President Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters are motivated by their prejudices, not economic concerns, social scientists contend. Will Democrats stop trying to win their votes?
In January, Smith and his University of Kansas colleague, associate sociology professor Eric A. Hanley, published a 47-page paper deconstructing the Republican president’s appeal. Building on decades of scholarship about the lure of authoritarianism and their own analysis of American voting psychology in 2012 and 2016, the social scientists make an argument that some may find offensive and others unsurprising.
It goes something like this: Trump’s biggest supporters are motivated by bigotry and want him to hurt the people they dislike.
Note: There’s a lot to unpack in this article, and this just seems to be the hook.
Yes.
Research done.
Holy fuck, an exception to Betteridge’s Law
Not necessarily, some of them could be not racist but too dumb to see the conflict.
If you read/hear anything people in Trump’s orbit are pushing as policy and ignore the vehemently racist overtones, that doesn’t make you any LESS racist for supporting obvious racists. That’s like the trope of people saying “Well, I’m not racist, BUT…”
Same difference.
Not saying there aren’t a lot of racists, but there are also many very dumb people. I’ve met enough of the general population to feel fairly certain that there are a non-zero number of Trump supporters who are otherwise tolerant people. They simply don’t think about it.
You’d be surprised by the proportion of the population which spends virtually no time on self-reflection. They just kinda bumble forward through life. Most of these people inherit their political affiliation like a sports team, from their environment. They’re not bad people, they just don’t think too hard.
I propose that they’re bad people because they don’t think too hard.
I agree with this. You don’t have to be consciously malicious for the fact that you refuse to think critically to make you a bad person. This planet and species doesn’t have time to forgive that shit anymore.
To refine my previous claim, those who “don’t think too hard” can’t act like it’s a virtue or claim immunity from ridicule.
However, I don’t want to cross into the territory of punishing people of “thought-crime”, or more accurately in this case, “no-thought-crime”. I think it’s important to not legislate punitively against “not thinking too hard” to remain consistent with the principles of a free and open society.
Not everyone thinks good.
Yes, that was intentional to further color the sentiment.
My apologies, I should’ve picked up on that. 😅
The “not thinking about it” is what makes them racists.
Eh, I try to use Hanlon’s Razor whenever prudent.