I've been hurting my brain trying to figure out how any sane person could still support tRump. Then

[PaulRevere08]

it hit me. They just don't give a fuck about anyone or anything but themselves. They worship at the shrine of selfish cruelty and he is their god made human.

[durablend]

1. That's the bottom line

"Survival of the fittest". If you go broke or die, you deserved it.

[Thomas Hurt]

2. Randian hyper individualism and social darwinism are the base of conservatism.

They are special and entitled and then there are those lessers who are there to be owned, indentured, exploited, cheated and lied to...

[lunasun]

8. Excellent compilation

[central scrutinizer]

10. They're glad to suffer

If they believe that the people they hate and fear (POC and libtards) are suffering worse

[jaxexpat]

25. Then there are those who, on a good day, can't scrape up two epigrams to rub together.

[Hamlette]

59. what causes this?

I don't think it applies to all Republicans but certainly a high percentage of them. I've always said the difference between us is they feel entitled and we feel grateful.

I suppose it is handed down, just like racism.

[barbtries]

3. i think they're brainwashed.

i have siblings among them and know them to otherwise be fundamentally good and caring people. my brother is racist and my sister's bogeyman is immigrants. they both keep fox news on and have for years.

[Kitchari]

29. Agree

I have a brother like that, and decades ago he and his family started brainwashing themselves with Dr. Dobson, full blast on the radio every day.

[Kali]

4. easy

they AREN'T sane

[Ohiogal]

5. Selfish cruelty is a good description

There are still Trump yard signs around here. Way fewer than before, but still a few. Why would anyone want to advertise their ignorance like that?

[lunasun]

6. Don't Care Bears and fuck your feelings

[sammythecat]

21. Jesus

I really don't have the words

[wryter2000]

38. But

We're supposed to care if the media are unfair to him.

[lunasun]

53. The media is the enemy of possibly the greatest president this country has ever has

Don’t listen to the media’s unpatriotic bs

[Trueblue Texan]

47. That really doesn't go nearly far enough...

Add to that:

...your human needs
...your human rights
...your financial survival
...your planet's survival
...your children's survival
...your voting rights
...your earned benefits
...your Constitution
...your Republic

[IronLionZion]

54. I really don't care, do u?

[lunasun]

57. A mentor to Magettes all around the usa . Wear it proud -idc . Someone doesn't like it?

Then fuck their feelings

[Wounded Bear]

7. John Kenneth Galbraith

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

― John Kenneth Galbraith

[lastlib]

11. GMTA!!

I was looking for a graphic of that quote when I saw you had posted it!

I have often posed the question "What is it that conservatives are trying to conserve?" Boiled to the essence, the answer I've gotten is:
1) Wealth for the wealthy;
2) Power for the powerful;
3) Comfort for the comfortable;
4) Poverty for the poor;
5) Affliction for the afflicted.

[dchill]

61. Status to the Quo!

[liberalla]

66. This is a good list.

[magicarpet]

9. God commands it,...

If you deviate one iota from Fascist Christian teachings - God commands that you should fail.

If you are a good Nazi Christian, God will reward you and you will live a life of abundance.

The Gospels of Prosperity - God rewards those who truly deserve it, others are left in a perpetual state of constant suffering and want because that is also God's Will & Divine Plan.

Rejoice be to Fascism - hidden under the robes of Christianity.

[Skidmore]

12. When it comes down to it,

Trump's supporters consider themselves to be above and separated from everyone else by wealth, race, or religious ideology or some combination of the three. They backed Trump because they thought he would shape a world in which an extremist Christian government would guarantee privilege and wealth to white nationalists.

They don't care.

[ancianita]

22. +1

[Kitchari]

32. Agree n/t

[onethatcares]

13. they're nucking futz

is the only way to phrase it.

[Demonaut]

14. I would agree, this pandemic is bringing out the dormant duers to post

thank you

[CrispyQ]

15. They are authoritarian followers.

The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer
https://www.theauthoritarians.org

An excellent paper on authoritarianism.

