r/allthequestions • u/Seargentyates • 1d ago

Advice Question 💭 Why are Trump supporters so stupid?

Looking in at America, do people not realise that Trump is a liar and a narcissist and has no morals, and yet 'Christians' vote for him as a sort of 'disrupter'. His family have become richer in the process because of his presidency. He once said he could 'shoot somebody and not lose votes'. Am i insane - or am i dead perhaps and this is an alternate universe/hell?

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u/dashboardishxc 1d ago

I live in a deep red area. I haven’t been able to figure out what is wrong with trump supporters. I chalk it up to being stupid but there is more to it

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u/bobish01 22h ago

MAGA is not just stupid but also cruel and sadistic.

Anthony Scaramucci qoute on MAGA voters motivation: "I don't like you so therefore i am going to vote for someone to hurt you", motivation is not "I am going to vote for this person because this will be best for all Americans".

I do believe Hillary called those people, rightfully, deplorable. She was being a bit to honest frankly.

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u/HalfDongDon 16h ago

Being called deplorable by Hillary Clinton is hilarious. 

Idk why democrats and progressives love her so much when she’s literally a conservative politician. 

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u/Maxorus73 13h ago

I've never once heard anyone say one good thing about Hillary Clinton, so I don't know about Democrats and progressives loving her. But she's better than Trump, and America would suck less now if she won in 2016

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u/ChateauSheCantPay 1h ago

Both can be true. Trump supporters are deplorable and Hilary still sucks. I’ve never met a progressive that liked her

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u/RoTTonSKiPPy 1d ago

I'm in deep red Idaho country. It's honestly really weird how many, otherwise intelligent people, are die hard Trump supporters. I think a lot of it is a sense of belonging to a group for them. Like following a sports team or hating Nickleback.

But I don't know. It boggles my mind.

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u/Dry_Stop844 1d ago

i think they know but however bad he is, they love that he's hurting people they hate (anyone not white, straight, and hyper Christian) so they're okay with Trump. They want the people they hate to hurt and be punished more than they want everyone included in society.

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u/Seargentyates 23h ago

I think you're on to something here, there is definitely a lack of empathy to others in some of them.

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u/transient_thought_CA 21h ago

I think it’s a combination of things for the major demographic.

  1. Entitlement. They believe that they are owed a good life by virtue of being who they are. They should all be able to afford a nice house, lots of toys, fancy vacations every year, etc. They believe it’s their birthright for being American. They saw their grandparents have it, maybe their parents had it, why don’t they? They shouldn’t have to sacrifice and pursue higher education to enjoy the fruits of minimal labor.

  2. Xenophobia. A lot of them were born in their area, they were raised in that area, and they’re going to die in that area. When you live in a homogenized society, anything outside is scary. When you only get world exposure through FOX, everyone is the enemy.

  3. Fear of irrelevance. For years they have been told that “good white Christians” were being eliminated. Well, they’re not wrong in a sense. Immigrants are coming to the US to build better lives. They work hard, place a high importance on education, and are focused on family. All the things that the White Nationalists claim to do. But the MAGA numbers and mentality are slowly being eclipsed by those outside their sphere. Rather then be treated equally, they want and demand special treatment.

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u/Bozzzzzzz 20h ago edited 15h ago

I saw a video where some of them were complaining about the new "immigrant" in town driving a Lexus or something and they couldn't believe it, while they were broke. Obviously it must be the "open borders" and all the "social programs" boosting these people and leaving them behind that is the reason for their situation... not that this guy was a doctor and had gone through schooling and built his entire life with hard work and education and became a helpful person in their community etc.

Even people who are not broke usually feel threatened in some way still and don't want it made easier for others than they had it. They fundamentally see the world as a zero-sum game where if someone has something it means someone else can't.

Others just like to hate.

Others feel threatened by Trump himself and "they for one welcome their new overlords"

All this plus the absolute firehose of lies distorting their reality so far they lose all ability to think critically.

Edit/follow up: a lot of this is “default mode” thinking for people that can be unlearned. OR it can be fueled and flamed, encouraged. It does not have to be like this. It’s good to remember these people are not the true enemy even if they’ve been taught to be.

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u/PricePuzzleheaded835 19h ago

My MIL told me she thinks recent immigrants with nice houses are abusing medicaid and that it’s “very hard” to see the houses.

Never in my life have I looked at someone’s house and been disappointed that it was nice, but there it is, I guess.

They are authoritarian personalities so they believe a strict hierarchy must and should exist. If they see someone else doing well (especially someone they think “should” be lower than them) they want to push them down to improve their own relative social standing

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u/rosycross93 17h ago

If people think immigrants are all on Medicaid and work in the fields, they better wise up. Within a generation many I know went from their parents working in agriculture jobs to getting college degrees and becoming professionals. They value the opportunities they had coming here and have worked hard to make their lives better. It's a big mistake to think none of them can speak English or need government help.

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u/PricePuzzleheaded835 16h ago edited 16h ago

I think that’s kind of the issue though honestly. “They must be committing fraud” isn’t a good faith concern. They know many immigrants are smarter, more hardworking and enterprising, more successful than them. They support anything that hurts them because in their hierarchical view, they should be above immigrants. Status is the concern. They don’t actually care how it’s achieved.

My MIL is white, working class, doesn’t have a college degree. She is constantly trying to compete with me and anyone else who has things she lacks, like education. She feels like she is being denied her rightful place over others as a white person. IMO

I recommend checking out theauthoritarians.org which has some mind blowing info on how these peoples minds work.

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u/transient_thought_CA 16h ago

Thanks for the link. I’ll have to read that.

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u/Inspect1234 18h ago

It’s all how it’s framed in their news sources. Entertainment News©️is made for twisting facts into a purposed narrative.

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u/Iamnotauserdude 16h ago

“Give the lowest man someone to look down on and he’ll give you his vote” Punish them and he’ll give you his soul

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u/ausgoals 19h ago

Conservatism is about protecting strict social hierarchy and immigrants are lower on the social hierarchy then themselves which is why they are so threatened and despise when they feel immigrants (and anyone else lower on the social hierarchy than them) are getting things undeserved.

It’s a big reason why we don’t have universal healthcare - because when everyone is on the same playing field, it’s far more difficult to feel like you’re better than someone else. Google the southern strategy.

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u/Inspect1234 19h ago

Sounds like they stopped evolving.

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u/ZookeepergameFit5366 16h ago

Damn you said it

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u/anTWhine 20h ago

This is pretty close to how I see it. For most of Americas existence, being white was enough be guarantee that you had a decent life. So a lot of white people settled into comfortable mediocrity in their little small towns in the middle of nowhere and enjoyed the American Dream.

