The ‘Burn It All Down’ Argument For Tariffs

President Trump announced “Liberation Day” last week, proclaiming reciprocal tariffs on much of the world. This policy shocked the stock market and left many Americans jittery over what might happen to their 401ks. This was no surprise. If you want to do any kind of radical change, the market is not going to respond well. It’s the cost of Trump doing something different. The administration claims this will be short-term pain that leads to long-term gains.

There are persuasive arguments to make Americans accept the pain. The admin can argue the measures are needed to curtail the freeloading and exploitation of American generosity by foreign countries and the tariffs will end once the targeted nations drop their own. They act as a tough negotiating tactic and will do minimal damage to the economy. The tariffs can also be defended as a kind of “controlled fire” to deal with an overheated market and correct domestic economic woes.

But the Online Right has chosen a more nihilistic line that only satisfies their own misanthropy. “Burn it all to the ground” is now a popular refrain on X, with users claiming the Trump base is all young men with no stake in the system. GDP, 401ks, and the stock market are all fake. We need to tank all of these things so our base can finally earn enough to support a family and buy a home. How a stock market collapse will help struggling people earn wealth is not explained. Apparently everyone will get a high-paying job if we simply eliminate the stock market. Many popular influencers, whose income is derived from fake algorithms and hocking dubious supplements, insist that the stock market decline means nothing because it’s all just imaginary numbers. What’s real is AI slop and brain-dead conspiracy theories.

We need to remember who Trump supporters actually are. They’re mostly middle-class, mostly older, and mostly white. They’re stable family men with something to lose. They are not all angry young men (or middle-aged men pretending to be young men). Even the young men we reach are ones with more stability than many of their peers. The “nothing to lose” demographic primarily leans Left. The underclass is a loyal Democratic constituency. Antifa could rely on people to start fights and riot because they knew drug-addicts and other losers would be up for their activities. The Right doesn’t have many of these types. They have jobs, mortgages, and, yes, 401ks.

It has to be remembered which groups own stocks. At least 61 percent of whites own stocks. Meanwhile, only 34 percent of Blacks and 24 percent of Hispanics own stocks.

If the Online Right thinks its base is black Americans, it would be true that “our people” have no stake in the economy. Obviously, blacks are not our base.

The “burn it all down” thinking illustrates a common problem on the Right. As I wrote last week, the New Right bases too much of its economic thinking on an imaginary constituency of out-of-work, working class folks who dream of nothing more than working in a nail factory. With the “destroy the stock market” line, the imaginary constituency is transformed into a revolutionary class of angry young men who are ready to tear down the system that they have no stake in. Many online posters are angry young men with legitimate grievances against the system, so this is less imaginary than the blue-collar whites hiding in a ravine until factories start reappearing. But it is not Trump’s core base; it’s only a fraction of his supporters. It’s also not really a revolutionary class as they aren’t out in the streets or anything. They are passively awaiting for some big thing to happen that will solve all their problems.

Other bad arguments follow the “burn everything to the ground” line. Some right-wing influencers are lecturing their audiences that they can make do without a bevy of consumer goods. The Quartering offered this advice:

You do NOT need the new iPad

You do NOT need the new Cell Phone

You do NOT need the new video game console

You WANT them

There is a big difference and if you look at the people whining about the tariffs I challenge you to ask them how their lives have been affected in any way

While this may make sound advice on an individual level, a drastic cut to consumer spending is not good for the economy. It also means we aren’t going to make much revenue off tariffs. If people aren’t buying the things they “do not need,” they’re not going to purchase the products we just slapped tariffs on.

Other bad arguments include gloating over impoverishing white-collar workers and sending them to labor in mines.

This messaging is not appealing to the average person. It resembles “you will own nothing and be happy,” which the Right previously condemned as the globalists’ nefarious plans. Now it’s the selling point for economic nationalism…

The media claims the tariffs will collapse the economy, dramatically increase prices on consumer goods, and force many Americans into unemployment. Much of the Online Right agrees, but thinks all of this is AWESOME.

We could dismiss these takes as the ramblings of irrelevant malcontents, but that would fail to understand the modern Right. Conservatives are now extremely online and influenced by what’s popular X. The “burn it down” takes rack up thousands of likes and reposts. Influential commentators share them. The White House and Trump-friendly lawmakers see this and interpret these takes as the voice of the base. They may end up repeating them, as often is the case when things that become popular on RW Twitter. That would be a disaster. It would tell America our policies are designed to screw them over and please a small minority of extremely online misanthropes. It would undermine support for tariffs and hamper the president’s agenda.

Thankfully, the White House is pursuing a smarter line on the tariffs. The talking points sent out to Republican lawmakers emphasize that the tariffs are designed to correct “unfair trade practices” that hurt hardworking Americans. There is no mention of destroying the stock market. It’s an appeal that can win over Americans and convince them to bear the short-term burden. They will come out fine in the end with these tough negotiations.

Meme thinking can make one go viral on X, but it can sound insane to Offline Americans. What’s popular on social media can be very unpopular with actual people. Sometimes one needs to touch grass and realize 401ks are realer than the bots promoting “the stock market is fake” takes.