Dylan Matthews, in a new piece for Vox, is back to rejecting “the idea that [Trump] voters are motivated by economic struggles.” This time around, he has a new argument:

Taking Trump voters’ concerns seriously means listening to what they’re actually saying . . . describing these people as motivated by racial resentment . . . [is] supported by extensive amounts of social scientific research and indeed by the statements of Trump’s supporters themselves.

This, of course, is supposed to cleverly turn on its head the notion that we’re being empathetic when we acknowledge that economic anxiety may play a role in motivating Trump voters. Which might seem like a nuance that avoids completely demonizing them — but in fact, Matthews argues, such explanations are “insulting” because they don’t take “the stated concerns of Trump voters . . . seriously in the slightest.” In fact, if we take Trump voters seriously, we should dismiss these personal theories of motivation and take them at their word when they say they’re motivated by racism.