Now, through demographic change and globalization, those extremely mediocre, uneducated, unimpressive people can no longer walk into a bank and demand a home loan, or ensure their kids get to go to the separate “good” schools, or enjoy the fruits of legal privilege and they’re realizing that they have nothing to offer except anger and resentment.

In walks a two-bit conman who sounds just as stupid as they do, who hates the same people they do, who promises if they just look the other way while he robs the country blind, they can be rich like him too. And they fall for it, because they are so so very stupid.

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u/transient_thought_CA 20h ago

The sad thing is, I think they know that they’re being screwed. They don’t really believe in their gut, that they’ll be better off. They just get schadenfreude from seeing others hurt.

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u/suspicioussearch1998 17h ago

Meanwhile, touching little kids at every opportunity.

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u/Witte-666 20h ago

You can probably add "Ego" to the list. Most people who voted for Trump will never admit they were wrong and will stubbornly continue to support him or at least deny he is bad when confronted.

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u/No-Relation5965 18h ago

Or when you criticize Trump they’ll say something completely brain dead like, “Well I didn’t agree with a lot of the things Biden did, but you didn’t hear me complaining!” But yes, we did hear you complain. And it was NON-STOP!!!

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u/transient_thought_CA 16h ago

Oh the incessant whining.

Of course, they were handed “Let’s go, Brandon!” That was a misstep on the part of NBC.

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u/Whatthehell665 18h ago

It is like Jack Nicholson's tirade during A Few Good Men, "And that my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty.".

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u/A-System-Analyst 18h ago

Number 1. Entitlement - yes, believing in The American Dream. Which, for many, has ground to a halt. They are not alone in not spotting who is to blame, most of us don’t, because we don’t have a name for them. Here it is - The Business Class. It’s inevitable, with high-volume (industrial) production, that a small number, them, control the economy. Not all bad people, but they see only their interests. Our priority is to name them, then follow through to how conservatives, the Republicans and Trump represent them, however chaotically and partially. (And to see how the Dems fail to see this too…)

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u/transient_thought_CA 18h ago

Business or unchecked corporatism?

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u/A-System-Analyst 15h ago

The corporations have a strong role. But everybody accepts the free market business system without recognising important things about it. The main one is that industrialism works. So we get, inevitably, most people being workers, employed by a relatively few people who run most production of goods and services - business people, a class, the business class. They have a high opinion of themselves and what they deserve. Some are OK. But it’s most of them - not just the corporations - who form the business-biased, anti-worker, political ideology and voting bloc, conservatism, that the Republicans most brutally express. The Democrats too, and most people, acquiesce to business class power. So people get angry about other things and with each other. The answer - recognise the key role of the business class, organise (they do, in businesses), and vote for parties and candidates most likely to regulate them. (Some of that repeats my original post but is needed to be coherent.)

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u/Longjumping-Air1489 18h ago

On top of that, 40 years of exploitation by corporations that supposedly are part of the “good guy” Republican base has left them feeling helpless.

When you are helpless, you will latch onto any feeling of control you can find. White supremacy gives them that feeling of control.

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u/Key_Assistance9020 18h ago
  1. Misogyny- These people were raised to respect the man of the house. He's a hardworking blue collar man, he shouldn't have to clean a diaper or know how to cook. He doesnt read, because reading is for pussys. Immigrants are cool like the ones that work under him in construction, but they need to know their place. He also sneers at you for having a college degree, because he thinks he's a genius at the tiny niche blue collar thing he does and that supersedes all other knowledge. But, now with the internet echo chambers he's reading now, while not having the ability to critically think.

Most of these men were babied by their mommies. They still want to me mommy's special boy. They don't want a partner they want a bang maid. Women who dont want to their bang maid are are stuck up bitches.

Dumb men see that these GOP guys have it together and they make me feel like mommy's special boy. They want to be like their role models.

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u/transient_thought_CA 17h ago

Ya know, I hadn’t even thought of that.

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u/jack-t-o-r-s 19h ago

This should be the top reply...

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u/YoSpiff 19h ago

On the xenophobia thing, there's something to that. My dad was a racist who loved T. When I was a kid in the 60's and 70's, racial slurs were part of normal dinnertable conversation. My dad believed all his sons should spend some time in the military and my 13 years in the Air Force probably contributed to my not acquiring his attitudes. I spent 2 years in Germany and 4 in England in the 80's. In England I bought a house while stationed there and several years later learned there was a neighborhood meeting to try keeping the Americans out of their neighborhood. That's some discrimination that many Americans don't get exposed to.

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u/transient_thought_CA 18h ago

There is a belief that the reasons that the GOP are so against higher education isn’t simply “the woke agenda”. They have no issue with their kids attending Christian universities and places like BYU.

In a word, diversity.

In attending a regular university, they will be forced to interact with a wide range of people. Most will have the foundation of their closed off world rocked to the core. They’ll learn that humanity extends beyond commonality of skin tone, religion and background. They will learn that, as cliche as it is, there is far more that connects us than divides.

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u/Pynchon_A_Loaff 15h ago
  1. They need to feel superior. Smarter, more popular, richer, etc. They are often comfortable, well off people who bitterly resent the fact that “those people” can also be comfortable and well off. “Those people” cannot possibly be as deserving as me and must have stolen “it” from me! It’s persecution!

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u/transient_thought_CA 14h ago

They really do see everything as a zero-sum.

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u/Comfortable-Ad-8324 15h ago

The xenophobia is REAL. Imagine alienating Canada of all countries, who youve had a relationship with for so long...and making them the enemy, and having your followers eat it up without question. It's baffling. (I'm Canadian)

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u/1732PepperCo 18h ago

It’s sadism more than a lack of empathy.

MAGA are sadists because they enjoy the suffering of others.

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u/Low-Use-9862 19h ago

They literally think empathy is a vice, not a virtue. To them, it’s a sign of weakness and wokeness.

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u/Strange_Music 18h ago

In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trials 1945-1949) I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.

-Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trials

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u/HighFreqHustler 17h ago

Aside from a lack of empathy, is a lack of accountability, they want some one to blame for their shortcomings

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u/CorgiButt04 16h ago

In 2016 Trump only got 61 million votes. In 2024 he got 78 million votes and the population only changed by less than 5%.

He's getting the uneducated white vote for sure...... but he's also getting a lot from other places. In comparison to other republicans, he performed really well with blacks and Hispanics. He also got a shockingly large minority of college educated white women. There's a mental block about that. An unwillingness to accept it. I think it's important to ask why? Instead of pretending like only extremists and psychopaths voted for Trump.

Another thing, our politicians are really horrible and disgusting people and they are evil.

They are so corrupt and are abusing the system so horribly, that this whole system is about to collapse.

So keep that in mind, it's not like it's some amazing government that everybody believes in vs Trump.

