• Swordgeek@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    “What MAGA all agree” is a fool’s errand, like most universal consensus questions.

    But here are a few high points:

    • Some genuinely believe the rhetoric about how Trans/brown/non-Christian/etc. people are destroying the American way of life, jobs, safety, sports, the economy, and whatever they get pointed to at any given moment.
    • Some are outright racists, bullies, and fascists, and absolutely love what Trump is doing right now.
    • Many are just frustrated with their lot in life, and are willing to try anything (except personal action) to improve things.
    • Many more feel like they’re just a few paycheques or a small windfall away from living the rich life like Musk et al. As about 90% of lottery winners can attest, winning $10M or so doesn’t make you obscenely wealthy, and it’s still pretty easy to piss it all away. They have no concept of the difference between “rich enough to not work” and “rich enough to own multiple superyachts.”

    Most importantly, a large subset of this last group overlaps with the others, and believe that they only way for them to get ahead is by climbing over the bodies of others.

  • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
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    14 days ago

    They don’t all agree on anything. Logic and reason aren’t part of the requirements for MAGA.

  • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Reactionary ideology is all about protecting privilege by demonizing marginalized people. They believe in zero-sum rights and privileges: in their view, expansion of rights for another group inherently means a loss of rights for them.

  • ozoned@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    I’ve talked to friends that were very excited Trump won. Recently tried having an open conversation with someone that left my community afterwards over the conversations because I didn’t come to his side.

    They just believe it’ll be better. What better? They don’t know. They can’t verbalize, because they’re told it’s terrible now and will be better.

    They believe Trump isn’t a criminal, didn’t incite violence on Jan 6, the woke people are out to get them, etc. I’ve literally asked people to define “woke” for me when they use it that way. They can’t. They don’t know. They’re not bad people, they’re brainwashed at this point.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      I agree. I’ve heard people say that they willingly voted for a criminal rapist huckster and I don’t believe that. They thought he was something different. They are fucking dumb, not evil.

  • meyotch@slrpnk.net
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    14 days ago

    The way it is playing out in my family has led me to have to totally reevaluate my perception of my own father.

    He is a generally kind man. He stayed with my mom for two decades as she declined with Parkinson’s. He took good care of her when so many people might have ghosted.

    But based on his inability to see the danger here to things he himself values, I can no longer think of him as a good man. He has always valued knowledge and reason yet he swallowed the cat-eating crap out of Ohio in spite of the clear bullshit of it.

    He is Mormon and very faithful. So I don’t know what he gets out of this all, except that it has required me to grieve him before his passing.

    He is not actually a good person I am afraid, but he is very obedient. Learning that distinction is very painful. He does not possess the moral clarity to know the difference between what is legal/popular and what is right.

    I always idolized my dad as a child because he was in so many ways a good father. We will probably never speak again.

    • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      “ He is not actually a good person I am afraid, but he is very obedient.”

      Sadly this is the legacy of the LDS faith.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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      14 days ago

      Sorry for your loss.

      Religion sucks so much, especially the more dogmatic ones. Mormonism is gross.

      One insight I would offer is that categorising people as “good” or “not good” may not be helpful. I suspect that your dad probably invests a lot of effort in being a good man, he’s just unable to acknowledge that his perspective has been corrupted.

      We judge ourselves by our intentions but others by their actions.

      It’s not wrong to never speak to him again, but maybe this will make the mourning easier.

      • meyotch@slrpnk.net
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        14 days ago

        Thank you.

        Yes, I agree black and white categories aren’t the ideal way to describe people.

        But there comes a time when nuance is used against the compassionate to normalize reprehensible actions. We are in that time now.

        It is for these reasons that I cannot stand listening to NPR anymore. The ineffectual hand wringing and disingenuous ’liberal self-reflection’ is tiresome and we are well past the time for thoughtful think-pieces.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      14 days ago

      I shared with my mother, only yesterday, that I consider her somewhat of a bad person for voting for orange for a second term. I said that she could be forgiven for not perceiving what he is the first time (though it was obvious to anyone with limited understanding of the world), but after seeing him in action and voting for him again, she should be ashamed of herself. I don’t expect the relationship to ever fully recover, as I will not forgive her for endangering my loved ones and all of us collectively.

    • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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      14 days ago

      I’m very grateful that my parents have never lived in the Utah bubble; they saw right through Trump in 2016, and, for the first time in their lives, voted for someone other than a Republican.

      Keep in mind that Benson was hard right; he would have thought that John Birchers were leftists. He and his faction may not have led the church for very long, but they had a profound influence on it.