What drives the MAGA crowd?

[KentuckyWoman]

Fear and a steady diet of propaganda will twist people up.

The fact is, working people are losing ground and have been for some time. Step in the fear mongers and propagandists. Toss in an upbringing in religion that trains someone from infancy up not to ask too many questions ... This is where you'll end up. Yes, the followers on this ride are nearly all white, hugging their racism with all they've got ... but whites certainly aren't the only race that can be goaded into the blame game. Violent overthrows and civil wars are scattered all over the world and all over history.

It's the same dynamic that got every dictator who ever was to the top. Every schoolyard bully their time unchallenged. Most of us have to be pushed pretty far to be willing to step up and put a stop to things. Peer pressure on a grander scale.

Human nature ... being used by predators against us.

It is hard, very hard, to remember what is happening now is a symptom not the disease. If we can move the pendulum back to workers getting a better shake, and information given to the public based in actual facts, then we can pull this mess back in.... for now.

But human nature isn't going to change. America - the big melting pot - is not ever going to be easy.

[Skittles]

1. racism

I really believe that is the major factor.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. They're convinced that straight white Christian people made the USA rich and powerful and great

And that EVERYONE else is inherently an undeserving leech, riding their glorious coattails. Be they a different race, religion, or sexual orientation. Everyone ELSE ... is sucking away their greatness and their birthright.

They also have an innate desire to think that things that were decided/thought of LONG ago and put to paper ... were inherently 'correct', and that no newer ideas or ways of thinking can be right (unless they're in agreement with OLD shit). Nostalgia is REALLY strong with people, they're terrified of change, most of them.

I think it's mostly genetic myself.

[MissMillie]

3. fear of losing priviledge

It's a zero-sum game with those folks. If someone else has something, that means they have less.

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. h a t e

[OnDoutside]

5. Overly comfortable in their ignorance ?

[Initech]

6. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, I could go on and on.

[Tennessee Hillbilly]

7. It's hard not to get discouraged, but ...

remember that a lot of basic progress has been made since the founding of this country. Slavery has been abolished, women have gained the right to vote,

In fact for more than 200 years progressive causes have repeatedly won out against conservative resistance. The election of trump was a setback, but there have been other previous setbacks as well, and all of them were eventually overcome.

[GoodRaisin]

8. A steady diet of Fox News

which validates what they believe and what they want to believe.

[Blue Owl]

9. MAGAts

[NewHendoLib]

10. their hatred for us (and envy of us)

[oasis]

11. Ignorance. Products of a dumbed down America. nt

[dawg day]

12. I think what feels really primitive is this idea that they identify almost entirely on race.

Personally, I feel more solidarity with other hard-working people who have never been able to buy a new car than with white billionaires who want a tax cut so they can buy a fourth yacht.

But for some reason, poor white people in WVa identify more with Zuckerberg than with other non-rich people.