I have a suspicion about why Trump's base stays loyal...

[uriel1972]

I don't have any proof, as I am not a mind reader...
Here goes...

They hate us...

They hate us with such a white hot intensity that they don't mind shooting themselves in the foot as long as we suffer. They blame us for all the setbacks, embarrassments and failures in their lives.
The queers, the commies, feminazis, the liebruls, the bleeding hearts, the snowflakes, the Jews, the N*'s the G*'s and so on. It's all our fault, never theirs. So they burn and yearn for revenge. Trump is their vehicle of retribution.
They will never step back, never drop their support from whomever will provide their fantasies of revenge fruition.

If this is true and I suspect it is then any form of outreach is doomed to failure. Bipartisanship requires goodwill and a desire for compromise on both sides. How can you have a dialogue with someone who is trying to strangle you to death?

I suggest trying to educate those not 'infected' already and reaching out to those who don't want to exterminate us with such a passion.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Your conclusion that they are not reachable is correct.

It is exactly what LBJ said in his famous quote that everybody is familiar with by now.

As long as trump or whoever harms those they hate, those you mention, the deplorables will let their pockets be picked.

[olegramps]

55. The major root cause of their hatred is the propaganda of the extreme right wing radio and FOX

Polarization intensified as a direct result of the repeal of the "fairness doctrine" which was followed by the 1996 ruling allowing ownership of multiple stations. As a result today 85 of the most powerful stations are owed by the right-wing fanatics of Clear Channel or Heartland. The ridiculous charge that the media is dominated by liberals is just propaganda that their listeners swallow along with the swill. Right wing broadcasting accounts for over 2,500 hours and day as compared to approximately 250 hours of liberal broadcasts. This doesn't include FOX TV which is 24/7.

[Eliot Rosewater]

70. This is why Howard Dean was not our nominee in the year he promised on

Chris Matthews' hardball "college tour" to regulate media ownership.

It was just a few days later the media played the nonexistent "scream" over and over.

I say nonexistent because he was speaking loudly as was EVERYBODY else during that moment and they isolated his voice, lowered others to make him sound goofy.

[Left-over]

64. This is easy to see.

Trumps supporters are white traditionalists who are scared to death by the right wing media. They are told to be afraid and resentful of anyone not like them. They are losing their majority faster than they anticipated. This is the driving force behind immigration enforcement and a myriad of other efforts to suppress those they see beneath themselves.

[Thunderbeast]

65. LBJ had many insights about race and class:

[shraby]

2. g.w. bush had that same loyalty. No matter what, he had 25-30% who never wavered.

That probably is the same bunch who stick by trump.

[bigbrother05]

46. What was knowingly called the "back wash"

The always W folks are a near perfect match for the Trumpistas. The Tea Party was only an interim frat party of bile during Obama's tenure.

W was constantly (dog)whistling at his base while Dotard uses a bullhorn

Both were rich boys that got over in life with daddy's help and thought they earned it

[musicblind]

59. But at least Bush fell to the 20's... Trump has never fall out of the 30's

And Trump has noted that there good people among KKK and Nazi sympathizers. You can't go any lower than that.

Can you imagine how low Bush's number would have fallen if paid $130,000 in hush money to a porn star? Can you imagine Bush's numbers if he had his own Access Hollywood tape released?

Bush was an awful President... but there is something going on right now that is far sicker than anything W. supporters had in mind.

These people are the rise of a new breed of people, created by Right Wing news, radio and social media. These people have created an echo chamber so great that they are nothing but tension wired balls of hate ready to snap at a moment's notice.

The longer society tolerates sites like Breitbart and Drudge Report, radio personalities like Limbaugh and Savage, the worse this problem will get.

[redstatebluegirl]

3. They really hate intellectuals too.

Smart people look down on them or so they think.

[alarimer]

21. Yes.

On this week's This American Life, the second part was all about the Democrats' struggle post-2016 to figure out a way to connect. It was okay segment, right on some things, wrong on others. One part struck me. A Democratic Congresswoman from Illinois was talking to prospective candidates and emphasized to one that she should never tell people she has a college degree, or at least don't lead with it in her bio.