There are authoritarian leaders and authoritarian followers. The followers have played by the rules the system put in place, and now they are down on their luck, or they think their American lifestyle is threatened, and they want someone to blame for it. The leaders give them someone to blame—liberals, minorities, uppity women, gays, anyone but the system that serves the 1%. It's easier to hate & fight a person or group of people than it is to hate & fight a system, especially when the followers have been lived their entire lives serving and believing in the system.

There's also a shit ton of ignorance. There's a reason the GOP started filling positions on Boards of Education across the country back in the 80s and why they want to dismantle public education.

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing."
~ Karl Rove

[Brother Mythos]

16. Under Individual-1, the GOP has gone from mere Tribal Behavior to outright Cult Status.

They are now The Republicult™, and they revel in the worship of their new messiah.

[bluestarone]

17. They are told to BELIEVE, prove your faith be strong!

THEY believe this shit!! THEN they bring the shit to everyone of US! Can't fix STUPID!

[paleotn]

18. Sociopaths coupled with the terminally irrational.

The Donnie base in a nut shell. One group wants to grab all they can, while the other burns the damn house down on top of their heads.

[SWBTATTReg]

19. YES. They are mad at the rest of us because we worked hard, and reaped the benefits of our...

hard working and brains. All of us, software and computer people, mechanics, sales, techs, restaurant workers, list could go on forever.

A lot of these rump rally goers didn't do this, and chose instead to go make a few easy bucks by getting paid to attend a dumbkoff (rump) rally. Easy money. After all, who in their right mind has the time and money to go drive miles and miles to a rally, stand around for hours and hours, doing nothing, and then stand there in front of idiot, who's only ranting and raving. That's it. While the rest of us are working. Must be nice.

Kind of rump, after all, where in the f**king world does someone get the time to watch all of the tv he does, to listen to the radio like he does, to tweet as much as he does, to talk w/ 'all of his friends (yeah, right)' as much as he does? No wonder nothing is getting done w/ this POS. RESIGN.

[IronLionZion]

20. Some of the insane ones still think this is some liberal plot

since Dem governors and mayors are cracking down harder than Red states.

A doctor was on the news talking about localized bending the curve, where the problem eventually gets under control in our cities and blue states after absolutely destroying our homeless and then continue to run rampant through rural areas where they have a false sense of security thinking it was over.

The first thing most every doctor has said is our numbers are going to go up really fast once we start testing through the backlog of patients whose doctors requested it. Which is a very large number. And unfortunately, people will die waiting for treatment. Red states are slower to test.

[TheFarseer]

50. They think liberals did something wrong

because it’s affecting cities but not affecting the country as much. Anyone that left their county is automatically stupid also, even if it was when we had barely heard of Covid 19.

[IronLionZion]

62. A lot of rural America has no ICU capacity at all

https://khn.org/news/as-coronavirus-spreads-widely-millions-of-older-americans-live-in-counties-with-no-icu-beds/

[hellno45]

23. That pretty much sums it up. nt

[MoonRiver]

24. Except they are just as likely to be victims of his insanity as the rest of US.

[sop]

26. Cruelty vs. Compassion is what differentiates Democrats from Republicans today.

[dawg]

33. I could be the cruelest son-of-a-bitch on the planet ...

but I still wouldn't want an incompetent clown at the head of my government. (Unless, of course, that incompetent clown was me.)

[sop]

34. Incompetence is part of Trump's cruelty

[Saboburns]

27. The painful truth is that his supporters are just like him foolish greedy ignorant racists

I don't say that lightly. I don't say that in passing. I don't say it condescendingly.

Because it is a painful and awful thing to realize about your neighbors and countrymen. And it took me until I was around 40 years old. It was during the W election and ensuing 9/11 and Iraq Invasion before I personally figured it out.

For me it was like walking through a previously closed door. But once I went through it, there was no going back.

Once you get it, a lot if things become understandable. I think you may have just walked through that same door yourself.

[Caliman73]

28. Fear

Fear is a tremendous motivator for behavior and typically not in a good way. Every single one of us is susceptible to fear and emotional overload. It diminishes or completely disrupts rational thinking. Conservatives, however are uniquely vulnerable to fear and it forms the center of their ideology. They fear the "other", the unknown, and change. They need structure and conformity and will succumb to authoritarianism readily whereas people who are more liberal/progressive will resist.

