His appeal is the same appeal that takes each of us in at some point; he offers easy answers to complicated problems. It's tempting to believe that only the profoundly stupid will fall for this, but when a problem is outside your knowledge or experience and someone confidently announces they have a solution its pretty easy to let yourself stop thinking any further.
Also, there are a ton of racists and xenophobes out there who already believe they have the easy answers and like the confirmation of having them parroted back at them.
His appeal is the same appeal that takes each of us in at some point; he offers easy answers to complicated problems.
This is the key. And yes we've all been there. But, normally you grow out of it once you pass teenage angst and college year insecurities.
You'd think so,but education and experience doesn't really get rid of the underlying tendency so much as it inoculates you to it in specific areas of experience/expertise. Plenty of experts in their own field will look at a screw-up in another field they're not familiar with and exclaim "just do/don't do x, y,or z." That's why it's such an insidious tendency, insight really only let's you see how complicated certain things are while leaving the shroud of your own ignorance around everything else.
Think of a clerk having trouble with the register when you're in a hurry to get home. You're likely to think to yourself "come on! It's your one job and it's not that hard. But if you're made to stop and think about it you realize there's a whole litany of functions to remember for the different scenarios that come up, an encyclopedia of produce numbers to remember, company policies to be observed,and all sorts of smaller jobs to be done.
This isn't to say that people willing to hurt others for an easy solution to their problems have an excuse. This is just to say that we would do well to remember that everyone is susceptible to the urge to oversimplify.
Edit: spelling
Definitely a major contributor, but it's not just that. Trump is angry and that's appealing because we're all kinda angry too. A lot of us know that that anger is pointless right now and can only be used to make things worse, but it's still kind of a good feeling to see that reflected in someone in a position of power. If Biden had half that intensity, he'd have this in the bag and we wouldn't be talking about any of the other recent problems.
You raise a good point. The bias towards action, real or perceived, and the catharsis of self-righteous anger are both strong motivators at work in the political realm. We'd all do well to guard ourselves against those wishing to exploit them.
It tested really well with some key demographics.
Dammit I want my taco trucks on every corner.
Man. Fascism sucks.
You joke but check out Century of the Self
Remember that feeling when, as a little kid, your parents said that you could eat all the candy you wanted, with no limits at all, and you were too fucking stupid to realize how bad that was for you? It's like that.
It's like that but it also seems like the kids are determined not to learn anything new.
It's like that but the see the schoolyard bully picking on all the gay, colored, and/or fat kids, and want to join in.
And they are 60 years old
Pretty much sums up the Boomers
I'm really sorry your parents did that to you.
Another big part is that he let's you believe your failures aren't your fault. Someone else sabotaged you, so you don't have to commit the hard work of fixing yourself.
Gaslighting 😱
?
That and a media echo chamber of lies.
Turns out brainwashing people and telling them it's "news" is a really effective strategy.
Who knew??
Besides Göebbels and Murdoch. And Bernays.
Lol this is so stupid. His "appeal" is ignorance, racism and misogyny? jesus christ
Okay, then what’s his appeal? Being a conman? A rapist, a fraud, a habitual liar, unbelievably vain, a pedophile, a barely literate narcissist?
Being a traitor, a useful idiot, a seditionist coup-plotter, an election stealer (failed)?
His appeal is the same as Bernie's was. While most oligarchy controlled politicians refuse to recognize how shitty things are, Bernie and Trump got up and said what everyone who lives in the real world knows to be true: shit's fucked up. The difference was that Bernie recognized it's the oligarchy (including Trump, even though he's kinda his own oligarchy) that's fucking things up, while Trump just let the racists and misogynists and bigots choose whoever they wanted to blame and agreed with them. After all, he couldn't point the finger at himself (probably literally, since he's a narcissist his brain won't let him).
Basically he recognizes that their lives are shit, and gives them license to openly blame whoever they want to blame. Thanks to decades of Republican bullshit, they tend to want to blame anyone who's not a white Christian.
I think liking Trump must be like people who are into BDSM (I realize not everyone shares my opinion here), where it seems to be that you actually need therapy but instead decide to deliberately have someone hurt you all the time instead as a form of passive self injury.
I realize not everyone shares my opinion here
Your opinion is just wrong.
Sure. Nobody could possibly be hurting themselves through BDSM. https://m.startribune.com/heather-mayer-death-bdsm-mother-find-justice-twin-cities/600273507/?clmob=y&c=n
I'm not so sure that they realise that he's only in it for himself or that he made it so much worse not just for ordinary Americans, but specifically for people who supported him. I mean, I know he thinks they're losers for getting caught on insurrection day but I don't think they realise how much he looks down on them and how much deep contempt he has for them. The people who followed his advice about covid lost loved ones and gave their lives for what? Sticking it to the libs? But when he got covid, it was straight to the science and medicine and none of the horse dewormer crap that he was peddling to his supporters.
Where's his appeal, and what's it about? All I see are the Jack Smith related things when I look.