I thought that perfectly encapsulated how messed up we really are. Too many people are of the mindset that only "regular people" (whatever that is) count. That if you have any education at all, you think you are better than everyone else.

[uriel1972]

28. Funny thing is I have a worthless traineeship certificate...

as my only tertiary education achievement, I have only worked a base grade job and my parents just scraped into middle class category.
I am now Totally incapacitated for work. I have a lot in common with these people and a lot of anger within me, so I understand the hate.

However, I would rather channel that anger into working against those who harm me, mine and our interests.

[lagomorph777]

37. Yeah, you are able to see who's harming you and who's trying to help.

It seems the Despicable Disposable Deplorables are blinded by bigotry and are doing all they can to help those who harm them, and harm those who help them.

What a sad waste of flesh.

[Lucky Luciano]

38. Im a professional/intellectual and I look down on them.

They are deplorable and inferior.

To me, they are “the other.”

[irisblue]

4. I think you have a valid point.

Crabs in a bucket mentality.

[Gothmog]

5. Trump's base is a bunch of racists who do hate anyone who is not white idiot

[hueymahl]

44. This. It is where most of the hatred comes from

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

[Orrex]

6. I agree with you, and I have been saying it for months

Search DU for the phrase "idiot racist fuckheads," and you'll find quite a few posts from me along these lines.

In short, they do not want or deserve our outreach, our empathy, or our understanding.

They mock our outreach, they scorn our empathy, and they laugh at our efforts to understand.

They want our silence and our subjugation, and in some cases they want our literal deaths.

Fuck them. Fuck every last one of them. We cannot rehabilitate them, and we do not need them. We will drag this nation into the current century in spite of them.


Fuck them.

[Wounded Bear]

7. That and they wanna be him...

They want to be filthy rich so they can sleep with porn stars and super models, and so they could fuck with people with no consequences.

[deurbano]

52. Yes! Weird how they also claim to be "Christian" since their values seem pretty much the opposite

of what I was taught about Christ's message (when I used to go to Sunday School). Christ--the lover of rich, corrupt, grifting conmen with mob ties (both here and in Russia)? Christ-- the lover of greedy, selfish bullies filled with hate? (I must have missed a few Bible verses....)

[SWBTATTReg]

8. I love it!

These guys / gals don't want to take responsibility for themselves and put in the hard work it takes to get ahead (I'm not talking 100% of them, but a good chunk of them), and more than not, they blame everybody else...hence the tRUMP negative immigration policies, etc.


Your statement summarizes it perfectly. Well said, Sir/Madam!!


"They hate us with such a white hot intensity that they don't mind shooting themselves in the foot as long as we suffer. They blame us for all the setbacks, embarrassments and failures in their lives.
The queers, the commies, feminazis, the liebruls, the bleeding hearts, the snowflakes, the Jews, the N*'s the G*'s and so on. It's all our fault, never theirs. So they burn and yearn for revenge. Trump is their vehicle of retribution.
They will never step back, never drop their support from whomever will provide their fantasies of revenge fruition."

[Orange Free State]

9. Look at West Virginia

to see who they are. You have families who have been in this country for several hundred years and still don’t collectively have a pot to pee in nor a window to throw it out of if they did. All this of course must be someone else’s fault. The elites are keeping them down.

You can’t get Trump’s base below about 35 %. If we concentrate on getting our vote out, getting new voters registered, nominating candidates who can win general elections, we can take back congress. But don’t expect Trump’s support to drop much.

[C_U_L8R]

10. They deeply resent us.

We're smarter, we're happier, we're more prosperous, we're more creative. We're more open minded. And the part that really drives rightwing conservatives nuts inside is that we actually exceed at the very Christian values they pretend to uphold even though many of us are not Christian or even religious... but we do kind generous acts simply because it's the right thing. We're liberals... this is who we are and what we do. Truth.

