I sometimes wish I were that dumb

The problem is that it's not a question of intelligence.
Trumpists and their ilk are living in echo chambers of "alternative facts", perpetuated by Fox News, Murdoch newspapers and an nearly endless amount of rightwing influencers (starting with Rogan at the top). They are not looking at what's happening, because they are surrounded in a very comforting bubble of disinfo and propaganda that confirms everything they wanted to hear: The illegals get deported, the queers get finally put in their place, the liberals are frothing with anger, finally men are back in charge who tell women where they belong and America is going to be "great" again any moment now.
It's fascism and fascism has always been a "cult": The early pioneers of fascism (particularly D'Annunzio and later Mussolini) explicitly said their aim was to create a "secular religion" around the nation, the people and the leader. And you can only be a member of that religion if you accept its "truth" and reject everything that contradicts it.
Very smart people can adhere to a religion for a variety of reasons and the most obvious one is (and always has been) because it promises them power over others.
- comforting
  That's the key word. The promises of greatness don't actually have to be delivered. You can be in the midst of a pandemic and/or collapsing economy. As long as you have the comforting myth.
  
  Same idea behind conspiracy theories.
  Uncertainty is scary. Instead of feeling that fear (and turning to a project like science), any imagination that explains the unknown will work.
- The problem is that it’s not a question of intelligence.
  Not specifically intelligence, but I can make a very strong case that a lot of the problem comes from language. Or specifically the lack of language abilities in a percentage of the population who have missed important developmental milestones growing up.
  Not speaking out my ass on this one, I have been researching the connections between learning language at an early enough age and being able to form complex or non-linear thoughts.
  It's been studied in human children who were raised by animals (this has happened more times than people realize) that even when they were taken into human society, given shelter and taught how to be a human, they are never able to learn more than the most basic language skills, using single nouns to indicate wants, but nothing more complex than that. This has led to the understanding that if language isn't learned at an early enough age, we "pave over" parts of the brain that could have been used to learn how to turn complex ideas into abstractions, a way to view alternate perspectives and understand the views of others.
  So what about the less extreme cases? What about people who just didn't have adequate education in language skills, or were raised in an environment that squelched talking, reading, asking questions or thinking broadly. (Such as poor communities, religious upbringing, conservative policing of thought and identity, and so on.)
  This is creating an entire segment of society that aren't just kinda dim, they are actually incapable of anything other than linear, reactive thought patterns. Memories, associations, feelings... no mental "story" to explain their lives, just whatever they're told they go along with.
  You can see great evidence of this trend in the abysmal reading scores that Americans have. Nearly a quarter of our adult population is functionally illiterate and this is just the lowest end of the spectrum, people who can read a few words and understand a text message if the sender is using simple enough language and emojis. People who pretend to discard the instruction manual because they "already know how to do it" but really they just can't form mental narratives from paragraphs of information. This is really, really bad. This is why we have Trump. This is why our market is crashing.
  
  You make a lot of important points. I'd like to also add that those same communities actively discourage critical thinking.
  We all enter the world without knowing how it works. We spend our early childhood learning the rules of reality, sometimes testing them. Consider an infant in a high chair that repeatedly drops their spoon - will the spoon fall to the ground again? Is this a consistent thing? What if it just hovers in the air this time? Gotta drop it again and find out.
  Our brains not only build a set of "rules" about how the world works, but our imaginations help us fill in what we don't know. Like how having scared feelings at night can be interpreted by children as a monster hiding in the corner. They don't know the world with any sort of certainty, but their emotions are strong, so of course the existence of a monster makes sense.
  Now imagine that nobody ever told you that monsters aren't real. Imagine, instead, that the adults around you reinforced such fears, by using words like "demons" or "devils" to describe the creature you should be afraid of. These same adults can't answer the "Why?" questions that kids have, except to say "God did it." Natural scientists get blocked from information that can help them accurately understand the world.
  But it goes beyond simply maintaining ignorance. When kids are raised to sustain their magical thinking past the point where it is developmentally appropriate, they never acquire the mental scaffolding upon which reasoning is built. The logical way to connect concept A to concept B is obvious to you or me, but doesn't stand out for them. Why? Because magical thinking is a free-for-all. Such kids are actively taught to misunderstand reality. If there are no rules to making things make sense, or if everything is some invisible creature's "mysterious plan," then what you or I would call a "logical conclusion" becomes just one of many, equally-valid possibilities.
  
