There is no more consensus about anything between MAGA people than there is among the left. People are individuals and they have different values. Voting for a party/candidate doesn’t mean they agree on everything. There’s likely greater differences in views and values within the groups than between them.
This is very true.
Here in Missouri, for instance, voters went red but also passed a $15 minimum wage, required paid sick leave, and voted down an abortion ban. It’s ironic, considering Democrats always insist that if they just get more
conservativecentrist they’ll win elections.the left
Quick reminder: America has no left. The Dems are centre-right vs GoP far-right (and counting).
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.
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
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.
Reactionary ideology is all about protecting privilege by demonizing marginalized people. They believe in zero-sum rights and privileges: in their view, expansion of rights for another group inherently means a loss of rights for them.
Bingo. Conservatives believe that if someone outside their group is given anything, they lost that thing.
It’s stupid simple, zero-sum game theory is the only thing they believe in.
Lemmy: “It’s RACISM!”
No, it’s far simpler than that.
It’s also racism.
Not a loss of rights, a loss of advantages. They want to keep them.
“Look in his eyes, it’s all lies. The stars after v be stripes have been swiped, washed out and wiped and replaced with his own face”
It was written about W but I think it applies again
From the replies, it seems that we’re all having a hard time pinning it down exactly.
They get to be part of a cult of hate?
Some believe that we are reclaiming American greayness. That the tariffs are just china writing a big check to the usa. That majes feel like we are finally fighting back.
You have other that just feel good that dei, woke, sjw, litard, liberal, etc etc policy are goibg away. So society cab finally put good compient people in jobs and not be held vack by forced racial quotas.
You have other that love tge nazi salute stuff and really feel lije the government is finally working for them.
You have many who just feel good its not a democrat in office
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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.
They think all of the gov’ment was corrupt and bad, so they’re cheering for the destruction of all gov’ment.
The way it is playing out in my family has led me to have to totally reevaluate my perception of my own father.
He is a generally kind man. He stayed with my mom for two decades as she declined with Parkinson’s. He took good care of her when so many people might have ghosted.
But based on his inability to see the danger here to things he himself values, I can no longer think of him as a good man. He has always valued knowledge and reason yet he swallowed the cat-eating crap out of Ohio in spite of the clear bullshit of it.
He is Mormon and very faithful. So I don’t know what he gets out of this all, except that it has required me to grieve him before his passing.
He is not actually a good person I am afraid, but he is very obedient. Learning that distinction is very painful. He does not possess the moral clarity to know the difference between what is legal/popular and what is right.
I always idolized my dad as a child because he was in so many ways a good father. We will probably never speak again.
I shared with my mother, only yesterday, that I consider her somewhat of a bad person for voting for orange for a second term. I said that she could be forgiven for not perceiving what he is the first time (though it was obvious to anyone with limited understanding of the world), but after seeing him in action and voting for him again, she should be ashamed of herself. I don’t expect the relationship to ever fully recover, as I will not forgive her for endangering my loved ones and all of us collectively.
“ He is not actually a good person I am afraid, but he is very obedient.”
Sadly this is the legacy of the LDS faith.
Don’t forget the cliqueiness. I’ve been the victim of the mormon cliques more than once.
The first LDS family I knew were all rabid aggressive assholes. It’s funny that in hindsight these might be the most real and honest LDS followers I have met.
You guys should watch Heretic.
Which one? I see three in the last 12 years. I’m guessing it’s the 2024 one?
Yeah that’s the new one. Hugh Grant’s best performance.
It can hard to see good people do bad things. To learn all that love came with limits
Sorry for your loss.
Religion sucks so much, especially the more dogmatic ones. Mormonism is gross.
One insight I would offer is that categorising people as “good” or “not good” may not be helpful. I suspect that your dad probably invests a lot of effort in being a good man, he’s just unable to acknowledge that his perspective has been corrupted.
We judge ourselves by our intentions but others by their actions.
It’s not wrong to never speak to him again, but maybe this will make the mourning easier.
Thank you.
Yes, I agree black and white categories aren’t the ideal way to describe people.
But there comes a time when nuance is used against the compassionate to normalize reprehensible actions. We are in that time now.
It is for these reasons that I cannot stand listening to NPR anymore. The ineffectual hand wringing and disingenuous ’liberal self-reflection’ is tiresome and we are well past the time for thoughtful think-pieces.
I’m very grateful that my parents have never lived in the Utah bubble; they saw right through Trump in 2016, and, for the first time in their lives, voted for someone other than a Republican.
Keep in mind that Benson was hard right; he would have thought that John Birchers were leftists. He and his faction may not have led the church for very long, but they had a profound influence on it.
They get to say the n word with confidence, in certain situations, far from large groups of POC’s, at their dive bars… surrounded by their christo fascist friends… where was I going with this?
I personally think it’s like a short circuit in the brain’s reward circuit or something. If you can convince people that what they are doing is achieving a greater good, they will do an endless amount of evil in order to achieve it.
Those that wake up from this delusion often end up being horrified at their own actions.
It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway:
If you are anticipating being enriched by the suffering of others, you are not in the right.
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.
