General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe psychological reason why his voters CANNOT leave Trump, not even in private:
Whatever Trump did in the past, his poll-numbers never dropped below 40% of the populace. That's his base. The Trump-voter. Not the republican voters in general who make up 50% of the electorate, but the actual Trump-voter is these 40% of the electorate.
In order to understand the mindset of a Trump-voter, you have to understand the mindset of a conspiracy-theorist!
The vast majority of the population is mediocre, average, unremarkable. But we all want to be someone special, we all want the higher social standing that comes with being someone special. Preferably without having to put in any actual effort like e.g. hard work.
If you believe in a conspiracy-theory, that AUTOMATICALLY makes you someone special, with no need to put in any effort. You are AUTOMATICALLY transformed from someone lowly into a genius who recognizes the truth, into a hero who opposes dark forces.
And THAT is the appeal of believing in conspiracy-theories. (Well, one of the three appeals. see article)
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/talking-apes/201801/why-do-people-believe-in-conspiracy-theories
And that is what Trump has to offer. He offers you hidden truths to recognize. He offers you dark forces to oppose.
If Trump is correct, then you are a genius for knowing these hidden truths Trump told you about.
If Trump is correct, then you are a hero for opposing these dark forces Trump told you about.
If Trump is wrong, you are and remain a nobody.
So, who do you want to be? A genius and hero, or a nobody?
canetoad
(17,088 posts)It boils down to knowing a secret that is not apparent to other people. K&R
LakeVermilion
(1,022 posts)that some of these people find that this is the easiest way to be the hero. They could choose to volunteer, or to be a mentor, but that would take too long and require too much of a commitment. This way, they get to keep their time and effort and still be someone special.
Perhaps they are lazy, or impatient, but by following Trump they can get attention by re-posting ready-made crap on Facebook or Twitter.
RVN VET71
(2,686 posts)You can go help out at a soup kitchen or volunteer to help with a charity but, doing that, you'll get smirks from your idiot cohorts. Ah, but join with them to argue and complain about the dark forces, and your membership in the macho-moron gang is guaranteed, brandish a rifle, and call your friends to arms "if it comes down to that, y'know?" -- and your membership is complete.
secondwind
(16,903 posts)will repeat itself all over again......
2naSalit
(86,031 posts)real education, is offered to all and civics is begun at an early point in that education.
LakeVermilion
(1,022 posts)I would hope that we wouldn't fall for that.
Most liberals have some particle of anarchist, so I suppose that's why our side can't stay unified. We tend to unravel our organizations.
ronatchig
(575 posts)To the republican(fascist) mind. The side that makes the rules is the right side to many minds.
DFW
(54,047 posts)I do not believe that 50% are Republicans. Trump supporters, if one can believe some studies, constitute 90% of Republican voters, which would make Republicans about 45% of the electorate, which would conform with most studies I have read in recent years. There is a reason Republicans fight tooth and nail to disenfranchise Democratic voters. That is the action of a party who knows that it is in the minority, and needs cheating to elect Representatives, Governors, State Legislators and Senators in numbers that are superior and disproportionate to their real support.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)He stated that the GOP always did better with a lower turnout as the more folks who voted the less likely they were to win. So no matter the percentages which will vary by region it is certain that the are a minority party depending upon a lack of enthusiasm by Democratic voters to win.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)RVN VET71
(2,686 posts)The GOP got us to where we are today: a country in serious decline and in imminent danger of bankruptcy, both moral and financial coal. Anyone who votes for any Republican is responsible for the mess we're in. I say this living in Maryland, a state with a good governor who happens to be a Republican. I will never vote for him, however, unless he changes his party affiliation because the GOP's name has been forever tainted by, and will forever be associated with, Trump's and McConnell's treason.
safeinOhio
(32,524 posts)In the field of psychology, the DunningKruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. It is related to the cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, people cannot objectively evaluate their competence or incompetence.[1]
As described by social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the bias results from an internal illusion in people of low ability and from an external misperception in people of high ability; that is, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DunningKruger_effect
JI7
(89,172 posts)mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Chainfire
(17,304 posts)But you also have the wealthy who don't give a damn what else he does as long as he protects and grows their wealth.
Baltimike
(4,123 posts)Major Nikon
(36,814 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,264 posts)Nothing bonds a group more tightly than a common enemy that is perceived as a mortal threat.
September 4, 2020
Peter Wehner
Contributing writer at The Atlantic and senior fellow at EPPC
To understand the corruption, chaos, and general insanity that is continuing to engulf the Trump campaign and much of the Republican Party right now, it helps to understand the predicate embraced by many Trump supporters: If Joseph R. Biden Jr. wins the presidency, America dies. During last weeks Republican National Convention, speaker after speaker insisted that life under a Biden presidency would be dystopian.
<snip>
One does not have to be a champion of the Democratic Party to know this chthonic portrait is absurd. But it is also essential, because it allows Trump and his followers to tolerate and justify pretty much anything in order to win. And anything turns out to be quite a lot. In just the past two weeks, the president has praised supporters of the right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon, which contends, as The Guardian recently summarized it, that a cabal of Satan-worshipping Democrats, Hollywood celebrities and billionaires runs the world while engaging in pedophilia, human trafficking and the harvesting of a supposedly life-extending chemical from the blood of abused children. Trump touted a conspiracy theory that the national death toll from COVID-19 is about 9,000, a fraction of the official figure of nearly 185,000; promoted a program on the One America News Network accusing demonstrators of secretly plotting Trumps downfall; encouraged his own supporters to commit voter fraud; and claimed Biden is controlled by people that are in the dark shadows who are wearing dark uniforms.
Trump believes his own government is conspiring to delay a COVID-19 vaccine until after the election. He retweeted a message from the actor James Woods saying New York Governor Andrew Cuomo should be in jail and another from an account accusing the Portland, Oregon, mayor of committing war crimes. The president is inciting violence, in the words of Marylands Republican Governor, Larry Hogan. Trump defended 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, a supporter who is charged with first-degree homicide; and stated that if he loses the election in November it would be because it was rigged. At the same time, the second-ranking House Republican, among other of the presidents supporters, has shared several manipulated videos in an effort to damage Biden.
This is just the latest installment in a four-year record of shame, indecency, incompetence, and malfeasance. And yet, for tens of millions of Trumps supporters, none of it matters. None of it even breaks through. At this point, it appears, Donald Trump really could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose his voters. This phenomenon has no shortage of explanations, but perhaps the most convincing is the terror the presidents backers feel. Time and again, Ive had conversations with Trump supporters who believe the president is all that stands between them and cultural revolution. Trump and his advisers know it, which is why the through line of the RNC was portraying Joe Biden as a Jacobin.
<snip>
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/predicate-fear/616009/
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Squinch
(50,773 posts)dameatball
(7,380 posts)help him think he is the smartest person in the room.
herding cats
(19,549 posts)They've spent their entire lives bouncing around from one idiotic herd to the next new one, and suddenly there's this big herd they can join and finally belong someplace where lots and lots of other people are participating and the freaking POTUS is praising and supporting you!
It's like Nirvana for lemmings.