  On poor reading skills, this was a really interesting read/listen: https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/ - We've apparently just been teaching kids how to read poorly, and not because of like a sinister agenda. That almost makes it worse, that it started with good intentions.
  Also I think about how a lot of the people who are, as you're alluding to, bad at language simply won't show up on a platform like this that's all text. That's probably why visual platforms like youtube and tiktok are hugely popular. There are a lot of people who simply cannot comfortably operate in a text-first medium.
  
  Yes, I think we are both in agreement that there is a distinction between intelligence and education. And - while these two points often get thrown together - it matters in political contexts, particularly because the Trumpists attempt to destroy the education system which they see as an obstacle to their rule. Critical thinking and language skills matter.
- Exactly right. The one saving grace is that most cults are tied to their leader. Once Trump is gone, MAGA will fracture into sub-groups over who to follow.
  There’s a creator who goes by the name Knitting Cult Lady, who grew up in the Kingdom of God cult and then became intelligence for the US Army. She has some very enlightening insight on the cult of MAGA. Pretty fascinating stuff actually.
  The ~~Branch Davidian~~ Jim Jones kool-aid test was a great analogy for Trump’s fearmongering. The leader would ask people to drink poisoned kool-aid as a final test of faith. They had to experience the horror of facing their own death, only to then be filled with relief upon finding it was only a test. This was repeated over many occasions before the kool-aid was actually laced with poison. Trump keeps talking about taking Greenland by force so when the time comes, we’ll be desensitized to the reality.
  
  Wasn't Jim Jones the koolaid test? The Branch Davidians went up in flames in Waco, TX after the Feds attempted to raid them.
  Or did they both do it? It's been a while since I read about David Koresh.
  
  Ill have to take a look into Knitting Cult Lady, sounds like a very interesting perspective
- Yes, but as someone who is unfortunately related to dozens of Trump supporters, many of them are also dumb. A couple of them are just raging bigots who are happy to buy into the lie, but a lot of them are objectively not very smart. I could tell from a pretty young age, well before politics entered the picture, and my family isn't unique. My cousins married people from similar families and had kids that are also kind of dumb.
  There's nothing inherently wrong with being dumb. There are plenty of people who do just fine and are kind, decent humans. But Republicans saw the less intelligent as a target, and that echo chamber is a lot more effective when you don't have critical thinking skills. Fighting against it feels impossible because logic and facts don't really make a dent.
- I agree.
  The other thing to consider is that while the stock market is tanking many of these people don't have investments like that.
  My experience is that conservatives discount anything that is not directly and very obviously affecting them, and even then it takes a while to sink in. They won't change until every retail outlet they patronize jacks the price or every product they use aggressively shrinkflates.
- illegals get deported, the queers get finally put in their place, the liberals are frothing with anger, finally men are back in charge
  nail on the head with surgical precision, they are getting exactly what they wanted.
  everything else is stuff they choose to believe because those are the people making it happen.
- Well said
- Does their comfort bubble include comfort prices on things? If so how do I get in on that?
  It was one thing when all the bad stuff was happening to people they wouldn't associate with, but tanking the economy and firing scores of government employees has gotta be breaking into that bubble, right?
  
  AFAIK that depends really: Sure, those who are not really part of the "cult" will likely drop out, but the "ever faithful" will double down, because they will consider such hardship to be a test of their faith.
  That effect can be seen here:
- Yeah, it is simply unbelievable but I just saw people thinking drumpf will "pull it off" and "solve debt crisis" in investing.com.
- Literally every post including yours is just repeating the same bullshit:
  Republican voters are idiots who are easily manipulated while us chad liberals are ultra smart and can see through any propaganda immediately.
  You are just as susceptible as anyone else, and you are just as falsely confident in your own ability as the people you are shitting on.
  
  It’s always valid to say that everyone is susceptible to propaganda. That said, republican voters tend to be worse educated, more religious, and more likely to spread fake news than democrat voters. It seems reasonable to say that they’re more susceptible to propaganda, no?
  
  Everyone is susceptible, yes, but the difference is having the ability to think critically about things and not take them at face value. Which is a virtue that is absent today.

