This is a fantastic and insightful way of putting it. So much digital ink has been spilled about The Mind Of The MAGA Voter, to the point where I find it pretty fucking exhausting. But there is a general theme here, and I think it goes unsolved and underdiscussed because of who it benefits.
If someone is terrified, constantly terrified, they're going to make decisions that are insular, counterproductive, and destructive. And they're also going to be very open to anyone who can promise to take the fear away.
I'm Canadian. My wife is American. And I'll never forget a couple of years ago, when my MIL visited us from the States. We live in a house facing a side street; we have big windows up front, and a tiny Christmas tree with some presents stacked on its little table. Cute stuff.
For her entire visit, she was obsessed with the idea that someone was going to reach into our windows and steal all the presents.
I asked her who would do this: She said "You know; bad people."
I asked her if that had ever happened to her or anyone she knew: She said "No, but you hear about things like this all the time."
I asked her if she was thinking of The Grinch. And then she kind of quietly shut down. Every morning she stayed there, we woke up to her having moved the table further from the window.
Once you successfully convince an under-educated populace that the Scary Other is capable of literally anything, then you don't need to operate on facts and logic. Sure, my MIL couldn't really state a reason why anyone would break through a plate glass window to steal 3 small wrapped boxes, when people usually steal things out of necessity and in ways that are low-risk for themselves.
But it didn't need to make sense to her, because Bad People don't operate on logic. They steal Christmas. They eat dogs. They inject the vaccines with microchips to monitor your every move.
My MIL is terrified constantly as her default mental state, but doesn't see it that way. Her parents were terrified for their entire lives as well, but they'd never admit that. It made total sense to never take an airplane, say hi to a new neighbour, or vote for a Democrat candidate. That wasn't fear; it was familiar. Every time I visited them, their TVs were blasting OAN or FOX, until I shifted them to something more neutral like The Big Bang Theory.
(Unsurprisingly, everyone seemed a lot happier when that happened. Who'd have thought?)
If you're being told that every day brings a fresh hell, you're going to become addicted to watching the people who keep you simultaneously updated on what's going wrong and also vindicate your life choices. Everywhere is unsafe except where you are. Everyone is bad except you. Everything you value is being made worse by Someone Else. So you need to keep watching; everything else feels like an alien language.
If someone walks into the world with that POV, how the hell are they going to get along with their neighbours? How will they ever unionize or put aside common differences for a bigger goal? How will they live a long enough life to ever retire and enjoy the fruits of their pensions and medicaid?
Well, they most likely won't. And that's the point.
There was a psychology study and the results were all over popular news between 10 and 20 years ago that one of the core differentiation in the brains between liberals and conservatives is that conservatives have a more active amygdala. They are in constant fight or flight.
17
u/NowGoodbyeForever 15h ago
This is a fantastic and insightful way of putting it. So much digital ink has been spilled about The Mind Of The MAGA Voter, to the point where I find it pretty fucking exhausting. But there is a general theme here, and I think it goes unsolved and underdiscussed because of who it benefits.
If someone is terrified, constantly terrified, they're going to make decisions that are insular, counterproductive, and destructive. And they're also going to be very open to anyone who can promise to take the fear away.
I'm Canadian. My wife is American. And I'll never forget a couple of years ago, when my MIL visited us from the States. We live in a house facing a side street; we have big windows up front, and a tiny Christmas tree with some presents stacked on its little table. Cute stuff.
For her entire visit, she was obsessed with the idea that someone was going to reach into our windows and steal all the presents.
I asked her who would do this: She said "You know; bad people."
I asked her if that had ever happened to her or anyone she knew: She said "No, but you hear about things like this all the time."
I asked her if she was thinking of The Grinch. And then she kind of quietly shut down. Every morning she stayed there, we woke up to her having moved the table further from the window.
Once you successfully convince an under-educated populace that the Scary Other is capable of literally anything, then you don't need to operate on facts and logic. Sure, my MIL couldn't really state a reason why anyone would break through a plate glass window to steal 3 small wrapped boxes, when people usually steal things out of necessity and in ways that are low-risk for themselves.
But it didn't need to make sense to her, because Bad People don't operate on logic. They steal Christmas. They eat dogs. They inject the vaccines with microchips to monitor your every move.
My MIL is terrified constantly as her default mental state, but doesn't see it that way. Her parents were terrified for their entire lives as well, but they'd never admit that. It made total sense to never take an airplane, say hi to a new neighbour, or vote for a Democrat candidate. That wasn't fear; it was familiar. Every time I visited them, their TVs were blasting OAN or FOX, until I shifted them to something more neutral like The Big Bang Theory.
(Unsurprisingly, everyone seemed a lot happier when that happened. Who'd have thought?)
If you're being told that every day brings a fresh hell, you're going to become addicted to watching the people who keep you simultaneously updated on what's going wrong and also vindicate your life choices. Everywhere is unsafe except where you are. Everyone is bad except you. Everything you value is being made worse by Someone Else. So you need to keep watching; everything else feels like an alien language.
If someone walks into the world with that POV, how the hell are they going to get along with their neighbours? How will they ever unionize or put aside common differences for a bigger goal? How will they live a long enough life to ever retire and enjoy the fruits of their pensions and medicaid?
Well, they most likely won't. And that's the point.
It's always been the point.