Political violence as a power fantasy does ring true to me. This entire thread has been a mix of "but there's nothing we can do", which seems pretty obviously less true than the average American seems to think, and "violent revolt would be needed", also probably not true.

There seem to be two intertwined fantasies: powerlessness as a balm for maybe a bit of class guilt, and a power fantasy of becoming a radical revolutionary once shit hits the fan. "Yeah, I could do something now, but it's futile, so I better carry on. But just you wait because when the revolution comes I'm so there", and so on.

That I can wrap my head around and seems to fit best with the stuff above. I mean, it's a pretty universal feeling, I think, it's not US-exclusive, but you guys are really good at it, and it compounds with a bunch of other things that got mentioned in this thread, too.