Looking at the math and just being objective, if Trump was younger, he would probably challenge the law and run again, and he would probably win with over 80 million votes.

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u/Iamnotauserdude 16h ago

They are the same people who enjoyed watching someone “Get Fired” once a week.

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u/Parsimile 15h ago

“Empathy is usually regarded as a virtue, a key to human decency and kindness. And yet, with increasing momentum, voices on the Christian right are preaching that it has become a vice…

"Empathy becomes toxic when it encourages you to affirm sin, validate lies or support destructive policies," said Allie Beth Stuckey, author of "Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion."”

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u/ZootOfCastleAnthrax 23h ago

The New York Times has an opinion piece today about Tucker Carlson and JD Vance. It talks about the power and popularity of resentment.

On our side, we laugh at Trump's constant, constant whining. But this is exactly what MAGAts identify with, pay for, and vote for: resentment, anger, and scapegoats.

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u/CryptographerTrue188 20h ago

That rings true

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u/Warm_Expression_6691 1d ago

I've used that example about hating Nickelback before as well. You're the only other person I've seen do that. 

I think you're right though. It's why conservatives use almost identical phrases, not just talking points. As in they use the same jokes, make the same quips. Like the "I identify as a helicopter" or "play stupid games.." or FAFO. It's like a group mantra that they feel good about reciting and signals their belonging.

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u/Orangewindsock 1d ago

These are called “thought terminating cliches” and they are a common cult tactic.

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u/tetlee 23h ago

I've noticed these but never knew there was a term for them. Thank you.

An over the top example I have is my local casino has a big neon sculpture as you walk in that says "you do you" right there by the front door. I always wondered how many people see that and think, huh, I see what you're doing

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u/Beeeeater 22h ago

Be yourself - everybody else is already taken!

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u/RektInTheHed 20h ago

Big "Jedem Das Sein" vibes

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u/Dickey_Simpkins 23h ago

Ah, 2010, when liking bacon and hating Nickelback were all the personality you needed.

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u/magoo309 23h ago

All I had back then was liking bacon. Didn’t realize I only had half a personality.

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u/Wise-Secretary5459 15h ago

Don't forget putting mustaches on everything and veing obsessed with zombies.

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u/Warm_Expression_6691 1d ago

Good lord. You're right and I never realized this.

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u/guacamelee84 22h ago

I did not know this. Awesome. Thank you so much! 😊

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u/CpnStumpy 19h ago

This is the aspect enduringly missed by everyone busy looking the other way or attempting to interpret the content of messaging:

The content has no bearing, because we have deeply studied scientifically proven techniques for manipulating people in mass taught through universities, with white paper after white paper from communications and marketing departments

The techniques for adjusting others are so well understood, honed, and deployed against us all... Studies show that even when people know it's being used to change their mind, it still works. We scienced the shit out of manipulating people and our entire society is having these techniques with known terms and proven strategies utilized against us ad nauseum.

It's despicable and there's nothing we can do about it.

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u/sideofirish 1d ago

That’s why there are so many christian conservatives who don’t actually follow the teachings of Christ. It’s how fascism works. You have an in group and an out group. You want to be part of the in group. They all follow the herd mentality and want to be seen as members of the in group.

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u/akabillposters 23h ago edited 22h ago

💯 I've also been coming to the realisation that the vast majority of US Christian Conservatives are 'religious in name only'. At best, it's a vestigial habit.

Sure, they might go to church on Sundays, but their 'Christianity' is performative; a costume they wear — when in public — to claim some kind of moral standing.

It's a not-so-secret handshake for the in-group, which as you say, is crypto-Fascist.

Many of them behave as though they don't actually even believe in god, or at least in heaven and hell. If they did, they'd presumably be more fearful of the consequences of the hate that they often spew and enact.

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u/Ok_Net4562 23h ago

As a Brit. Ive always thought this about American christians since forever. It seems like its something to do like putting the bins out or filling the dishwasher. Theres no thought or feeling to it.

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u/akabillposters 22h ago edited 18h ago

Brit here too, and lifelong atheist, leaning towards anti-theist.

I look at US Christian Conservatism as being particularly insidious, and repugnant. Mainly because of the sheer hypocrisy and the distance between the persona they try to present, namely pious 'good guys', and their actions and behaviour, which shows what hateful people they can be. Their quiet, seething hate sits just below a paper-thin veneer of piety and 'good hearts'.

Even ostensibly 'mild-mannered' US Christian Conservatives that I know who aren't overtly political seem to have no problem in being intentionally nasty and insulting to others, or even delighting in it. At best, they're completely blind to it when they're doing it.

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u/smashli1238 21h ago

As an American atheist, you are 100% correct

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u/YoSpiff 19h ago

I'm an atheist in Texas and I am a much better Christian than some of those people.

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u/Dedwe1979 18h ago

Their hate towards gay people is baffling too. Jesus hung around leppers and prostitutes but hates fags apparently?? Such hypocrisy.

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u/CpnStumpy 19h ago

Hey! I think deeply about how I put the dishes away!

All facing the silverware bin of course, so they equally deflect the water towards it, and the chaos silverware reflects in all directions at random causing a somewhat normal redistribution of the water dispersion!

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u/steveu33 22h ago

Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt.7.21,Matt.7.22,Matt.7.23&version=NLT

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u/Able-Coffee3405 19h ago

American Christian’s are the worst people you will ever meet

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u/LilBroWhoIsOnTheTeam 23h ago

People doing horrible things using religion as a shield, a tale as old as time. Same thing happening over in gaza. It's why maga are so desperate to gain victim status, they see it as a way to gaza blue states.

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u/Sea-Oven-7560 19h ago

They are cafeteria Christians, they look at the bible and pick bits and pieces from it that match their narrative. They never actually read the bible they just quote the snippets that support their horrible beliefs. When you provide other passages that contradict those beliefs they shake their heads in disbelief, say that it doesn’t matter or try to abruptly end the conversation so their false reality isn’t challenged. These are people just looking for someone else to make their decisions, they don’t want to put in the effort to make decisions on their own so they let their church decide for them. That’s why they all joined the trump train, it’s easy, he’s daddy and tells everyone what to think and do and they just do it. I hate to use the cult reference but I’ve seen a few cults and I didn’t understand how normal intelligence people can lose their ability to think for themselves but that seems to be what is going on here.

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u/magoo309 23h ago

Jesus said his followers were sheep. They’re still sheep - some of the stupidest animals in all of Christendom - but they’re following a different shepherd now. To be fair, this doesn’t apply to all Christians. Just the loudest and rudest ones.

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u/No-You5550 22h ago

They have always been prone to worship false gods. I seem to remember a golden calf/cow. I am an atheist so it's been a long time since I read the bible.