[mtngirl47]

62. Nicely said! Proud to be a liberal! n/t

[n2doc]

11. They have been taught to hate

And they get constant reinforcement from Fox, Rush, and the rest of the Hate media networks. Propaganda is effective.

[luvtheGWN]

45. You left out a significant segment:

Their evangelical pastors.
Interesting opinion piece in the Globe and Mail (Canada's national newspaper, or at least the best one!): The writers opined about how the ultra-rightwing is so much more powerful in numbers in the US, and that's because the percentage of rural voters is much higher than it is in Canada. Rural voters have greater dependence on their local power figures (pastors, Mayors, school board members etc.) than do urban voters, whose concerns are largely different. Rural voters compare their lives with other members of their community and if leaving school after senior year (or even sophomore or junior year) is "good enough" for Joe next door, then it's good enough for me. If my parents didn't go to college, then why should I? If Faux Nooz is on the TV all day at home, then that's all they need. Newspapers are only used to line the birdcage or start a fire in the wood stove.

If that all makes me sound like an "elite" that they are so fond of denigrating, then so be it! But I grew up in a rural Canadian community that valued education, and my church was progressive. I've been an urbanite for the past 50+ years, so I recognize the differences!

[n2doc]

74. True n/t

[ffr]

12. Apply vindictive and you have the same summary.

Now we just need 66% of the country to catch on, so we can carry on amongst ourselves and just ignore everything about the 33% who are lost haters.

[nini]

13. I came to that same conclusion way back

Palin really made it painfully obvious.

They won't tolerate anything that looks like a Dem win on anything - and yes that means they'll continue to vote against their best interests.

[hurple]

14. Wow

Not much of a revelation. I could've told you this in the 90's.

[uriel1972]

25. Not everyone got your memo...

I intended this more for those in the Reach Out Rapid Deployment Squad, who keep telling us to reach out to those who would happily see us burnt at the stake. I understand the hate and the reasons behind it and I do care about their welfare deep down, but survival first.

[Dawson Leery]

15. People around here ask why I take a wholesale rejection of traditional culture,

why I will never be a Country "Music" fan, why I will never give ANY consideration to the Evangelical....

This is why. The right base is ignorant. They want "simpler" times, which means only certain people have rights.

LBJ understood these people. You cannot reason with them.

[D_Master81]

16. There are a couple of reasons

I live in a DEEP red area of the country and I believe there are at least 2 reasons trump supports dont abandon him

1) he speaks their language. Its clear when trump was thinking about running he watched alot of fox news and listened to alot of RW radio. The things he says and does are clearly all pointed in pleasing his base: border wall (security), corp tax cuts, jerusalem capital move, media is an enemy of the people, climate change doesnt exist, regulation harms business. These are all things that have been pounded into you standard RWNJ's brain for the last 20 yrs. Trump comes along and says all of these things and sees the world the same way they do and so he is their savior. Most far RWNJ's have believed for a long time that the GOP wasnt conservative enough and was weak. So he is brash and crude and vulgar, but damnit he's their guy and they've wanted someone like that for a long time. They dont like some of the vulgarity, but they loooove the fact he's "sticking it to the liberals and the media. This is why they wont leave cause they're finally getting what they've always wanted.

2) Politics is now a fight and a sport. A sport in the sense that every 24 hr news cycle is a freakin game that must be won. No one can be honest anymore, there has to be constant spin. So even if they know Trump is wrong, that means Dems "win" and they cant have that. Its also become a fight and a war. Here in this area of the country going to washington to "fight the establishment" is heard a dime a dozen. "Fight for our values" is something always said that doesnt mean alot, but you hear it all the time. You cant compromise anymore lest you be primarried cause you are their to fight. Again, if you compromise, you're weak, you gave in and the other side won, and they cant have liberals "win" cause liberals are trying to destroy America, at least thats what they've heard for 20 years. And b/c liberals are trying to destroy America they have to stand by their man, cause if they dont, the liberals win.