Trump provides scapegoats who while presented as scary, are actually marginalized and vulnerable groups. He offers simple, but wrong solutions to complex problems. He focuses the fear into anger, which comforts the conservative mind.

What sets Trump apart from other conservative icons of the past, like Reagan and Nixon who also successfully harnessed fear, is that Trump has no limit or shame. He isn't constrained by any sense of propriety, decency, or honor.

I think there are some studies that show that conservatives have a larger amygdala than non conservatives. They are wired to follow people like Trump.

On the other hand (and I am not directly comparing Bloomberg to Trump) we had Bloomberg who has unlike Trump actually done good things with his money, but tried to run as a Democrat. Bloomberg, for all the good he has done and the support that he is putting into the effort to defeat Trump, is a wealthy person with authoritarian tendencies. We rejected him as the standard bearer of the Democratic party because we tend not to fall in line with authoritarianism.

[AirmensMom]

30. I've sort of figured out.

Since they don’t care about anyone else, they will continue to support him even when someone they know or love dies because of his mishandling of this pandemic. When they get sick and die is the only time they might stop supporting him. And then they can’t do anything anyway because they’re dead. If they get sick and don’t die, they’ll still call it a hoax because, well, they didn’t die so it wasn’t all that bad. So basically, it’s, “as long as I don’t get sick and die, I’m cool with him. MAGA!” Amirite?

[dawg]

31. If I didn't give a fuck about anyone but my self ...

I'd still never vote for Trump.

Like he would ever give a damn or do anything to help me ...

[Peregrine Took]

35. They are monsters just like him. No amount of "talking" to them will change them. n/t

[wryter2000]

36. That's it.

It requires a total lack of empathy. That's why they'll turn on a dime when something affects them personally. Remember the Trumper who said, "He's hurting the wrong people"?

[Hotler]

37. The cornerstone of the repug party is selfishness.

Their motto is "I have mine, fuck the rest of you." that is way there is hoarding and they don't care if 40-50 million die. It is cheaper for the health insurance companies to let us die than to fork out big bucks for treatments. Watch life insurance companies deny payouts for the virus because it is an act of God.

[totodeinhere]

39. I think that some of his supporters know exactly what kind of person he is but they actually like it

They like having a racist xenophobe for president. They like putting brown-skinned children in cages. They like to see human suffering as long as they aren't the ones to suffer. But it's eventually going to come back to bite them too. The way things are going now everybody will be in a world of hurt soon enough.

[PaulRevere08]

41. He validates and vindicates their behavior and they emulate him. They like seeing him

be a bully because they bully the cashier at the fast food joint. They don't care when he guts environmental laws because they toss their trash in the public park. They like it when he puts down the educated because they trash their kid's teachers. So many parallels.

[machoneman]

40. OWNING THE LIBS is why!

[dlk]

42. Besides the narcissism, it's about being right and winning

Unfortunately, some Americans are intrinsically truly awful human beings. Recognizing that fact and working around them is the key.

[AllaN01Bear]

43. thats the way it has always been.

[TNNurse]

44. I worked with many for years.

If it does not affect them or someone they care about, it is of no significance.

Nancy Reagan is the perfect example with HIV and Alzheimer's.

[DemoTex]

45. Wanton hoarding ..

Supports your theory.

[A HERETIC I AM]

46. "You gotta be a special kind of stupid to vote for a democrat"

This is what a co-worker/fellow truck driver told me yesterday when the conversation turned to how Trumpy was handling the current situation.

I've ridden with this guy in the past, as he does the same, 48 hour trip up to Cincinnati, over to Pittsburgh and back twice a week.

We were talking about how the company had made changes to another long distance trip and I said something about how bad it could get if the Postal Service started closing the huge sorting centers we both go to for lack of personnel.

"Not gonna happen" he said.

"Why"

"Cause they got it under control"

I told him about the situation in Italy where the largest hospital in the north of that country was being overwhelmed by patients. he then gave me some bullshit about how that wont happen here because Italy didn't "close their borders with China and Trump did"

I said Trumpy has bungled the response since day one

"You need to stop drinking that Koolaid"

Ahhh...I see....This was quickly going to devolve into a "I'm not stupid and gullible, YOU are" kind of thing.