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
Orwell, 1984
- I liked the part with the fat guy taking a stinky shit
- In this context, is 1984 the book, or the year?
  I didn't read the book. Idk
  
  Oh I see, you're a troll, commenting unintelligible BS all over this post. Gotcha.
  
  The book, sorry I see how that's confusing now.

Oh to be one of the people who appreciate "what Trump is doing for America" even if they can't say what, if anything, that is besides "making us Great again".
- MAGDA - Making a Great Depression Again
  
  Well, as far as I'm concerned we haven't, as a species, economically, bounced back from the recession of the pandemic and all the shenanigans that came in the aftermath of that. Leading up to the pandemic, we had an app time wage stagnation, where wages were basically unchanging for over a decade.
  Then the whole pandemic and inflation pricing leading to record profits for most companies because they kept all the money rather than giving anyone a raise or a discount on their products.
  Yadda yadda yadda. I feel like I'm preaching to the choir, we all lived through it, so..... Moving on.
  As far as I'm concerned we are in a recession, and have been since the pandemic. So along tariffs and starting a trade war is basically adding kerosene to the economy that was already smouldering in a recession.
  At this point, I'd be surprised if there isn't a great depression that happens as a result of this insanity.
  I'm not even American and I'm bracing for it to happen.
- America will be great again, after the Second American Civil War.

Many people, especially on the political right are happy enough as long as others ar suffering more than them
- The're happy even to suffer more as long as those they hate suffer at all

It's not about being dumb. It's about being cruel. Those two just happen to intersect more often than not.
- It's about needing someone to suffer more than you so you feel better about yourself.
  We stole Jim crow, they can never forgive us for that.
- I don't think that's true really. I really think that some people don't think their decisions through to the end, or at least halfway through. Just look at brexit, after the vote passed, people were googling the consequences lmao.
  Democracy only works if the people are somewhat educated, but we're getting to the point where this is no longer the truth. That's why american elections are more of a entertainment program than a political event.
  
  I don’t think that’s true really. I really think that some people don’t think their decisions through to the end, or at least halfway through. Just look at brexit, after the vote passed, people were googling the consequences lmao.
  Brexit is a perfect example of "dumb" intersecting "cruel". 33% of Leave voters said they voted in favor of it due to immigration. A thinly veiled excuse for "too many brown people in my white country". Brexit has done nothing to elevate the white population or reduce the non-white population (the cruel part), but it has done a lot to fuck over British trade (the dumb part).

Ignorance is bliss...

What you mean? Im sure foreign agents are having a great time right now on the cultist actions

I mean not exactly how I wanted it to happen, but the fracturing of the US-led imperial alliance is pretty nice.
- Wish it could've imploded on its own without threatening the lives of so many people.
  
  If only we could have done literally anything about it up until now instead of sitting on our asses waiting for someone else to fix things for us.
  
  i think this is the most "implode on its own" the us could do. its up to us in the usa to protect our communities through the Fallout
  
  christ, you're not smart are you?

That would be Saturday

I meaaaaan a lot of rich people are losing a lot of money right now.
- Nah, this is their plan. When the economy stabilizes, they will control more of everything, and it will only cost the labor and likely lives of many, many people.
  This isn't the first time I've seen this. People just have very bad memories.
- Are they?
  Are you sure?
  Or is it all unrealized losses because they're holding and not selling?
  
  Yah this entire drama is just wealth consolidation. Everyone has to pay more for everything, when the economy stabilizes, a smaller number of people control even more of everything.
  This is simple, and I've seen it before. It's just sad we have so many people who either have goldfish memories or weren't even born the last time this happened. It's like some kind of nightmare seeing people do the same mistakes over and over and you scream at people that they're being stupid and they can fix ALL OF THIS if they just exercise their power and rights.
  Crickets. Tumbleweeds.
  
  If that's true they won't make anything on the upswing.
- Temporarily. But the middle class is losing more; they'll buy up all the distressed assets like local businesses and small chains and bleed them dry
  
  I mean how many middle class people own stocks or even know what a stock is
- Not really. Many of those people have liquidated a lot of their stock assets when trump took over, and are buying again when it's dipping - I think that this was trumps plan anyways.
  Don't think that the people that are at the top of the financial market lose anything. They know exactly what they're doing and how to stay at the top.

I honestly cannot.

Like... In general, or what I, personally, am actually doing right now? 🤔

He/him