I think I figured something out about the MAGAs.

[Initech]

And the answer is simple yet complex. The answer? They're not happy. With anything.

No matter what the outcome of any situation is, they will find some way to spin it so they come out as the victim in that situation. It must suck to have that much of a victim complex. But that's what happens when you live in an echo chamber that feeds you nothing but hate, lies and propaganda 24 hours a day.

Like for instance this thing with the Chinese spy balloon. They wanted Biden to shoot it down. He shot it down. They're still complaining and now saying that the balloons may have had missiles or bioweapons. I mean come on, that's some conspiracy theory tin foil hat nuttery. And no, we don't give a shit about what Trump would have done. He probably would have started World War III.

Or take an issue like jobs / employment rate. In 2020, jobs were at the lowest point in history since the Great Depression because of the COVID outbreak. Now Biden's brought back jobs to one of the best unemployment rates in the last 40 years, and the MAGA response? They're complaining about inflation rates and saying that Biden isn't doing enough to protect consumers.

Or Rhianna's half time show. It was a pretty decent show and nothing really out of the ordinary happened. So what do they do? Complain about how it's not kid friendly enough. What do you want? The Wiggles to perform at the half time show? Kid Rock? Ted Nugent? Some Christian rock bands? Puke.

So how do you make someone change their attitude like that? All the MAGAs do is complain and obstruct. They are never satisfied with anything. Trump attracts people with anxiety issues who are disconnected from society and are constantly angry about everything. If you try to make the other side miserable or cry all the time, it is you who will ultimately be the miserable one.

[NewHendoLib]

1. They are the Cult of Grievance.

[Wicked Blue]

2. They are NATTERING NABOBS OF NEGATIVISM

To use a phrase coined by former VP Spiro Agnew

https://politicaldictionary.com/words/nattering-nabobs-of-negativism/

[EYESORE 9001]

14. Spirit Agnew used that term in reference to corporate media

An early version of ‘liberal media’ or ‘fake news’.

[Wicked Blue]

15. Correct

And now it seems to describe his whole nasty party.

[EYESORE 9001]

17. Yep

Agnew was projecting on an OmniMax scale. Even then, goopers were a party of white grievance. They’ve gotten even worse.

[JPPaverage]

3. I've actually asked a few of them about that

I've mentioned to them that it must really suck going through life being that miserable. Mostly they don't say anything in response. In fact, (thankfully) they don't even talk to me anymore, for the most part.

[EYESORE 9001]

18. Bonus!

[cilla4progress]

4. I am irked how they are pandered to!

They are common playground bullies!

[Initech]

8. Oh I get that!

I have no doubt that Marjorie Greene shoved kids into lockers and beat them up for their lunch money when she was in high school.

[Ocelot II]

5. They aren't happy unless they're unhappy. They have to be angry all the time

or they aren't having any fun. There really is a psychological basis for all of this - being angry and upset is exciting, and it gives people a reason to band together, on-line or live, to rant and complain about how they're being victimized or whatever. So they have the psychologically comforting experience of community and the excitement of rage. It's a great way to live; furiously pounding on a keyboard, expressing your righteous wrath about the Illuminati or woke drag queens or anthropomorphic, gender-ambiguous chocolate candies is ever so much more inspiring than going to a concert or walking in a park or reading a good book...

[Initech]

9. Yeah you know that old saying "they hate us cause they ain't us".

Like Trump is the guy who didn't get invited to the cool kids' table, so he makes the cool kids miserable. Like Obama had Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, and U2 at his inauguration. Trump couldn't even get a Z grade cover band at his. So he had the winner of America's Got Talent and 3 Doors Down.

Or that stupid fight that they put up with over that damn M&Ms commercial. Like really of all the issues you could have tackled, you get mad because you think the green M&M isn't stripping for you? Madness.

[maxsolomon]

6. Rhianna's spectacle really didn't need so much pelvic thrusting.

It was declassee, but that's hip hop dancing nowadays.

But you're spot on. The purpose of RW Propaganda media is to cultivate white resentment and victimhood. "They're trying to take what's yours".

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. What number of pelvic thrusts would have been the needful amount

It was declassee, but that's hip hop dancing nowadays.

'Twas ever thus; no status has been lost.

[maxsolomon]

20. It needed zero pelvic thrusts.

That's what the Cons are objecting to, I'd wager.

I'd rather halftime was the normal NFL length, 15 minutes, and there was no musical spectacle. In general, the acts are past their sell-date, or they're boring lipsynched pop.

[rictofen]

27. That was the least of it. She did something else I haven't seen mentioned here

Which is how she, uhh, grabbed her crotch and then smelled her fingers.

Yeah, I'm not going to go and die defending that particular hill.

[EYESORE 9001]

16. Appalling

Painted up like a trollop, prancing around doing that little BEE-hind shake for all the menfolk.

[SomedayKindaLove]

7. I'm not sure Trump attracts people with anxiety

As much as he causes anxiety in those opposed to him. Trump’s magnet is anger and hatred. He bring that out on both sides.

[Caliman73]

10. I don't think that there is anything wrong with being upset and unhappy.

The problem is with the attribution of the source of the unhappiness. That has always been the separation between Liberals and Conservatives.