[Chemisse]

27. Good analysis. n/t

[Dirty Socialist]

17. Writer's observation about Rush Limbaugh

"Every word dripping with seething hate".
You pretty much have it right. It's about the hate.

[delisen]

18. What enables the hate is hierarchal thinking-

Last edited Thu Jan 25, 2018, 03:12 PM - Edit history (1)

Men in society tend to think in terms of the pecking order or a ladder.

https://www.snopes.com/lbj-convince-the-lowest-white-man/

The Hierarchy in President Johnson's words:

Convince the lowest white man that he is better than the highest colored man and he won't notice that you are picking his pocket.

This describes the mindset that explains why people will follow the perceived strong man --the guy at the top of the ladder and will rush to grab for the highest rung of the ladder under the strong man and kick as many people as they can down the ladder and beneath them.

Some people think we are hardwired and doomed to this form of organization and post to examples in the animal kingdom

I don't think we are doomed-I think we have wide latitude on how we organize our society. It may be like that what is doomed in our increasing complex society is the rigid hierarchal system.

Reaching out to those who are more flexible or "not infected" (or as I would say doomed to thinking of of the ladder being the only way society can structured) may be the sensible approach.

[musicblind]

69. They never stop to ask themselves...

Why live on a ladder? Why not a grid?

[delisen]

75. I like the grid imagery. n/t

[Lithos]

19. Putin pays his IT bills

Bots cost money, got datacenters and programmers to pay, don't you know.

[RandomAccess]

20. And they hate us because . . .

they're fascists at heart. This was written before he won, but I think it accurately describes the fascist inclinations of both Trump and his supporters.

Trump’s not Hitler, he’s Mussolini: How GOP anti-intellectualism created a modern fascist movement in America
In an interview with Slate, the historian of fascism Robert Paxton warns against describing Donald Trump as fascist because “it’s almost the most powerful epithet you can use.” But in this case, the shoe fits. And here is why.

Like Mussolini, Trump rails against intruders (Mexicans) and enemies (Muslims), mocks those perceived as weak, encourages a violent reckoning with those his followers perceive as the enemy within (the roughing up of protesters at his rallies), flouts the rules of civil political discourse (the Megyn Kelly menstruation spat), and promises to restore the nation to its greatness not by a series of policies, but by the force of his own personality (“I will be great for” fill in the blank).

To quote Paxton again, this time from his seminal "The Anatomy of Fascism": “Fascist leaders made no secret of having no program.” This explains why Trump supporters are not bothered by his ideological malleability and policy contradictions: He was pro-choice before he was pro-life; donated to politicians while now he rails against that practice; married three times and now embraces evangelical Christianity; is the embodiment of capitalism and yet promises to crack down on free trade. In the words of the Italian writer Umberto Eco, fascism was “a beehive of contradictions.” It bears noting that Mussolini was a socialist unionizer before becoming a fascist union buster, a journalist before cracking down on free press, a republican before becoming a monarchist.

Like Mussolini, Trump is dismissive of democratic institutions. He selfishly guards his image of a self-made outsider who will “dismantle the establishment” in the words of one of his supporters. That this includes cracking down on a free press by toughening libel laws, engaging in the ethnic cleansing of 11 million people (“illegals”), stripping away citizenship of those seen as illegitimate members of the nation (children of the “illegals”), and committing war crimes in the protection of the nation (killing the families of suspected terrorists) only enhances his stature among his supporters. The discrepancy between their love of America and these brutal and undemocratic methods does not bother them one iota. To borrow from Paxton again: “Fascism was an affair of the gut more than of the brain.” For Trump and his supporters, the struggle against “political correctness” in all its forms is more important than the fine print of the Constitution.

