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I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I think it's just beyond incredible that conservatives think Trump sounds intelligent
He's a stupid person's idea of a smart person, a poor person's idea of a rich person, and a trashy person's idea of a classy person. Can't remember where I heard that, but it seems very true.
I remember hearing that when he was prez, and it really does ring true.
Guess there's a nontrivial amount of cognitive dissonance there too, and more than a dash of "I don't care what the truth is, this is Our Guy and I'll sing his praises"
It's politics as a sport: My team is the best and your team sucks and we'll beat you in the final!
But more than that, the biggest issue is the FEELING of disenfranchisement. People that FEEL mishandled or mistreated look up to a guy that holds power and seems to wield it in favor of their group. And they'll side with that guy come hell or high water, because at least it gives them a FEELING of hope and control.
Notice I'm underscoring the FEELING aspect of it, because it doesn't matter if these people are correct about who they perceive as their enemies and their allies. Republicans will vote for GOP candidates that actively and demonstrably oppose their interests, as long as the Republican propaganda machine has convinced them that those people are on their side, and the other political party is the bad guys. Facts and the truth have no room in it.
An important saying: You can't reason a person out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.
Within 24 hours of Kamala Harris announcing her candidacy, PBS did a panel with MAGA women asking them what they thought about Harris. Like clockwork, these airheads repeated every bad-faith Fox "News" propaganda talking point and nothing else. Fox told them Harris is a bad candidate for A, B and C reasons, and they embraced their team's views immediately with zero effort to look for evidence, facts or diverse views. If you ask them what's up with politics, they'll repeat like good zealots: Harris is bad because of A, B and C, and we have to vote for the GOP to stop Harris.
If we want to save these people from themselves, we need to address their unsubstantiated feelings, their low information on the issues that should matter to them, and their steady diet of malicious propaganda telling them to act against their own interests. Until then, they'll keep doing politics as a sport, and Trump is their local team.
their low information on the issues that should matter to them
While I do agree with you in general, I don't think lack of information is much of a factor. Anybody with an internet connection has access to a fucking fantastic amount of information, but here we are – I think the problem's everywhere else than lack of access
I meant the information that they hold. If they only listen to propaganda outlets, what they actually "know" is very low information in terms of what's true and correct, and instead they fill their heads with nonsense, hate and BS talking points.
One way to fight that is to give them real information, but that's hard to do. There's a reason their propaganda outlets have them convinced that experts and real journalists are "fake news," because that way they can only get their diet of information directly from the right-wing bad-faith actors selling them the bullshit.
To them, it doesn't matter that the internet is a click away, full of real news sources and real experts discussing the issues. They will never deliberately go read those sources, and if they ever run into any of that by accident, they'll label it fake news and move right on.
In essence, the MAGAs are intellectually captive in the nefarious web of malicious right-wing propaganda, and have no means to break free on their own. In their world, Biden eats babies, the Democrats are trying to legalize 4th trimester abortions, Hillary Clinton abuses minors and Trump is the hero trying to stop it, and so on. They know almost nothing about facts and the real issues, and instead their brains are occupied with conspiracy theories, BS and hate.
One way to fight that is to give them real information, but that's hard to do.
Exactly! This is why I think it's not lack of information that's the problem – if accurate information itself was enough, it wouldn't be as hard as it is to inform conservatives