I think most of us agree with the Greek proverb that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The truth of that axiom became apparent to me this week when I found myself having a visceral negative response to Margorie Taylor Greene and Matthew Graetz as well as a random older white woman who defended Greene’s ridiculous and offensive comment equating mask wearing mandates to the Nazi treatment of Jews. In my view, these are ugly people. I also find Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Ted Cruise to be particularly ugly humans. It doesn’t surprise me that others find them incredibly attractive. I’m starting to realize that the beauty or ugliness we see in others says more about the human attributes we value on an instinctual level rather than a conscious one.
When I think about the people I find attractive whether male or female, I realize that it is less about physical appearance and more about the persona and aura the person projects. I greatly value intelligence, authenticity, warmth, hard work, generosity, honesty, humility, caring, modesty, and confidence. People who strongly project these attributes are beautiful humans in my eyes and the more they project these attributes, the more I want to see them, listen to them, and be around them. I want humans like that to lead our nation and major corporations.
Not surprisingly, the opposite is true of people who project attributes I abhor. These include ignorance, stupidity, violence, dishonesty, arrogance, hostility, selfishness, greediness, boastfulness, self-centeredness, and meanness. I don’t want to be around such people and when they come on the television or appear in front of me, I find the fastest exit. These are ugly people in my eyes. But I realize that there are people who find these attributes attractive, particularly in leaders whom they think with protect them, further their aspirations, or feed their emotional needs.
While I recognize that every human possesses a cross section of these attributes, it is the tipping of the scale towards one attribute set versus the other that determines how attractive or ugly a person is in my eyes. In my determination of beautiful or ugly, intelligence, caring, and honesty tips the scale towards beauty while arrogance, violence, stupidity, dishonesty, and boastfulness tips the scale towards ugliness. If any of these latter qualities are prominent, then the person is really ugly in my eyes.
If I’m truthful with myself, I can’t view a stupid person as beautiful; that person will be pretty ugly to me no matter how generous or modest. Perhaps that is why I found that white woman who defended Greene’s comment to be absolutely ugly. I couldn’t say anything about her other attributes because I was focused on her unwavering love for Greene. This white woman was obviously ignorant, but knowing nothing, her stupidity was on clear display with how she valued attributes in Greene, even comparing Greene to Jesus.
I find myself asking why so many white people find Donald Trump attractive enough to want him as president. I wonder what attributes he projects that makes them believe he is good for America. It sounds sad, but I surmise that their loyalty to Trump has to do with protecting a false image of themselves. I think that recent human history has convinced many white people that they are better than everyone else and that they should maintain power over the country. As people of color quickly grow in numbers and slowly emerge from the oppression sustained by white violence, they feel threatened. I haven’t forgotten the Charlottesville march.
To their horror, the weight of oppression is lifting and they want to stop it. I suppose that Donald Trump is projecting their own arrogance and hostility back to them. Perhaps they need the boastfulness, the violence, and even the dishonesty to boaster their collective self-esteem. It is no wonder that Matt Gaetz stood up in his rally this past week and promoted the 2nd Amendment as a right to be used, not for hunting, but to take the nation back. From whom? If they can’t sustain white supremacy via lies and voter suppression, then will they once again resort to violence like on January 6th? But will they be heavily armed next time?
When people feel under threat, they are willing to abandon intelligence, honesty, caring and generosity in favor of deception that keeps a comfortable narrative in place. That narrative being white supremacy. And no matter how ugly the messenger is to the rest of us, these white supremacist find that messenger beautiful.