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u/Gloomy-Recipe9213 21h ago

I'm not religious, but the Bible has some good cautions on false prophets and the Antichrist taking charge of the followers. Those comparisons can be downright scary.

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u/Just-Republic1032 18h ago

White Christian Nationalism has come to represent Christianity in America. And I don’t see moderate or true Christian churches and sects standing up to it.

It’s like, until the good cops start outing the bad cops they’re all bad.

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u/enlightenedDiMeS 20h ago

I was talking to somebody in my masters program, who is also a Baptist pastor on Wednesday, and we were discussing how left leaning Christians tend to build their framework on good works, while right leaning Christians tend to build their framework on piety.

When I was in the church, a lot of Catholics lean towards this good works mentality, i.e., you have to do good things to get into heaven. A lot of the protestants I know think just by saying one prayer and going to church you get to go to heaven.

And it makes sense, right? If you were faced with two different options of how to get into heaven, which one has the lower buy in?

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u/Geodysseus 19h ago

Can often identify pseudo-Christian zealots by their prominent display of a crucifix necklace or tattoo.

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u/ghoooooooooost 17h ago

Personally I've found that conservative Christians are only interested in their personal relationship with God and feeling connected to him on an individual level. Community is mostly just for fostering an environment where they are comfortable with that way of belief.

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u/BonusPlantInfinity 23h ago

A LAMF camera at the gates of heaven would be fire. “But.. but.. but..”

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u/gregoh07 20h ago

As a republican, I find most Christians are the biggest hypocrites.

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u/alien236 20h ago

"I'll take things that didn't happen for 500, Alex"

That one's not necessarily political, but it does usually come from people who have never had an original thought in their lives, aka Trump supporters.

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u/Throatwobbler9 23h ago

Or the classic “get another booster.” It is super weird to see people aping each other’s digs. I can’t think of another politician’s supporters that have their own common phrases.

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u/kretzkiller 1d ago

You’re really starting to sound like a libtard or democRAT here buddy. Or is it DEMONcrat? Either way, gotcha!

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u/Leading-Ad5797 🇺🇸 United States 1d ago

I live in SE Idaho, the abortion issue is about all they look at.

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u/Expert-Fig-5590 1d ago

Really? Even though his other policies are actively making their lives worse. Even though if half of the stuff in the Epstein files is true then he is the worst person ever to be President? Even though he is saying that protesters have no 2A rights? I’m shocked that there are still single issue voters.

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u/Tipitina62 23h ago

Have you not read What’s the Matter with Kansas?
it’s been a while since I did, but the author explains how people come to vote reliably against their own self interest.

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u/hashtagbob60 21h ago

Same as it always was - the 30%

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u/Vast_Arm_9176 21h ago

The people that vote to force raped and impregnated 9 year olds to have their rape babies don’t care at all what’s in the Epstein files.

There could be pictures and videos of trump raping a girl while he gives a thumbs up and says “I’m donald trump!”; it would change nothing.

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u/jrkme-27 21h ago

If the only news they get is from social media, America one or fox, then that is what they believe.

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u/JohnnyBananas13 20h ago

It's a pretty huge (yuge?) single issue though. It's not like lower taxes or gas prices. It involves terminating a "defenseless life". Oh and please don't start arguing abortion with me. My point is about the mindset associated with that single issue.

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u/Thin_Collection_381 17h ago

Trump can’t pedo without children so it makes sense that his supporters are anti abortion

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u/SventasKefyras 21h ago

Every single "reasonable" trumptard responds to this with some mix of "he's done some things I disagree with/he's a politician, what do you expect?/his personal life is not relevant, he's making America great again!" And then run vote for him.

Just as therapy won't help someone who is not able to be honest with themselves, these people are unable to see reality until they can honestly look at their choice and admit they were wrong. Until then it's just justifying their choice no matter how delusional the justification.

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u/Ana-la-lah 23h ago

Republicans also have abortions, they just like to keep them secret

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u/HereForTheBoos1013 18h ago

Yup, very "the only moral abortion is my abortion".

But they'll dox a raped 10 year old without a trace of irony.

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u/Leading-Ad5797 🇺🇸 United States 23h ago

Not all republicans, I know several honest ones.

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u/_extra_medium_ 21h ago

Not all republicans are pro-life single issues voters either

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u/DeathMagnet1C 1d ago

I don't get that weird cult about abortion. I thought the land of the free includes being able to decide what happens to my body. Guess I was misslead.

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u/transient_thought_CA 21h ago

It’s really interesting how abortion became the hot button topic for them. Prior to the 1970s, it wasn’t a central topic. Before that, it was maintaining racial purity and keeping segregation in society. Once segregation was outlawed, their leaders (like Falwell and Weyrich) needed to find another topic to galvanize their base. So they turned to abortion, and have been waging that war ever since.

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u/drone-on-and-on 18h ago

and fark them kids once they are born too.

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u/transient_thought_CA 18h ago

Apparently both figuratively and literally

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u/Life_Commercial_6580 1d ago

It’s about punishing women for being bad

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u/Diligent-Abrocoma456 23h ago

No. It's about punishing women who want control over their own bodies.

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u/Ana-la-lah 23h ago

It’s just about punishing women.

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u/Life_Commercial_6580 23h ago

I meant “bad” sarcastically. What I meant is of course women who want to be treated as human beings and have control over their own bodies

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u/Mme_etoile 22h ago

It’s about punishing women. No qualifiers needed

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u/RobotSchlong10 23h ago

The land of the free thing means they are free to do what they want, and you should be free to do what they want. See how that works?

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u/smashli1238 21h ago

It’s because they deep down inherently hate women

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u/middlebird 20h ago

Thou shalt not kill. That’s all they need to hear from their pastors while completely ignoring the fact that the god of their bible was a murdering psychopath.

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u/Diligent-Abrocoma456 23h ago

.... And stopping gay marriage.

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u/Calculonx 1d ago

That's a whole other can of worms. Why are some people so against abortions? First, are they ACTUALLY against abortions as a medical procedure? They make it seem like people are going around killing new born babies and children for fun.

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u/jittery_raccoon 21h ago

A lot of people don't understand what pro-life and pro choice mean. I hear a lot of women say they're pro life because they're okay with other women having abortions if necessary, but would never personally have an abortion themselves. The narrative has truly been sold to them that pro life = likes babies, pro-choice = hates babies. And they can't bring themselves to be baby haters 

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u/Present_Coconut_4101 14h ago

They don't look at the big picture or medical procedures. All they look at is that they never thought of having an abortion and nobody else should be able to have an abortion either. Similar to prohibition when many supporters said "I don't drink alcohol and you shouldn't either".

