Far beyond this particular Trump excretion, this whole “shithole” thing is representative of a variety of American ignorance I’ve seen since I was a kid: that large tracts of the world are smoking holes full of peasants and warlords, and that all those places are frightening and to be avoided. But along with the performative “fear” is a kind of schadenfreude…exactly like how there’s folks that derive titillation from the idea of a world of baby-killing Satanists.

Lots of people will think this is brave or “honest” because they’ve already committed to the idea that everywhere else is worse. Like C S Lewis’ famous line about postulating a darker blackness, so as to seem brighter by comparison.

Mind you…these same folks apply this same morbid fantasy inside the USA as well, but just deny it. Which is why I always choke when there’s talk of “coastal elites.” As if every suburbanite I know hasn’t dropped a conversational deuce about who’s “white trash,” who’s in a trailer, et cetera.