He got right in my face when I asked him if he was calling me "a special kind of stupid"

"You are if you vote Democrat"

Well, you fucking dopey redneck asshole, I hope you get sneezed on by the wrong person now.

The Dunning - Kruger effect in action.

BTW, He's HUGE (and by that I mean morbidly obese) and can't walk further than about 50 yards without a sit down. I don't wish death on him, but....well..... fuck him anyway.

[Ferrets are Cool]

48. That still doesn't explain it. Stupidity and unquestioned loyalty to the R is the only thing

I can come up with.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

49. One word: psychopathy.

From an evolutionary viewpoint, my amateur theory is that we all have a touch of psychopath in us from our primitive ancestors, many of which had to be brutal assholes to survive.

Some of us have far more of that genetic trait than others. The ones plagued with a moderate degree of it in the general population are mostly Republicans (or Tories in the UK) and those with a high degree of it are either in prison or are corporate officers.

However, those of us with much lesser effects of that genetic trait are Democrats.

Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy

KY......

[mucifer]

51. they worship the golden calf

[lapfog_1]

52. In a word... deplorable.

[Chalco]

55. My bro, who grew up like me on food stamps...

is now a Republican multi-millionaire. He's a self-made man and
I'm certainly proud of him, as I am of myself. We both did well
in spite of our circumstances due to pluck and motivation.

But, now that he's part of the upper 1%, he feels that it is
survival of the fittest. And, if you go down, no matter why,
you are not fit.

So, yes, he doesn't care if anything happens to anyone else,
except of course those he's close to.

[Amaryllis]

56. It's more than that. They are brainwashed by FAux news and believe what they hear. I know good

people in that category. Gullible, poor judgment, inability to reason, but not necessarily cruel or uncaring. They don't have the information we have because they are in an echo chamber.

[NRaleighLiberal]

58. he is the golden cow in the corny 10 commandments flick

[Newest Reality]

60. Conditioning...

I think conditioning plays into this as well. Rather than deprecating the people who are falling for this, I would investigate how we got to this point and the factors that may have encouraged it.

It seems to be far more complex than our superficial attempts to ascertain how a snake oil and used car salesman could sell himself to so many adult human beings.

While responsibility is to the individual, we have had decades of various forms of manipulation from corporations that have encouraged a self-centered, feel good, reactionary, emotive response to things and that sells products. I don't see an emphasis on critical thinking in High Schools and beliefs are considered to be only for the "religious" when, in fact, they abound and have many forms, while knowledge, facts, data, science, reason and logic are asides, at best.

This country has had a long history of anti-intellectualism, which leaves a vacuum for fundamentalism and belief systems to grow and prevail. In fact, religion is viable in a secular world, but a secular world and democracy are not welcome in a religious one. In that case a balance is essential and we are living in a World that is very much out of balance.

Perhaps, as things shake out, the faults and problems underneath the facade will become clearly evident and some deep, systemic changes will be required and even more viable.

[customerserviceguy]

63. While I was inclined to agree with you

up until a short while ago, I have a different take on it.

Trump supporters are all about pain for anyone they define as being different from them, they believe that he will not screw them over in the long run. Once C-19 goes from being a major pain in the ass to something that really causes serious harm or loss to them and their families, they won't be so enamored of him.

No, they're not going to vote for Joe Biden. But, they might just skip that line on the ballot, as the fundies did when Mittens was the GOP nominee. It was better to deal with the devil they knew rather than to give Mormon missionaries another talking point at peoples' doorways.

[tinymontgomery]

64. This is when they stop believing

This is when they stop believing in the republicans, good read

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/politics/coronavirus-heaven-frilot-mark-frilot.html?algo=top_conversion&fellback=false&imp_id=63616934&imp_id=845128933&action=click&module=Most%20Popular&pgtype=Homepage

[marlakay]

65. We passed a car few days ago

With bumper sticker that says Trump 2020 make America cry again.

They think we are a bunch of pussies and they want us to cry, they love that we hate him it feeds them.

This blows me away that so many in our country are that way.