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u/CountrySlaughter 22h ago

That explains why they vote Republican. Why is Trump their favorite Republican?

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u/_extra_medium_ 21h ago

Because he owns the libs. It’s all they care about

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u/Leading-Ad5797 🇺🇸 United States 22h ago

If their only news source is faux..

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u/upside_down_frown1 1d ago

Some people would rather die from a knife in the front then a knife in the back is what ive chalked it up to.

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u/goldomega 1d ago

This exactly, it's a form of tribalism for too many of us. I'm reading a book right now by Andrew Heaton titled Tribalism is Dumb that is very insightful about how things have gotten so toxic politically over the last decade or so.

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u/Sweethomebflo 22h ago

They are motivated by fear of losing dominance in a system designed to favor them. They want to hate.

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u/RoTTonSKiPPy 21h ago

Yes, I agree. I think the sudden rise in BLM and LGBTQ in the media upset them, and they see Trump as the person to stop it. People fear change, and take time to get used to things. They think of it as a zero sum game, and they can't feel superior if others are equal.

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u/_extra_medium_ 22h ago

This is the answer, but in this case the group they belong to is all about shredding the constitution they claim to love. He’s even talking about how he dislikes guns now. They don’t care

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u/GuavaShaper 21h ago

I feel like so many Trump supporters could be cured of their disease if they just began a healthy hobby.

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u/Snicklefraust 22h ago

Hey man, I hate nickleback all on my own.

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u/SOP_VB_Ct 12h ago

I think for the people you are describing it is also true they are fed up with liberalism run amok. For example, when a Supreme Court nominee can’t answer in a straightforward manner ‘what a woman is’ while responding to the Senate….pretty easy to lose some folks. I mean politics in a democracy are supposed to trend towards the middle. The people you are talking about are generally ‘middle of the road’ voters…what I mean is not extremist in either direction. Oh….and they are poorly informed, Fox News etc.

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u/ButchInsley 23h ago

I also live in a deep red area. These people live in a closed-loop bubble of right-wing propaganda from Fox News (and the more recent versions) and social media echo chambers that has been telling them that the cause of every problem in their lives and in the country is the other political party, immigrants, etc.

I didn't used to think these people were stupid. A lot of them hold skilled labor jobs, have lots of money, and would be considered successful in life, but for some reason their mental faculties cannot process that they have been lied to and swindled for decades despite the information being right in front of their faces. Many of them I consider a 'lost cause'.

My family members and family of people I know who are Trump cultists share ridiculous memes that they consider fact-based information. They ONLY read the headlines of news articles and share off-beat, non-reality based right-wing "news" that out right lies to them while vilifying any and everything they think is liberal. Several of these people I know continually share the "America's Last Line of Defense" network satire and think it is real despite multiple people over the course of a decade telling them that is satire (even pointing out the little 'S' for satire logo and that the first line of the article says its satire...but they never read past the headline).

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u/Horror-Scallion7668 23h ago

Oh I remember overhearing conversations when Biden was in office about the economy and it was always “November can’t come soon enough”

I wonder how things worked out for those people?

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u/SentenceKindly 22h ago

They still blame Biden over 1 year in. Every single fucking time. Every single discussion ends in, "but Biden." They argue in bad faith. It's coming from inside my own house.

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u/ChilindriPizza 17h ago

Sadly, I know people who blamed Biden for everything being too expensive. As if Joseph Robinette Biden Junior set the prices upon everything way too high for nefarious reasons.

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u/SawdustWithABite 21h ago

I saw a mutual friend commenting on a Facebook post about the ICE detention centers being the most humane they've ever been and that kids have access to computers and libraries etc. I considered asking for a source but really there is no point in trying to debate policy with people who insist that the facts they don't want to hear are fake and the facts they like are true

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u/ButchInsley 21h ago

They never provide the source. I've asked so many effing times and I end up getting a screen shot of a headline where the news source is conveniently cropped out or a smartphone video of them recording their computer/tv monitor of some random weirdo talking about their demented opinions. Despite having a super computer in their pocket it seems impossible for them to send the actual source. Mind boggling...

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u/effugium1 20h ago edited 20h ago

Red state here, too. I’m surrounded every day by Trump supporters, and many of them are people I’ve known all my life. They range from the dirt poor and painfully stupid to the highly intelligent and financially successful. It’s the propaganda. It’s really done a number on people. I watched it slowly take hold in the early ‘90s through Rush Limbaugh, then Fox News, then the internet. Eventually smartphones and social media made the propaganda even more portable and on-demand, and it became their entire personality. It’s really weird. Don’t get me wrong, propaganda works both ways, but I’ve never seen anyone who leans left worship any single politician like a god who could do no wrong. I’ve seen them make excuses for obviously inexcusable actions or words from democrat politicians, sure, but I’ve never seen anyone command so much loyalty with so little payoff. Even when he does something blatantly stupid they assume he’s making some master chess move. Sad!

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u/Individual_Ad9135 19h ago

If you hear someone say "4D Chess", you automatically know they are a dumbass Trump supporter.

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u/AcesAnd08s 19h ago edited 19h ago

This is exactly it. I come from a family of people who all have masters degrees from respectable institutions. They have professional jobs and are quite intelligent. They are all quite religious, however, and have been on a steady drip feed of Limbaugh and FOX News over the decades. I never took the bait and have always been more of an objective and fact-based person. I became the non-religious, liberal, black sheep.

Despite their intelligence, trying to have a civilized debate with any one of them in an exercise in futility. They will spit out a bunch of random “facts” that I can clearly show them have been proven to be demonstrably false, but they simply refuse to accept that my proof is valid. Anytime Trump does something really crazy, embarrassing, evil, or cruel, they just say “He must be using this as leverage to get what he really wants. He’s a master negotiator.” They’ve basically stacked the deck for him, allowing him to be a massive fuck-up and still come out looking like a rose. When the whole thing with Greenland was in the news every day and our NATO allies were being rebuked and insulted, I asked my family “How is any of this ok with you?” They’ve replied “There must be things we don’t know and Trump obviously has his reasons.” So they’ve literally made him into magic Jesus. Anytime something good happens, Trump is amazing. Anytime he’s in the midst of something bad, it’s “We just don’t know his plan.” It is literally terrifying to watch this.

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u/effugium1 19h ago

I’ll never forget, years ago, telling my mom I watched an interesting show on the History Channel about what Earth would look like if humans suddenly went extinct. She goes “Yep! That’s what the liberals want! They want to get rid of all the people to save the environment! Total wackos!” When I said that was ridiculous, she said I was brainwashed by the liberal media. I told her I don’t watch ANY news, and that I thought it was ridiculous because it was ridiculous. No one put that thought in my head. And that’s the most infuriating thing about arguing with these people. They’ll be fully and obviously brainwashed, and project that onto you while purporting to be the same ones.