Liberals can be unhappy too, but we typically focus our upset at people with real power in society. Rhianna is rich, and she is influential within certain aspects of the culture. However, she does not have politicians on speed dial and cannot marshal forces to change, block, or propose legislation. You know who can, and has? Bill Gates, Elon Musk, the Koch family, the Adelsons, etc... People with wealth that would make Rhianna feel like a pauper. People who spend millions upon millions to create think tanks that actually push legislation across the board, the people who get 80% of their wishes enacted as legislation.

While Conservatives are unhappy about jobs, they blame undocumented workers. People who are desperate enough to leave all that they know to come to the US for a chance to live. People lured here by employers who advertise better wages and conditions than they can find at home. They blame LGBTQ people for challenging "tradition" when it does absolutely nothing to materially change their life. Instead of being upset by large corporations shipping hundreds of thousands of jobs where they can pay 1 dollar an hour, they get mad at the immigrant who will take one job at 10 dollars an hour instead of 15 dollars an hour. They don't even see that it is the same people who are shipping the jobs overseas AND hiring undocumented workers, just to put more money in their own pockets.


I have said before, I can live in a neighborhood surrounded by gay, lesbian, and trans people/families, and as long as they were decent neighbors (I.E. not playing their music loud at 11pm, etc...) their marriages/families would have little to no effect on my marriage and family, job, or anything else. What does have an effect on my life, is when the wealthiest people are allowed to cheat on their taxes, to pay less than their fair share, because that means that either, the potholes in my community won't get fixed, OR that I am going to have to pay more in taxes to fix them so that the wealthy person can buy their 4th private jet. I will have less money to through the neighborhood barbecue and invite all my LGBTQ neighbors to have a nice party.

Yes, conservatives are always seeming to be upset, but the real problem is that they are upset at the wrong things and the wrong people. We are all upset, which is why Liberals try to elect people who might do something about the problems and we push them to do something. Conservatives get upset and elect people who align themselves with the very people who have created the problems in the first place.

[Initech]

13. I think the problem isn't so much that they're unhappy but why they are unhappy.

And they seem to be mad at the wrong people all the time. That I agree with.

Another issue is gas prices. Yeah gas was completely insane last year, but Joe Biden worked with Congress to help bring down gas prices and now they're back to pre-COVID levels. They're still complaining about gas prices. But they're not complaining about that gas was $2 at one point. You know why gas was so cheap? It's because we were all locked in our homes and couldn't go anywhere, so demand plummeted.

I think what needs to happen is that we need to identify the issue - which in this case is their unhappiness - and then figure out why it happens. Kind of like how the Joker movie wasn't about the violence, but more about the underlying issues that lead to violence. The sooner we figure this out the more we can start getting this country back on track.

[Caliman73]

19. A major part of the "attribution problem" is that there is a whole media ecosystem that tells them..

who to be mad at. You have Tucker Carlson everyday, telling people that "wokeness" is to blame. You have thousands of AM radio stations that echo the talking points about, "the crisis at the border".

There is an actual crisis at the border, but it isn't that people are wanting to seek asylum. The problem is why. What is going on in the countries that people are coming from? You will find that US and global trade policies, labor policies, our drug habit, and direct interference when say, a people want to elect a Socialist government, create the conditions that make life difficult enough so that they choose to move thousands of miles away from everything they own for a chance to simply live and prosper.

Right wing media is a problem. Most of the people who are consistently unhappy, and unhappy with "those people", the Hollywood elites, and Washington (except for their right wing leaders), are 9.9 times out of 10, getting all of their "information" from right wing sources exclusively.

[Initech]

22. I've been saying for years that the right wing echo chamber is a massive problem facing this country

They control too much and they've warped many minds. I've lost friends and relatives to this shit, and I'm sure that many others here have as well.

It's insane that people are against socialism and Marxism, but couldn't tell you a single thing about either one. Or that people are against having open borders, but couldn't tell you why the border needs to be closed. That's another issue - the GOP complains constantly that Joe Biden isn't visiting the border. Biden visits the border. They go back to complaining.

But that's what the Fox News echo chamber does to people. They just shut off reality in favor of carefully manufactured talking points and weaponized propaganda.

[FakeNoose]

12. Faux Noise figured out their triggers long ago

Faux is an expert at pulling their triggers, and perhaps creating a few new ones. That's info-tainment!

[Nevilledog]

21. Perpetual victimhood.

[Jade Fox]

23. They don't have lives, or the guts to get one.....

I think MAGAs are are profoundly lazy and conformist people. They even have to be told who/what to be mad at, they are so conformist. They are terrified that anyone in their group would question their behavior, which means they can never get a unique life of their own.

[louis-t]

24. You KNOW if the first balloon had been shot down earlier

MAGA would have complained he "shot it down too soon, endangering lives, think of the children, he's reckless, should resign immediately, blah, blah, blah..."

[Initech]

25. I think about their response to the Uvalde shooting last year.

Like the right wing echo chamber was complaining that schools didn't have enough cops. There were literaly 400 cops at the scene and none of them confronted the shooter because they were too scared of the guy and the gun that was being used to murder those kids. Now they're complaining that schools have too many exits and windows which make it easier for shooters to get in.

But they're not going after the underlying problem in this situation: the fucking guns!

[Marcus IM]

26. RW media says the same thing about the left. n/t

[IbogaProject]

28. Inferiority complex

Inferiority complex is my amature guess.