Trumpism inverted liberal aversion to cruelty into a celebrated virtue

Evidence

Twentieth-century philosopher Judith Shklar defined liberals as those who see cruelty as the ultimate evil. Therefore, Trumpism embraced cruelty as a virtue—delighting in the humiliation and despair of its perceived enemies. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 436

Trump’s uninhibited stream of un-PC statements was often celebrated on the right as long-overdue resistance to the so-called tyranny of liberal thought-policing. But such statements also intended to inflict maximum psychological damage on educated elites. Twentieth-century philosopher Judith Shklar defined liberals as those who see cruelty as the ultimate evil. Therefore, Trumpism embraced cruelty as a virtue—delighting in the humiliation and despair of its perceived enemies. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 436

Categorization

• XREF: Shklar’s liberalism-of-fear contrast with cruelty-as-virtue connects to moral-foundations literature the reader may know. — connects to: Liberal rhetoric has inverted Kennedy’s dreaming from a virtue into a shame — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1547
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 436