I’m going to go on a less extreme take. They’ve been told from childhood they live in the land of opportunity, yet they work in dead end jobs or working fields.
They see money flying away every paycheck they live week to week on while being pumped propaganda (that people in suburbs and urban areas don’t see) that shows people who look different from them getting gov’t housing and getting programs funded with their tax dollars.
The same party they now demonize supports ridiculous looking gay parades that show a mentality they don’t understand, so they begin to hate. They wake up morning after morning in the same place with no change, and they stew and stew and stew.
So now they basically give up and see a hyper-masculine wannabe saying all the things against those who are different, and the long encrusted anger starts spewing out.
Most of the comments here are ignorant and hate filled against the wrong people. It’s not the MAGA supporters that did this, it’s the system. We need to stop polarizing ourselves with hatred and point the finger at those truly responsible. Not the poor (literallly) voters who are so dejected and living in decay that they just don’t give a rats ass anymore.
The more you hate the other side, the less you see the truth. The goal is to make you hate them. The goal is to make them hate you. You can’t define an entire person in a paragraph.
I think MAGA represents to Republicans what progressives like Bernie and AOC represent to Democrats. Republicans were able to reimagine their party into a form that isn’t just going to follow the status quo that, like you said, has led to a stagnant existence for average Americans over the last 50+ years. And stagnant is probably a nice way of putting it, since buying power has essentially disappeared, on top of wages barely moving.
So Trump comes in, he says drain the swamp, and you hear that to mean the whole machine, everyone who, for the last 50 years (and some folks have been involved in that government for a good chunk of that 50 years, just perpetuating that status quo) has allowed the rich to get richer at the expense of the working middle class.
And so you toss on your blinders. You’re not necessarily a bigot, but you believe social issues are a distraction from actual problems (i.e., ones that affect you directly), and you vote in a way that you hope will better your life. It’s hard to blame someone, especially someone just exhausted from grinding through their shitty life, for thinking about themselves. It’s not the right way to think, but I get it.
And so you toss on your blinders. You’re not necessarily a bigot, but you believe social issues are a distraction from actual problems
Tbf, identity politics are 100% used as a smokescreen
You won’t hear me disagree.
This is pretty much it, in my view.
Americans need to watch the Estonian-Georgian movie Tangerines before demonizing “the other side”. Besides an anti-war movie, it’s also about a movie about how two sworn enemies realize the other is also human.
A good clip to watch if you’re not interested in watching the entire (relatively short) film
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They will 100% sacrifice their own happiness and rights if they know it’s hurting people who live their lives is ways they don’t like.
This isn’t an exaggeration.
They literally want bloodshed and the world to burn
This is conservative vengeance
And everyone is going to suffer from it
I realized this during the 2016 election. People always say they are voting against their own interests, but their only real interest is to spite someone else. Hurting other people is a win, for them.
A MAGA I know told me this is all worth it because he doesn’t want his son to know gay people exist and wants revenge on the people who told him he can’t say “Merry Christmas” anymore…
So straw man arguments and a misunderstanding of sexuality.
Oooh, big words there fella. What are you, educated or something?
It hurts people they think are lesser, such as LGBTQ and people of color. Racism and bigotry are very much alive in the USA. They would eat a shit sandwich if they thought a lib would smell their breath. Hate is all they know.
OP is asking an interesting and important question. While I don’t claim it as definitive, there was an insightful article written in 2016 that attempted to address the question head on: How Half Of America Lost Its F**king Mind
Already some of you have gotten angry, feeling this gut-level revulsion at any attempt to excuse or even understand these people. After all, they’re hardly people, right? Aren’t they just a mass of ignorant, rageful, crude, cursing, spitting subhumans?
It feels good to dismiss people, to mock them, to write them off as deplorables. But you might as well take time to try to understand them, because I’m telling you, they’ll still be around long after Trump is gone.
This is basically Lemmy’s whole MO LMAO 🤣
If it were actually country vs city why donald trump?
Bro did you even read the article
I’m failing to see where it refutes my argument.
Revenge. 🤷♂️
I’ve wondered this exact question. How does any of this evil fascist shit benefit the average Trump voter.
Trade tariffs just make things like durable goods more expensive.
Deporting migrant workers is going to make food more expensive.
Killing all references to Trans people doesn’t do anything but hurt the Trans folks.
Killing all references to climate change is just going to eventually destroy the whole planet (well just our existence on it… the planet will be fine eventually).
Killing the Dept of Education is just going to make us all dumber.
DOGE is just a meme dept whose soul purpose seems to be to let Elon enact his revenge.
RFK2 gets in charge of all the countries medicine and vaccines and bans it all just in time for Pandemic 2, Electric Boogaloo.
So basically things get a lot more expensive, the rich get richer, lots of people die, and the world becomes a generally more shitty place. Yay!!! Let’s Go Brandon!!
It’s not like these people are open to reasoned debate. The only answer is there is something broken inside and fuck if I know what.
I normally do not talk politics with people I know, but this one person said they like trump because: “all I know is when he was president, I did good financially”.
I tried to tell him that the government is slow to enact things so he did good because the previous president. He didnt want to hear that and dismissed it.
If that’s all he knows he doesn’t know very much.
My cousin said the exact same thing.
They don’t know shit, but they still vote with such confidence. It’s maddening.
Like most MAGA.
Check r/conservative and you get a fair idea.
I do. There is no information there i couldn’t find written on a bathroom wall.
That makes sense, it’s probably the same people writing both messages.
if you ask a hundred of them…
you will get a hundred different answers.
they voted because it made them feel good and addressed their anger. not for any rational reasons. it’s why they are so surprised at what is going on.
they had NO IDEA what they were voting for or why they were voting.
True.
One conservative acquaintance voted for trump to bring Jesus to the country and to stop abortion.
Another voted for trump because they worship money and believe that another trump administration will help him get richer.
Are they surprised about what’s happening? I don’t actually think they realize or care at all as long as it’s their boy doing it
“We made people we don’t like fucking miserable for a bit”
Ultimately the kind of person that goes all in on a cult like MAGA could lose everything to shitty policy or because their great leader started a war or smth – But they’ll still reason it was worth it because all those <Slur>s were put in their place.
Remember that they accurately believed the DNC were horrible. They stopped Hillary. They stopped Biden and Harris. Good for them? Kinda, not really though.
… We know Trump is worse. Far worse. But they saw a legitimate threat, a group of people who were not going to make their lives better, and they took some kind of action to stop them.
And then lots of bigotry. Can’t forget that.
MAGA doesn’t know.
They’re fearful, hateful, instinctive idiots who are more afraid of being proven wrong than anything. The definition of ride or die.
I’ve talked to friends that were very excited Trump won. Recently tried having an open conversation with someone that left my community afterwards over the conversations because I didn’t come to his side.
They just believe it’ll be better. What better? They don’t know. They can’t verbalize, because they’re told it’s terrible now and will be better.
They believe Trump isn’t a criminal, didn’t incite violence on Jan 6, the woke people are out to get them, etc. I’ve literally asked people to define “woke” for me when they use it that way. They can’t. They don’t know. They’re not bad people, they’re brainwashed at this point.
I agree. I’ve heard people say that they willingly voted for a criminal rapist huckster and I don’t believe that. They thought he was something different. They are fucking dumb, not evil.
