongold's fellow streamer Hasan after hearing they joined each other on a voice call to discuss these statements. Ironically, Asmongold says that anti-LGBT sentiment in Islamic fundamentalist movements is the reason he feels this way.
Hasan uses a common hypothetical to test assumptions on this - what if a white enclave in the USAmerican south harboured institutions with the same type of, and harshness of, sentiment (hard to imagine I know!) - would you care if the whole enclave was bombed, subjected to the same level of mass death, displacement, and destruction? Asmongold's response was illuminating.
He says that of course he would care more about people in his own country than people around the world. Obviously. Doesn't that only make sense?
Clearly, uninterrogated racist assumptions are at work in this instance. However, I think it also reveals something about the "social malaise" of young men that is regularly pointed out to various ends.
Asmongold becomes very animated when presented the opportunity to agree with Hasan on a number of progressive issues - American imperialism is bad! Everyone deserves healthcare! All those bad things in Western societies past are really just so awful! But, when asked to extend his empathy to human beings beyond certain borders, suddenly a wrench is thrown in the whole thing. "You can't guilt trip me into these things," I'll paraphrase from Asmongold. Why shouldn't he care about them less? Isn't it rational to care about my countrymen more?
Defenses and justifications are suddenly put up at the very idea of even paying lip service to solidarity with Palestinians. Solidarity with his fellow American, however, is worth the often dreaded politics and getting involved. Why?
People are locked in the throes of insecurity. We have an obsession with the idea of strength in individualism, weakness in dependence, and that this manifests as a moral difference. I say people because this can absolutely apply to women as well, but is uniquely supported in earnest by the American national ethos, our current institutions, and our conceptions of masculinity as might and domination.
Asmongold eventually agrees on stream that Israel's actions constitute unconscionable violent domination, and perhaps implies that he actually thought this the whole time (let's take that in good faith for some reason). However, in an obvious exaggeration to misrepresent the point, he also casts doubt on the idea that if Palestinians were liberated from this, that they would "become liberal the next day." This plainly nonsensical hand-waving reveals the fundamental supremacism of the argument: the Westerner is strong and overcomes historical failings of "Western culture" with regard to fairness, secularism, and human well-being. The Muslim is weak and a slave to "Muslim culture" and whatever equal failings are associated with it, and will continue to do so even when liberated.
This worldview is called into question when presented with the broadly agreeable idea that, actually, Muslims around the world deserve every last right you do. It calls into question the idea that your freedoms were not earned through your unique Western integrity, indignation, and righteousness, but simply being lucky enough to be born at certain coordinates.
Progress will never be genocided into existence by the correct culture because we don't have a correct culture. Material conditions do not follow from culture alone. Conditions follow from political power structures, which are influenced by foreign political units, geography, resources, and more. Culture is involved to some extent, not monolithic cultures as we tend to generalize about, but overlapping and interwoven tapestries of all kinds of different cultural expressions within any given political unit.
What could be done in the interest of progress is the cultivation of a global solidarity against domination. The idea that this solidarity is the way forward to the same progressive ideas that mostly everyone loves to identify with (when given a non-partisan opportunity to do so) is at odds with the Western chauvinist's conception of their identity and place in the world. The extension of empathy, dignity, "deservingness" to those they've decided are less noble eats away at the borders of their self-identification and calls into question their self-acceptance.
This relationship with minorities and foreign cultures is but one way that this erosion of a bad faith self-conception expresses itself as reactionary, I feel. I'll spare us all an armchair psychoanalysis of Asmongold specifically, but his massive following and the ubiquity of these talking points speaks for the worldview. If we're being honest though, if you know anything else about him...