Analysis of the Trump Voter

[Fearless]

There is a core belief that sits in the hearts of all Trump voters. And that isn't racism or misogyny or hatred of the working poor necessarily. Hear me though on this. Many of those beliefs are for sure A reason why some people support Trump. But they aren't THE reason.

The reason people voted for Trump is an inherent belief that there just isn't enough to go around.

Enough what?

Everything. Anything really.

There isn't enough food to feed everyone. There isn't enough space to house everyone. There isn't enough wealth to enrich everyone.

These people believe that they need to get theirs and defend theirs before helping others. This is why people vote against their own best interests. They aren't looking to feed the poor. They're looking to ensure that they are fed themselves and they are going to TAKE what they need to TAKE to ensure that this occurs. They aren't looking to protect women's rights, they're looking to preserve a society from the past that catered to them.

They simply don't care about others. They don't care about refugees from another country. To them they are competition for resources. They will use and justify using any and all physical and psychological differences that make you different from them to compartmentalize in their minds the belief that they are not more important than you--to dehumanize you.

The same is true in reference to Black people.

Gay people.

Women.

There is an entire generation of poor white men in this country that actually believe that there isn't enough to go around. They've been shown the evidence their entire lives by those in power, those manipulating them to gain more power. They have been shown a scapegoat for all of their own problems, for all of the difficulties they've had in their lives--the Black person, the gay person, women, immigrants, refugees, "foreigners", "illegals", atheists, communists, socialists, and so on. Those who don't have can easily be manipulated by those who do. Waive a little chunk of what they want in front of their faces and point to the Black person, suggest that they somehow are the reason they don't "have".

Keep this in mind when talking with Trump voters. Ask them for yourself if they feel they should get theirs first before helping others or if by helping others they can get theirs.

The answer will surprise you.

Or not, if you've been reading the signs.

http://blog.nothingtoofear.com/2017/02/analyzing-trump-voter.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I keep coming back to something Lyndon Johnson once said:

"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."

[pat_k]

2. Folks on the right perceive the world as a scarier place than liberals do.

More exaggerated startle response, experience higher levels of fear, more responsive to negative stimuli, more risk avoidant.

The label "reacationary" makes sense. They tend to be more reactive generally. Nature or nuture? Who knows.

Aversion to the notion of "sharing" out of fear "I won't get mine" fits the profile.

Differences in Conservative and Liberal Brains
16 peer-reviewed studies show liberals and conservatives physiologically different
http://2012election.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004818


Some tidbits:

4. Liberals have more tolerance to uncertainty (bigger anterior cingulate cortex), and conservatives have more sensitivity to fear (bigger right amygdala).

7. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to interpret faces as threatening and expressing dominant emotions, while Democrats show greater emotional distress and lower life satisfaction.

8. Conservatives and liberals react similarly to positive incentives, but conservatives have greater sensitivity to negative stimuli.

12. Conservatives learn better from negative stimuli than from positive stimuli and are more risk avoidant than liberals.

13. Individual political attitudes correlate with physiological traits, such as sensitivity to sudden noises and threatening visual images.

10. Conservatism is focused on preventing negative outcomes, while liberalism is focused on advancing positive outcomes.

In a group of 46 adult participants with strong political beliefs, individuals with measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and threatening visual images were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism, and gun control, whereas individuals displaying measurably higher physiological reactions to those same stimuli were more likely to favor defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism, and the Iraq War.

[orleans]

6. very interesting link

i'll read it more when i'm more awake (and sober)

thanks for sharing it

[Arkansas Granny]

8. Thanks for linking that website. Very interesting info there.

[KT2000]

3. managing fear

some believe if there are others who are suffering and doing without, they are safe and their fear is assuaged because they are doing OK - which means they are in fact better. God likes them more.

Some believe that when everyone is OK and no one is suffering - everyone is safe - fear assuaged. Caring about others also carries with it - compassion for others.

[erinlough]

4. Not just the Trump voters it is the dividing line in life, imo.

I believe this is the basis for a lot of behavior we see. Not enough power, money, food, water, air, oil, you name it. So we must hoard rather than share, we must take rather than give. Woe be to anyone who tries to climb out from a lower place because there certainly isn't enough room at the top for anyone else. I see it even within families. One person will give and another is only a taker.
The funny thing about this is that these people are never happy, no matter how much they get because....there is never enough.
Trump voters won, and they are still mad and angry if anyone disagrees with him. I think they need total acceptance because they think it will be enough, but it never will.

[JI7]

5. their support for a white man who has a lot shows it IS about bigotry

they have no problem with white men who have it all and even more.

[Glamrock]

7. Man, that ain't my sperience

All the Trump voters I know are completely, utterly, ridiculously ignorant of policy and politic. All they know about politics is the very brief glimpse they get from either FOX news in the hotel lobby, doctors office, McDonald's, or their asshole friend who listens to Limbaugh and his mimicks all day. These fucking people are fucking clueless. I'm amazed by it. Because when I started feeling the short end of the stick during the Bush years, I researched the why of it. We have a population of intellectually lazy m*#%@+#s.

[DeminPennswoods]

9. Maslow's hierarchy of needs explains it

Trump voters are near the bottom of it, fighting for security and survival. Why? Years of stagnant wages, having to work more than 1 job, poor healtcare options and stress associated with generally trying to hold their lives and/or families together.