To be fair, there are many differences between Italian Fascism of interwar Europe and Trumpism of (soon to be) post-Obama America. For one, Mussolini was better read and more articulate than Trump. Starting out as a schoolteacher, the Italian Fascist read voraciously and was heavily influenced by the German and French philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Marie Guyau, respectively. I doubt Trump would know who either of these two people were. According to the Boston Globe, Trump speaks at the level of a fourth grader.....MORE AT LINK

https://www.salon.com/2016/03/11/trumps_not_hitler_hes_mussolini_how_gop_anti_intellectualism_created_a_modern_fascist_movement_in_america/

[D_Master81]

24. ive believed this for 10 yrs

The standard gop voter talks a good game about separation of powers but ive thought, and now know, given an opportunity they really want total gop control of everything.

[RandomAccess]

33. And the ultimate irony is

If they got exactly what they wanted, it would no longer be the America they profess to love, with all those "freedoms." It would be a fascist authoritarian state.

As for total GOP control, too many in the GOP have been toying with and promoting the concept of "one party rule" since Gingrich.

[Orsino]

22. They fear women and brown people, just as he does.

His message is otherwise barely coherent, but that much they can smell, and they believe.

[NCTraveler]

23. Sides are drawn in this game.

There are sides and Trump isn’t the only player in the game. When one votes, they are also putting skin in the game. To a degree, we all want to tell ourselves we are doing what is right. Human nature.

[MFM008]

26. The feeling

Is deeply mutual from my household anyway....

[Ken Burch]

29. Close-but I think it's an extreme form of "zero-sum" thinking:

IOTW, they believe that any gain for anyone else, any improvement, however minute, in the life of anyone not exactly like them, HAS to mean they end up losing something-that it can't be that something that'd good for somebody else does them no harm or could in any way help them, it has to be one thing taken away for one thing "given".

[unblock]

30. they are reachable if you can keep them from watching foxnews for a week.

[GulfCoast66]

31. No one ever talks about the ones that escape and how that creates more anger

Each generation has seen their best and brightest leave and become one of us. And they hear about their lives, their exciting trips and understand that these folks will never, ever return. And it burns them up.

Several years ago I was at deer camp with my family in rural Arkansas and an old family friend came by. He knows I work for a large company that values diversity and he knows I am a liberal. His first question to me ‘got any f-gs down there is Florida?’

Nice, huh!

I informed him that we have most of the talented people from places like this because people like him run them off. And because of that we have better lives.

First time I have ever heard that asshole silent. Because deep down he knows it is true.

That is why I get pissed when the news goes to BFE and interview all the forgotten Trump voters. They need to do some specials on the talented people who left and now have a better life.

[world wide wally]

32. We just have to beat them.... There is no other option

[kentuck]

34. Mind control.

Of all those within the cult.

[louis c]

35. Your post goes to my theory

Trump may not be like Hitler, but his supporters are like the people who supported Hitler.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

39. Damn! I hadn't really thought about it in those terms. nt

[uponit7771]

66. +1, Hitler had around 30% support in Germany too. The Nazi party only control 30% of German congress

... at the time Hitler was placed into higher power.

Then they began tearing down the media, a lot slower than Red Don and his crew have but eventually there was no opposition media to his regiem

[Mr.Bill]

36. Every person I know who endorses Trump

either before or after the election uses the same three words. He will "shake things up". Every. Single. One. And it's pretty much all they have to say. That and he "tells it like it is".

I can't think of a better statement to display a complete void of intelligence. If that's all the thought they've given to how the country is run, I don't want them on our side.

[maryellen99]

50. One of my husbands cousins who is over 50 and a Trumpie

Posted that only people who as old as hubby’s cousin is, can understand “the drastic change this country needs”.

[jrthin]

40. Could it be as simple as...a good number of Americans are mentally ill. nt

[Pacifist Patriot]

76. I don't think so.

Stupidity and hatred are not mental illness. And most mentally ill people aren't stupid or hateful. We don't need to stigmatize mental illness any more than it already has been by going there.

[MrScorpio]

41. He was the instrument of their white-lash

That much is obvious.

[dae]

42. Excellent OP uriel, I agree with you.

[m3n0z]

43. Most of them see taxation as slavery

And therefore oppose more taxation and regulatory policies that take from them..

