Poverty is fueling Trumpism — and there’s a sinister reason why

Before he died on Sept. 4 at the age of 99, psychologist Robert Jay Lifton left us with stark warnings about President Donald Trump and the American right. One of the country’s leading experts on how societies succumb to authoritarianism and collective cruelty, Lifton’s theory of “totalism” — an extreme, absolute devotion to a particular group or ideology — is essential for making sense of our present moment.

Writing about Lifton’s passing, New York Times columnist M. Gessen noted his observation that totalism “propels participants toward acting in the name of their ideology.” Lifton saw Trumpism, Gessen wrote, as “a totalist movement that promised to envelop its participants in a secure, closed universe of lies.”

But the psychologist knew that totalism encompasses more than authoritaria