The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point[1] is a phrase coined by Adam Serwer in a 2018 essay in The Atlantic that has often been used to characterize the campaign and administration of US President Donald Trump, as well as the MAGA movement.[2][3] Cruelty can be considered a vice or perhaps a virtue in Machiavellianism.[4] Although the term is often applied to 21st-century populist movements, Serwer also argued that cruelty has often featured in human politics and relations.[5]
Specific policies and actions cited in relation to the term include the travel ban for citizens of several Muslim-majority states, Trump administration family separation policy, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the January 6 insurrection,[3] and the persecution of transgender people under the second Trump administration.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ Beltrán, Cristina (2020). Cruelty as Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-1-4529-6581-9.
- ^ Ray, Victor (3 September 2023). "Dead serious racial humour Book Review of The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy , by Raúl Pérez , Reviewed by Victor Ray: Book Review of The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy, by Raúl Pérez, Reviewed by Victor Ray". Identities. 30 (5): 773–776. doi:10.1080/1070289X.2023.2246345.
- ^ a b "Chapter 5: Displaced Abjection", The Trump Carnival, De Gruyter, pp. 51–64, 2024-01-15, doi:10.1515/9783111238135-005, ISBN 978-3-11-123813-5, retrieved 2026-05-30
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link) - ^ Souris, Renée Nicole (July 2024). ""The Cruelty is the Point": Virtue Ethics and Immigration". Polity. 56 (3): 434–455. doi:10.1086/730552.
- ^ Steele, Brent J; Subotic, Jelena (2022). "Cruelty and Global Politics". Global Studies Quarterly. 2 (2). doi:10.1093/isagsq/ksac009.
- ^ Ulrich, Michael (2026-05-01). "Unconstitutional Cruelty". William & Mary Law Review. 67 (6): 1705. ISSN 0043-5589.