Last Thursday, more than 100 campus community members attended a presentation on Donald Trump given by two UTRGV professors who spoke about misconceptions and propaganda regarding the president.
The presentation, “Trump I: Money and Propaganda,” was the first of a two-part event organized by the UTRGV Department of Philosophy, which took place in Education Complex 1.102 on the Edinburg campus.
Political science Assistant Professor Paul Jorgensen and philosophy Associate Professor Cory Wimberly spoke about some issues that the candidacy of Trump brought.
Jorgensen described Trump as a symptom.
“Trump is more of a symptom of our crisis in democracy, instead of a cause in the crisis of democracy in the United States,” he said.
The title of his presentation was “Trump and Other Symptoms of Our Little Age.” Jorgensen mainly addressed how money and politics go hand in hand.
“It’s a topic that I’ve been working on for over 10 years,” he said.
Later in his presentation, Jorgensen spoke about some misconceptions people have on the “Trump problem.”
The main misconceptions he talked about was that the president was elected because there is “too much” democracy, as well as many skeptical people who believe that the Russians “helped bring the rise of Trump.”
Lastly, Jorgensen mentioned how people think that because “the [Trump] campaign was disorganized … the White House was disorganized [as well].”
Throughout his presentation, the professor used data as support, which he “directly [gathers] from the government.”
He said it may take up to “months, if not years,” to clean up the data.
To conclude his presentation, Jorgensen said “Trump is a symptom of larger problems, and problems will not be ameliorated in the slightest unless changes occur within the Democratic Party.”
On the other hand, Wimberly focused on propaganda in his presentation, titled “The Alt-Light From The Perspective of the Genealogy of Propaganda.”
The presentation was part of a longer paper Wimberly is working on.
“I tried to cut off all of the most exciting things,” he said.
Wimberly focused on the growing groups, the alt-light and alt-right, and how they are affecting communities within the United States.
“Although the chanter culture, [boards.4chan.org users] expands a wide variety of interest, it undeniably has a political thread running through out.” Wimberly said. “Especially obvious, the politically correct or incorrect form, which is a hug for the production of alt-light content and arguments.
“Even a quick review of this forum will reveal it’s commonly racist, sexist, xenophobic and homophobic content, but also the reasons why the alt-light is branded light by the alt-right.”
He said he believes these groups should not be ignored.
“We should be interested in the development of the alt-right and the alt-light because it has the ability to impact the United States,” Wimberly said. “There’s been increasing amounts of violence, suicides [and] murders, murders that have come out of the alt-right [and] the alt-light.”
He said he also believes the groups’ practices are being normalized in the media.
Wimberly said the alt-lights are the typical followers of Trump. He described them as “propagandists” and mainly “young white men from the middle and lower classes of the United States.”
After the presentation, there was a question-and-answer session, in which a man asked a question to the professors.
“I was wondering if we need to look further back?” the attendee asked. “For example, the period of Henry Kissinger, [Richard] Nixon, and so on, where realpolitik, the idea that if I can do something and if I can get away with it, then I will do it. It’s what we are seeing the consequences of in the election of Trump.”
Wimberly replied, “I think with the alt-light and the white working class voters, I think that the issue you’re talking about is the dual-wage structure. … I think resentment is a big factor in the election of Trump. The resentment is a big factor in motivating propaganda. The alt-light is very present in both the images they produce and I think that it’s very important to working class voters in choosing Trump. I think it emerges a lot out of the dual-wage structure. The way I read Trump’s election, it was not so much he was anyone’s ideal or that he was really the best candidate. It was more about a set of shared enemies.”
Jorgensen added, “Looking at the Trump election from below, the voters and the workers … I think you can use resentment. I think it’s a great word. I think you’d also explain it with the term ‘alienation.’”
He encourages students to attend the second presentation because he will focus on “Trump on local issues,” and more people can identify with the topic.
“Trump II: Voices of the Valley” will take place from 12:15 to 1:20 p.m. Tuesday in Education Complex 1.102 on the Edinburg campus.
