The impact is their politics reinforces the power of the alt right globally

(Daniel, Political thought AND Psychology, Psych@Duquesne, Critical Theory and Psychoanalysis: From the Frankfurt School to Contemporary Critique ed. Mills and Burston)

Finally, Dr. Moss’s contention that Parasitic Whiteness is almost impossible to ​“​treat​”​ evinces a very pessimistic attitude toward the future of race relations and a kind of moral masochism that prompts people to wallow in endless self-recriminations while harboring the delusion that this attitude constitutes evidence that they are morally superior to other white-skinned people who don’t share their perspective. Though it may not be apparent at first, moral masochism of this complexion is really a gift to the radical Right and to right-wing pundits, politicians, and ​“​influencers​”​ all around the world. Dr. Moss concludes his essay with the following reflections. He writes, To turn Whiteness into an object for thought one must first look for a point of stillness. This point actually does not exist. After all, Whiteness, in its mature form, generates a volatile totality from which there is no clear exit, no clear escape. To pursue that exit, to hope for even temporary escape … depends, I think, on a kind of conceptual mobility, a willingness to use metaphors and similes for only as long as they serve, and then to move on. For me, here, the most important of those metaphors have been ​“​parasite,​”​ ​“​mapping,​”​ and ​“​verticality.​”​ Each seemed to me both stable and elastic, capable of simultaneously supporting thought and providing a jumping-off point whenever that support felt exhausted. And, of course, psychoanalysis provides something other than similes and metaphors. It provides a reliable theoretical/technical structure, one we can count on, one that, in spite of its limitations, will hold up – has held up – as we all try to achieve the requisite conceptual, emotional, and personal nimbleness to grapple with the Whiteness that, whoever we are, infiltrates our interior and exterior surround. (p. 370) Moss encourages readers ​“​to use metaphors and similes for only as long as they serve, and move on.​”​ That tacit implication of this methodological maxim is that when your preferred metaphors are no longer serviceable, you may adopt another one, or perhaps jump back and forth among your chosen metaphors to make your case. He never acknowledges the fact that metaphors and similes do not always illuminate. They can also seduce, mislead, and obfuscate. And though he does not say so in so many words, of course, one can’t escape the impression that this nimble rhetorical strategy of juggling metaphors spares him the requirement of providing solid, tangible evidence for his claims. (Is it merely my imagination, or is this odd behavior for a psychoanalyst?)