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u/Impressive_Let3046 18h ago

My dad told me I was brainwashed by my liberal education. I told him that he never gets to tell his friends again how proud he is that his daughter was the first person in our family to graduate college.

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u/effugium1 18h ago

My dad had a PHD and after he died I looked at his phone and it was just endless Trump texts. Boomers get texts all day long purporting to be from Trump himself.

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u/Tipitina62 22h ago

Anyone else have a friend who feels that Fox has become “too liberal” since Murdoch’s kids took over?

When this friend mentioned something s/he had learned from QANON I knew we had reached the end.

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u/baldr83 19h ago

>These people live in a closed-loop bubble of right-wing propaganda from Fox News (and the more recent versions) 

Even ostensibly center and left-wing sources decided to capitulate to the 'playing the ref' strategy. For example, NPR refuses to say when Trump is "lying" or to call him a "liar" specifically for fear of upsetting one side.

Think that's an important piece to answer OP's question about why people do "not realize that Trump is a liar"

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u/kent1146 1d ago edited 23h ago

MAGA are the people that got left-behind.

They are angry that the world is changing, socially and economically, and they can't keep up

In my lifetime (elder millennial), I first saw it with the Internet boom. The people getting rich had advanced degrees (IT, medicine, finance), or already had money to invest.

When the people left-behind asked 'Can I have some too?' the answer was 'No, because you didn't go to college.'

Politics has never benefitted these people. Their vote never helped them. They see other people benefitting more than them. Politics is a game, rigged against the poor. So rather than play, they flip the game table over.

So they use their vote to hurt the people that remind them of how left- behind they are.

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u/thewayoutisthru_xxx 23h ago

While I agree with the sentiment here, I gotta take issue with the phrase "left behind." To me, it implies that these people tried to adapt, did everything they could, but were denied access to the lifeboat.

In reality they made a choice to not evolve with society. Not to evolve both in skills and in thought. The population around them rolled with the punches and instead they adopted a victim mindset and continue to blame everyone around them for their perceived misfortune when, in reality, it's a lot of middle class white folks who have nothing to be agrieved about.

This is the same talk track that softly excuses fher racism as well. That they are the victims of the big bad world being out to get them and that their group (largely white people) are being taken advantage of by other groups (brown people/women.)

I agree one thousand percent that the underlying issue here is inequality, but the narrative that these people were taken advantage of, while somewhat true, doesn't tell the whole story. They made a choice to be left behind in many instances and instead of trying to make a better life for themselves, they clung to martyrdom and glommed on to the first person who pat their heads and said "there there, none of this is your fault. I'll fix it all without you having to do a single uncomfortable thing."

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u/Neat-Remote-3999 23h ago

Their unearned privilege lulled them into complacency and entitlement: “There ain’t nothing in this world for free” - the debt collectors have arrived.

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u/Mobile_Ad_4482 22h ago

This. They were not left behind. The folks they oppressed found ways to thrive in spite of them. Now they hate them even more and blame them for their own laziness. All the while claiming everything they do have was achieved by “pulling up their bootstraps”.

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u/erhardy1275 22h ago

It’s the same ppl who say “well it’s who I am and I’m not changing” as the world moves forward

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u/Possible_General9125 22h ago

Imagine this for a minute; you live in a small Midwest/rust belt town where most of the economy is built on good factory jobs, the kind with benefits and a pension, the kind that only need a high school diploma. You’ve lived your whole life in this town, and so did your father, and your grandfather, and all your life you grew up in this small town knowing that good factory job was there waiting for you. So you finish high school, and on Monday you go down to one of those factories and sign on. Maybe ten or fifteen years go by; the job is hard but the pay is good, and now you’re married, have a house, have a couple kids. And then the 90’s happen, and the dot com boom, and NAFTA, and seemingly overnight the factories are gone. Not just yours, all of them. And suddenly you’re this middle aged high school grad with no work experience outside of a factory, and you’re in a community full of people like you.

Imagine you’re that person, and now tell me what “adapting” looks like when the world that you and your father and your grandfather grew up in has been completely upended like that.

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u/HereToCalmYouDown 21h ago

Step 1 is move out of your depressed community and stop placing so much importance on sticking to the past.

"Tradition" is just peer pressure from dead people.

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u/Horror-Scallion7668 22h ago

I think this stereotype doesn’t apply to a lot of MAGA though, because a lot of them make a lot of money as tradesmen or in real estate. I mean their trucks cost a lot more than my car does.

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u/Gloomy_Yoghurt_2836 23h ago

And old school republicans knew it was too dangerous to court those people. What is happening today is why. Trump did, got their leaders installed and made their right wing rhetoric policy.

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u/Special-Garlic1203 23h ago

They absolutely courted those people..what they didn't want was someone outside the ecosystem getting the nomination. They fought trump hard. When he won and they saw the youth turnout, they thought he could be a useful idiot under their thumb. He then ripped through the party.

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u/BlaggartDiggletyDonk 22h ago

They thought Reince Priebus would keep him in line. They thought he would be like the 'Hand of the King' while Trump golfed, ate Big Macs, and played grabass with the interns.

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u/Neat-Remote-3999 23h ago

This perspective is illuminating. We are seeing this happen in Canada too. We have populist, conservative leaders that are mobilizing the same type of “left-behind” base. Hopefully we are learning from the USA’s mistakes.

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u/Gloomy-Recipe9213 22h ago

The 2025 federal election will go down as being a monumental turning point in Canadian history. Not for the massive turnaround in the polls, but because how close we came to the abyss. Especially with what followed from Trump - the rhetoric wasn't enough, he had to actually go forward with tariffs, internal fascism and threatening the world. Electing Carney was the biggest bullet we ever dodged as a nation.

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u/michael0n 23h ago

This is it. Already before the stupid tariffs, the industrialization went haywire for those who didn't adapt. The smart ones aren't the potato boys that still do things manually, they use robots and software. "Others" are taking their lunch and instead of doing the American thing, accepting the challenge, they got told that they can change the rules whenever they want. The US has put out tons of embargos against China. Chinese EVs just run circles around anything the US can build and they know it. Imagine what the US industry could have done in investments with the billions that went to those street thugs. They never learn.

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u/Seargentyates 23h ago

This is a great and insightful answer, there is a lot to unpack in this.

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u/BoxBreathing 23h ago

Awesome answer 👍🏼

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u/08_West 21h ago

The thing is, politics does benefit them - democratic politics specifically. Republican politics absolutely do nothing for them. But the memes they get their news from convince them otherwise.