No matter how you explain the role of government in the common good , they will only see themselves as victims of a government who takes for everyone Elise's common good and does nothing for them.

I'm sure some of them visited the forum and will see your message and think your mind is settled and no amount of discussion would change your opinion of them. There are people on that side who being alienated and are searching for an alternative.

Do we really want them to exclude the democratic party as a place to go when their party goes too far for them to stomach.

Where I live their are many who are republican because they have ambitions and do not want the republican dominate community to black ball them.

Think about it,
If .05% of republican voters crossed party lines and voted democrat, Hillary would have had an electoral landslide.

If any of you are reading posts in republican forums, you know their are many who mostly read and don't comment. It's not because they agree or have not opinion. It's because they disagree but don't need to prove their point or get flamed for daring not to join the choir.

Maybe I'm alone on the idea of being open to conversion but I can't see empowering some to leave a party they really don't agree with. Seriously, while they think they are part of a national majority, they very much feel like a minority in the party. If they want to be part of a majority, show them one.

[LonePirate]

47. The right adheres to the Constitution just like they do with the Bible - in the abstract only.

They cannot stand following the ideals and principles in either one but they still give lip service to supporting both. Once they are called on to follow either one in their own lives, they run for the hills and raise a ruckus in the process. They despise anyone who actually supports, embodies and carries out the ideals in either one.

[Locrian]

48. and why do they hate?

They live sad little lives - and they hate to avoid facing themselves.

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”

James Baldwin


BTW (hopefully not preaching) - I see a lot of posts saying these people are "not worth it", "dead to me", "fuck-em", etc. Be careful in how much hate you take on yourself.

[NRaleighLiberal]

49. more accurately - they hate themselves - they are simply projecting.

[hadEnuf]

51. The world figured out how the outreach thingy worked with these kind of people by 1945....

[Va Lefty]

53. I agree hatred reinforced with years of rw propaganda

[Snackshack]

54. It's fear.

...of change and the uncertainty that inevitably follows.

[NewEnglandAutumn]

56. Then again...

they may just be morons. Morons full of pride=unwilling to admit they fell for a con.

[ariadne0614]

57. Call me overly dramatic, but . . .

it kind of seems like the Civil War has resumed after a 153-year pause. The plantation mentality of The Old South has been gradually oozing out from shadows and crevices since Reconstruction.

[LisaM]

58. That was the feeling I had on November 9, 2016. I felt hatred in the air.

I never felt so alone as I did that morning, riding the bus to work in tears. It wasn't just losing the good fight, and the heartbreak of a candidate I adored having lost. It was the sheer animosity that did me in.

And, it's carefully taught, to paraphrase "South Pacific". It's fed, watered, and nurtured by the right-wing pulpit, outfits like the NRA, the Heritage Foundation, the Koch Brothers, and most notably, the right-wing media like Fox. Fox News created this monster - I know it was there before, there was hatred for JFK, for example, and of course, Nixon, but generally people could coexist in their neighborhoods and workplaces.

[kimbutgar]

60. I keep going back to the movie the brainwashing of my father docuemntary

She chronicled how her Dad want from a nice kind man to a hateful angry person. Contaminated and brainwashed for years by Fox and Reich wing hate radio. A large portion of twitler supporters fit this catergory. But staying angry and hateful is bad for your mental and physical health. I see a spike in heart attacks, strokes and brain aneurisms from these folks as the deception and treason of twitler becomes obvious and they can’t deny it anymore that he colluded with Russia, is laundering illegal money and is basically is being blackmailed by putin. I see their heads exploding.

[pnwmom]

61. Here's another: PRIDE. They don't want to admit they were wrong.

And that they were bamboozled by the slimiest person imaginable.

