Microblog Memes

The aversion to reading is always a red flag for me. Reading is a pillar of human intelligence.

I thought this was always obvious. His whole appeal was 'he says it like it is' and 'he's brave enough to say what we're all thinking'.

That's why scandals didn't affect him, he never pretended to be virtuous like most of the other Republicans do.

A third of people in any society have authoritarian tendencies and will vote for the strong man 'that will set everything straight', and it's always a failure of mainstream politicians that allows these people to get into power (either by not motivating the other 70% to vote for their project, being too divided, or by going into a coalition with that party).

MAGA is popular for the same reason other nationalist, fascist movements have risen over the course of modern history: as a response to Capitalist decay. MAGA isn't popular for genetic reasons, intellectual inferiority, or other reasons like that, but as a common class interest. All of the descriptors in the OP are consequences of the driving factor of class interests, not the drivers themselves.

Fascism is most often represented as an alliance between the Petite Bourgeoisie and Bourgeoisie proper, driven by the Petite Bourgeoisie, as monopolization of Capital results in competition becoming more and more difficult, and the Petite Bourgeoisie faces Proletarianization. To prevent the Petite Bourgeoisie from joining the Proletariat in solidarity, the Bourgeoisie proper turns their hatred against the Proletariat and Lumpenproletariat.

What does this all mean, in practical, American terms? Small business owners, landlords, ie the "middle class," is shrinking in power, so the Small Business Owners are aligning with billionaires like Musk and Bezos against immigrants, workers, unhoused peopled, gender/sexual minorities, women, ethnic minorities, and more.

How do we fix this? Grow the Petite Bourgeoisie and restore their position? Absolutely not! That's when fascism is established. Trying to "turn the clock back to the good old days" results in dramatic reductions in worker rights and a solidification of power.

What we need to do is establish Socialism. A victory of the Proletariat, a folding of the large monopolist syndicates into the public sector so they can be centrally planned for the public good, rather than privately planned for profit, is the way forward. This is the way to escape fascism's rise. This is the way to defeat MAGA.

I recommend reading the book Blackshirts and Reds, fascism's irrationality has rational, material origins, that can be understood and defeated, and it isn't in the "marketplace of ideas."

They don’t like to read more than a couple of sentences.

And the main reason they're not happy is that they got left behind by the evil fucks they keep voting for. It's beyond maddening.

My daughter calls them trumpy grumpies and I thought it was a good name.

I'm never happy and it didn't turn me into a MAGA dipshit. I don't think I'm even an asshole most of the time or at least I try not to be.

I am so, so glad Democrats have finally woken up to the fact that Republicans are not just misinformed Democrats. There's no amount of facts we can throw at them to make them stop being terrible people. They're not going to suddenly go "oh my God, I was wrong!" This is who they are.

they are selfish.

That's where all of those symptoms stem from.

selfish greed.

I've gotten a disturbing number of messages on grindr from men that are hard core right wing, yet are on a gay dating app. The level of hate, ignorance, and cognitive dissonance is unprecedented. And it's all fueled by highly addictive apps, and pumped at unimaginable scales thanks to AI.

I hate to say it, but I think this really is the end.

One of the lawyers that defended a handful of J6 insurrectionists said they would give them a reading list to help them understand on a general level what any of the legal charges they faced concerned or what the consequences could be, or just how government worked, and because this was ''you need to read this before trial so you can ACTUALLY have a chance of getting a plea deal or even a dismissal if you can actually convince a judge you now grasp what you did and how bad it was, and you're super duper sorry'' some actually read them. And they came out of it going ''oh... I've been lied to and manipulated into doing very illegal shit by a political party that knows it can no longer win elections and needs to do very illegal shit to retain any level of power'' and similar thoughts.

But yes. If they instead acquired a smidge of curiosity and interest in worthwhile pursuits they would probably stop being garbage ass people. Maybe we need to make reading cool? Possible dinosaurs reading on posters. That's what got me reading.

Many of them started in camp 1 and entered camp 2.

They don't like to read

I argue that's the issue right there.

Reading only headlines will get you there quickly. But headlines are click bait and insufficient.

I recall seeing a study on the demographics of who actually reads articles and MAGAs were among the most that did not read.

Sounds like a basket of deplorables to me.

A lot of them feel betrayed/wronged by the system, or by lleft leaning/progressive politics.

That's why they don't mind Trump's wrongdoings. They see things like his felony mugshot and think "he's been betrayed and attacked by the system just like me!"...

...a lot of it is emotional for them, and it's a difficult mindset they're unlikely to leave behind.

Still at least it's a better ratio than in places like Israel, where the vast majority of the population are far-right (many of whom are conspiracy theory inclined, particularly when it comes to the assassination of their former PM Yitzhak Rabin).