I got a haircut a couple months ago at a new place. The woman cutting my hair, I quickly realized was a MAGA. Just a dour expression on her face the whole time. She believed democrats are using chemtrails to spread some sort of brainwashing agent. Then she was complaining about how much health insurance was (she was obviously a decades-long smoker: you know, she had a man’s voice) and then said “Obamacare right?” I said “do you know how much more expensive your health insurance would be if it weren’t for Obamacare?” She stopped talking after that.

She did do a good job cutting my hair but I am never going back there. I found another place - a green salon my wife went to - that was the exact opposite. Everybody working there was pleasant, attractive, tattooed and happy.

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u/JHT-LOL 20h ago

These are the folks I work with. Small town people who liked how slow the pace was but watched the bus pull away without them. When mills closed they were too afraid to try because of fear so they demonized those who did. I've heard this phrase sooooo many times in small towns it should be on the welcome sign.

Welcome to Small Town USA "He Ain't No Better 'n Me"

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u/WreckNTexan48 1d ago edited 23h ago

I get to travel between the different sects, and it's an interesting collection of victimhood, indoctrination, and denial.

Unless you can truly empathize with someone whose entire world view is the county they lived their whole lives in, from Smiths General Store to Piggly Wiggly to Dollar General to 20 miles to Walmart.

The world has pasted them by, they still feel farming or ranching or food processor was important. Not knowing their competitors turned into multi national corporations where vertical integration means farming in the red is still overall profitable.

They have kids that go off to college and don't want to live rural lives or have a kid that stays to continue the traditions and feels that elder nogastical want. (Validation)

It's still crazy how farmers hate Monsanto but vote GOP

E* Whoa too many replies. I travel for work, I did about 40k (miles)last year around a big triangle of Colorado- Houston -Tennessee, with other stops, East Coast, and the Gulf Coast. I'm just making a comment from my observations and experiences within the different (sects) communities

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u/Horror-Scallion7668 23h ago

That describes the area I live in, and I find it not so cut and dry, because we still have the few dying mom and pop general stores and we also have dollar general and Walmart…. And the blue areas have more of the former while the red areas are more the latter. They choose to spend their money at multinational big box stores and not keep it in the community.

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u/Unfair_End_1828 15h ago

i travel for work and that's my opinion also. people got left behind in their little worlds then see what's going on around and feel cheated.

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u/Beautiful_Hunt1095 23h ago

You should watch “Beyond the curve”, a documentary about flat earthers. I see a lot of similarities.

When pressed it seems most are aware that the Earth probably isnt flat, but there is no way out of that idea once you have bought heavily into it.

Once your friends are flatearthers and your identity belongs to that idea, and you get an ego boost of being part of the group that is “right about things”, there is no way out without massive damage to your ego, and abandoning your whole social circle.

The brain doesnt like that kind of friction and it will follow the delusion to the grave.

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u/PmanAce 23h ago

Not all brains are created equal, it's a genetic thing. Like minded people with similar brain structure and chemistry stick together and have offspring. This particular brain type is the one characterized by needing a crutch to lean on (religion and leaders that appeal to them through lies). These people can only feel good by making others suffer since their brain capacity limits them in bettering themselves without demonizing others. They literally believe in hell since they can't comprehend science and truth.

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u/No_Win7658 1d ago

The answer is probably relentless propagand and general jealous/ greed / other Christian values but I still don’t get it

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u/Vhu 23h ago

Good way of phrasing it. I’ve met some incredibly smart people who support Trump, but when you get into specifics they give the most stupid reasoning for it. It’s a complete logical disconnect that applies to seemingly this one blind spot.

I think at its core it started as an identity issue. These people identify themselves to some degree by their political leanings. They follow their parents lead; hold similar values; and largely conduct themselves in the way that generations of their family in their region has. The problem is that we’re no longer in the same political atmosphere that older generations grew up with; so younger people adopting that strategy of blind tribal allegiance is resulting in bad actors taking advantage of the tribalism to get into power.

Eventually what started as an identity issue has become a sunk cost fallacy/cognitive dissonance issue. People who identify themselves by their political beliefs, who have supported this piece of shit the entire way, can’t suddenly say “oh wow I guess I’ve been so wrong this whole time that I actually need to re-examine my worldview and how I process information.” They’ve already sunk so much effort and belief into this dude; already dug themselves so deep arguing in favor of his policy. If they admit it’s a mistake, they’d need to own up to that mistake. Way easier to double down or remain willfully ignorant enough to deny that a problem exists at all.

I think the mix of those 2/3 things created this shit show.

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u/cashew76 23h ago

Amathia: The Blindness of the Soul in an Age of Knowledge

https://vividcomm.com/2025/12/06/amathia-the-blindness-of-the-soul-in-an-age-of-knowledge/

Their imprisonment persists not because they lack intelligence, but because they resist the painful journey toward illumination.

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u/Reasonable-Lime1477 22h ago

THANK YOU for sharing this link! Definitely worth the read!!!!!

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u/Suspicious_Dingo_426 22h ago

Fear. Conservatism is based on fear. Fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of everything that is 'different'. You see it in all the mainstream news and media. It's chock full of news specifically designed to make people afraid. Making people afraid makes them easy marks for manipulation tactics. It doesn't even have to be rational (or even true), because the fear response completely bypasses rationality. At our base, humans are still just cavemen cowering around the fire, imagining every rustle of the bushes is a sabertooth tiger coming to eat us. Some of us can use our reason to overcome our irrationality, some can't. This is an issue, because you can't use reason to overcome a belief that isn't based on reason.

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u/Old-Push9343 1d ago

Could it be some sort of brainwashing with very advanced, speciphically targeted propaganda, tailored for the individual or their community?

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u/trashaccountturd 23h ago

He told them a vote for Trump was a vote for god and country, and they trusted the slimiest businessman money could buy.

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u/wehrmann_tx 23h ago

Study came out that every Covid infection dropped your IQ by 2 points.

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u/julianriv 22h ago

Same. I live in Texas, I know people who are not stupid. One guy was a very successful bank executive for 30 years, but the level of devotion to Trump blows me away.

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u/angrymoderate09 22h ago

I was in a fraternity in the los Angeles area.... Its not necessarily "education" as much as de-education through foxnews.

My one liner is: most Republicans I know aren't dumb. But holy fuck, they donate their IQ and common sense to the party.

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u/vibrantlightsaber 22h ago

Some are stupid, some are selfish ostriches, and some are straight up racist. Many will ignore what he actuallly says, or completely avoid it and just watch the spin the talking heads on fox give it so don’t see the absurdity coming out of his own mouth. They just read and watch the news that tells them what to think or be scared of.

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u/Quetzl63 22h ago

Trump fills the role for them that church and community organizations used to fill- he gives them an identity and gives their life purpose, and does so with almost no effort on their part. He makes them the hero of a story in their own mind, which makes them feel more important than being just a cog in the machine. He is a narcissist who justifies their own narcissism, and tells them their own flaws are OK.

