this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024

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MAGA Is Based on Fear, Not Grounded in Reality (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

63 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Yet such fantasies are now the common currency of politics on the American right. Remember the days when pundits solemnly declared that Trumpism was caused by economic anxiety? Well, despite a booming economy, there’s still plenty of justified anxiety out there, reflecting many people’s real struggles: America is still a nation riddled with inequality, insecurity and injustice. But the anxiety driving MAGA isn’t driven by reality. It is, instead, driven by dystopian visions unrelated to real experience.

That is, at this point, Republican political strategy depends largely on frightening voters who are personally doing relatively well not just according to official statistics but also by their own accounts, by telling them that terrible things are happening to other people.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

This sounds woefully inadequate in it's understanding of this new incarnation of fascism. It works by fostering inequality based on a myth of an "essentialized identity". Us vs them. So fear is just one of the tools.

And a massive driver for this is the increasing wealth inequality and sinking quality of life and prospects of prosperity. Because the old systems of propaganda do not work anymore (which the journalist is a representative of) the system "responds" by using fascism because that still works. For many decades they lie and cheat and this creates the fertile ground.

You can't have working democracy without prosperity, security (!= constant wars) and education (!= decades of propaganda in consolidated mainstream media)

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Water is wet

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Can we stop commenting this on every single political post? It just implies that the behavior in the article should be treated as normal by now. It's not normal, no matter how common the media makes it seem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

This behavior isn't normal, but it's the MAGA morons who try to normalize it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Said the New York Times in 2024.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago (1 children)

For a group that talks shit about "snowflakes" always crying about everything, they sure like to cry about everything

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

that seems to be the operating principle of right wing politicians in general. bitch and moan about whatever gets the most attention, get elected, fuck over the voter and take people's rights away. rinse and repeat.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They are in a cult and cults cannot exist without rigid hierarchy based on lies. If the cult the leader told his flock 2 + 2 = 5, that has utility the truth could never have. Cult members can repeat that lie to prove loyalty, the basis of a cult's heirarchy.

When a Trumper tells you a crazy statement like 2 + 2 = 5, don't look at it like they are an idiot. They understand they are telling you something normal people would find outrageous and they are testing to see how you react.

It's almost funny to see corporate outlets like the NYT try an explain the GOP. Flat admitting half of the duopoly is in a cult and has been in a cult 40+ years does not mesh with the supposed meritocracy we live in. So these media narratives like to edge around the truth, never quite getting their because reality is a challenge to our corporate run system as well.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Um, this is the GOP as a whole, not just maga.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

Isn't the core personality trait for conservatives fear? Like it all basically stems from that justified or not.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

True but it doesn’t start nor end with maga. Republicans have been using fear mongering for a very long time

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