[uponit7771]

67. +1

[moreland01]

63. Unevolved

That's the frame I stick them in. There are just certain unevolved brains that mainly function on high levels of fear. That fear stokes their anger, their argumentativeness, their hatred, their violence and their blindness. And I do mean literally unevolved. As in their brains have not completely formed. You wouldn't get angry at a child or a pet if they couldn't understand what you were saying. You would know intuitively that they just don't have the cognitive function to understand.

For small children and pets, I can be patient, understanding and loving. When it's grown adults, that's a different story. I ignore unevolved ignoramuses at all costs. They're too dangerous to be around.

[musicblind]

68. It's about hate and resentment.

Often times I'm doing exactly what a Trump supporter thinks I'm doing! Guess what? t's fun as hell!

I'm a man who dates men, publishes books, plays four instruments, goes to tea houses, directs plays, produces drag pageants, travels to other countries and leads a life they could only dream of.

It's not about money, either. I don't have that much money; I just have a happy and fulfilling life because I choose to.

Many of them are never went to college, never spoke to people who look different than them, and never had the ambition to look beyond the lives their fathers and grandfathers led. Now they feel trapped. They feel trapped loveless marriages, dead-end jobs, and unfulfilling lives.

Instead of looking inward, they blame 'outsiders' for their lots in life.

The saddest part is, they are not trapped because 'outsiders' forced them to be, but because they choose to be.

They have so much hate and resentment inside it has overcrowded their soul.

[TDale313]

71. Thats a huge part of it.

Fueled by decades of hate radio and Fox News. They’re trolls. If it hurts us, they’re all for it.

The other part is that their egos and identity are massively invested now. Admitting you were wrong or got played on this massive a scale is not easy, and many of those still on the Trump train are not exactly the most secure or mature people anyway. The persuadables already jumped ship. Those who haven’t caught on yet likely never will or never admit it.

[Initech]

72. I've been saying this for years.

The GOP has created a perpetual shit machine that is designed to teach people to hate. They drive to work and listen to Rush Limbaugh where they're told to hate liberals. They come home and watch Fox News and read articles on Breitbart where they're told to hate liberals. They go to church on Sunday where they're told to hate liberals. They read books that tell them to hate liberals (if they do read). Wash, rinse, repeat. What we're seeing right now is an ultra extreme version of McCarthyism at work.

[CanonRay]

73. You are correct, they totally loath us.

White hot burning hate.

[Nevernose]

77. The hate-fear feedback loop

And endless cycle of fear leading to hate leading to fear leading to hate... An ourobouros of cowardice (expressed through fear) and shame (expressed through anger/hatred).

They’re ultimately scared shitless of the unknown or unfamiliar and there’s a ton of research to back that assertion up (google some of the studies done on, for instance, neo-Nazis after reunification; the more exposure to different people and ideas, the fewer Nazis). It’s why they think they need fully automatic (via bump stock) machine guns to protect themselves from dark-skinned gay urbanite atheists who want to brainwash their children into the Homosexual Agenda.

And maybe, occasionally, there really IS a valid reason to fear the new and different. Rapidly changing technology and cultures and, yes, even the changing economics are enough to cause anyone to feel “anxious.” That’s no excuse for bigotry and xenophobia and shit like that, but that’s not to say it isn’t understandable. I understand the feeling; I can’t even empathize with their reaction to the feeling of anxiety.

Many of them know, somewhere deep inside, unconsciously, that they’re afraid. In their paradigm, from what they’ve been taught, they know that makes them cowards. Not on all levels — I think that so many of them join the military to prove they’re NOT cowards, or to drive it out, to “toughen them up.” Its a deeply, fundamentally emotional level, something far more profound than mere moments of time.

I think that makes them ashamed.

And I think they express that shame through anger. They can’t admit they were wrong, because that shame might, emotionally, be worse than death. They’ll just get angrier. If they can’t be winners, they’ll at least be on the winning team.

And what everybody else said, too.

Plus: I can take stock of my own, flawed, liberal psyche, too. I’m just screwed up in a different way. Most importantly, I’m screwed up in a way that doesn’t make me feel like voting for clearly incompetent buffoons or chant “Jews will not replace us.”