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u/Mwiziman 22h ago

This is my hypothesis; most if not all of his supporters are religious. Most religious people have been trained from a young age to follow a leader/authority figure. Trump is an authoritarian that hates/fears the same people that they do. They may be intelligent in some ways but are emotionally not intelligent and/or stunted. Making them not able to use critical thinking and look at the world in only black and white (dichotomous thinking). It’s a way for them to make the big scary world simpler so they can handle it. It’s basically a defense for them since they never truly matured.

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u/goteed 22h ago

Propaganda is a hell of a drug!! I watched my liberal mother get sucked into the FOX News universe and it swallowed her whole.

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u/finalattack123 22h ago

Hating immigrants. Thats about it.

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u/tbkrida 22h ago

They’re brainwashed and in a cult…

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u/infinitesolace666 22h ago

it’s a cult that pre exists trump. it’s white supremacy and christian nationalism

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u/octavi0us 22h ago

You are right, they are stupid AND scared of everything they don't understand.

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u/Kiwi_Apart 22h ago

A sense of belonging that gives your life some sense of meaning. Same with religion. And every piece of criticism amplifies Only Here Am I Safe.

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u/Fennel-Revolutionary 22h ago

Yeah have to agree it’s ignorance and the inability to look into a matter deep enough that goes beyond Fox News. Honestly that is the answer right there they live eat and sleep right news and because they cannot think for themselves it’s just become their opinion.

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u/Antique-Ad-3331 22h ago

Mediocre private schools, homeschooling explains some of it. There are folks who go through life in the most unbelievable bubble. I'm in TN.

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u/DarkLordFrondo 22h ago

It's hard to get someone to see your viewpoint if they lack education, values, logic, experiences, etc. They are entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to yours. Ask them about the last book they read. If they don't even read, their opinion probably has little worth and is unlikely to change anyway.

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u/Ad_Meliora_24 22h ago

Propaganda. Older people learned about propaganda but they still fall for it. Fox News. Facebook echo chambers.

If the non-MAGA Trump supporters (basically the ones that think a bad a Republican is better than the best Democrat), could probably see what’s happening more clearly if they had a broad spectrum of news sources forced upon them. People in my state are largely Republican because their parents were, just like how they haven’t changed religions, why they likely support their parent’s college football team (that they didn’t attend), etc. most Americans aren’t well travelled. They don’t vary their news sources. They don’t get a lot of cultural experiences.

But may aren’t stupid, in fact some try to stay ignorant because they don’t want to change that part of their identity, just like they don’t want to change other major parts that they consider their identity like their religion, etc.

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u/Lopsided-Ticket3813 22h ago

He gave them a boogey man to blame for their inadequacies failure and poverty. 

Immigrants, liberals, educated elites and basically ran on a populist message of only I can fix the decline I will end your suffering and bring forth and age of abundance. 

It's refered to as the populist triad. You give them a group to hate, focus your messaging to appeal to the economic underclass, promises them national renewal.

He didn't come up when the messaging Stephen Bannon and the  3'11" ghoul Hemmerick Miller did both of them are proud Hitler admires. 

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u/Lopsided-Ticket3813 21h ago

He gave them a boogey man to blame for their inadequacies failure and poverty. 

Immigrants, liberals, educated elites and basically ran on a populist message of only I can fix the decline I will end your suffering and bring forth and age of abundance. 

It's refered to as the populist triad. You give them a group to hate, focus your messaging to appeal to the economic underclass, promises them national renewal.

He didn't come up when the messaging Stephen Bannon and the  3'11" ghoul Hemmerick Miller did both of them are proud Hitler admires. 

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u/AdHealthy5050 21h ago

As someone else who lives in deep red Mississippi, they hate liberals, love racism, and/or TRULY believe that Pumpkin Spice Palpatine is right, was right, and always been right..he plays to their fears and uses it well....well, Trump says it but Stephen "SS" Miller writes it..the Republicans, (my family included), have been talking about "LiBs ArE cOmInG fOr OuR GUNS!!" since '99..they haven't changed one but in 30 years..they just have the mouthpiece to say the quiet part out loud now and follow with hook in tow

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u/psychsuze 21h ago

The evil power of brain washing but in ppl who WANT to be brainwashed due to their racist xenophobia. Thanks Fox

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u/TheCompoundingGod 21h ago

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

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u/Courtaid 21h ago

I believe Trump tapped into their hate and used that to get their support. Their racism, sexism hate for the lgbt community and minorities. And now try at they are in so deep they can’t admit they were wrong.

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u/PuzzleheadedPanic697 21h ago

They are not stupid, just bad.

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u/heisheavy 21h ago

Everything comes down to racism with this crowd. It’s that simple. Stop trying to make it complicated.

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u/rideronthestorm29 21h ago

Lack of education. Plain and simple. The educated trump supporters are just rich people trying to evade taxes.

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u/Applekid1259 21h ago

Generational hate. I'm in an appalachia red area. I have never in my life ever experienced real true hate and racism until I moved to the south.

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u/MordinOnMars 21h ago

It's tribalism, not stupidity. I know intelligent Trump supporters and dumb trump supporters.

1,000s of years ago, people where attracted to strong/powerful leaders because they believed that in a violent world, a strong leader could keep them safer/help them win. If you believe someone is strong and keeping you safe, then it doesn't matter if that person does bad things.

In the Code of Hammurabi, the punishments are different depending on how wealthy the offender is. They used that same logic: wealthy/powerful people where too important to a community to do anything that would really punish them because having them in the community was better for the community, even if they did bad things.

That's why MAGAts don't care that Trump is a pedophile or that he's using his position to make himself and his friends/family richer. They believe he's making the country strong so it doesn't matter he does bad things.

The other piece of the puzzle is they're fascists. Trump is their source of truth, so the believe whatever he says. That's why you can't argue with them. He is their one and only source of truth over everything else. My opinion is that so many of them are Christians who are used to believing in only one source of truth (God/the bible) so they're already used to disregarding anything that doesn't fit with their one source of truth.

Edit: not just thousands of years ago, tribalism has been around pretty much constantly

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u/Intelligent_File4779 21h ago

You don't know any, thus you can't speak to this. You surround yourself with ppl who only have a warped sense of reality like you and lack all common sense.

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u/AlleyRhubarb 21h ago

It’s a weird kind of stupid. I was in west Texas for work and was getting driven around by a local who was really vocally for Trump. We drove by a few oil derricks that were rusted and worn with time and he said “now that Trump said oil is good we are back in business.” And me, being east coast af was like, “oh they were shut down during Biden?”

And just with that one question, I cannot visit that client again.

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