This resonates — especially the idea that the real threat isn’t just Trump, but the emotional scaffolding that holds him up. Fear, shame, and the need to belong get hijacked long before anyone casts a vote. The real question now is: how do we interrupt that cycle without triggering more defensiveness? Can we meet those same human needs — safety, meaning, connection — in ways that don’t rely on control or scapegoating? If we want to dismantle the machine, we have to give people somewhere better to go.
Amen to that of course demoNcrats would project their collective narcissism onto conservatives. But not a single one of them has said they were sorry for stealing 4.7 trillion of your tax dollars. Not a single one has even denied they did it. They stole it n are proud to not be held accountable for it.. Yea collective narcissism is all them dems that stole the 2020 election and committed 5 years of terrorism since. Atta boys n girls and its... Be prousd of destroying america then acting like the victims. Yall are cowards if ya ask me. Theres your opinion reaction and watch yall delete this commmentcuz theres too much raw truth :
Just so sad to see that you have every accusation wrong by 180 degrees.
Really step back and dig into the actual facts and not what the right-wing / Russian propaganda machine is pushing at you. You do have it completely backwards.
Religion is an indoctrinated ignorance and the only cure is in rejecting the indoctrination. Evangelican Fascist Christianity was Hitler's motivation to promote hatred for the Jews for the crucifixion of their non-existent savior from extinction in the universe. The only purpose in the universe is the prevention of a life species is survival of the species, their knowledge, and technology. Only a very intelligent species can conquer the laws of thermodynamics and create technology to spread their progeny throughout the Galaxy and universe to escape natures entropy and extinction of life species. 99% of all life species that once existed on earth are already extinct!
This essay is absolutely brilliant. I’d love for there to be a follow-up with strategies for exactly how to disrupt and dismantle the psychological engine of “resentiment.” This is the way forward out of this collapse that is taking place on every level, from an individual’s psychology to national and global politics.
If there is a strategy, it includes ceasing the use of the word "dismantle". It's tainted with woke self-righteousness and disconnect. At least that is my knee-jerk emotional reaction, and I accept your message as a whole as coherent.
Seriously, trump won a significant # of voters during the 2015 GOP primary debate solely based on the fact that he didn’t sound like a politician. It didn’t matter what he said, especially since he was criticizing fellow GOP candidates.
Some will say the effects of his way of talking are examples of all that is researched and described in this essay, but I think the essay missed an important chunk of the problem: apathy.
Authoritarianism rose in the USA from two main reasons:
1. A LOT of people are completely tuned out no matter who was/is talking on a political rally stage or primary stage.
2. Someone came along (in this case, ironically, descending down his escalator as if we’re beneath him and he’s a King!) …and he talked like he was part of a conversation at the bar the weekend before or banter at a job site. Trump quickly became ‘their guy’ to break their apathy, regardless that he had a history of stiffing family-run businesses in the trades. This second group fits within the essay’s demographics but the first didn’t seem to be addressed.
Arguably, he won the 2024 election more because people didn’t show up to do their part of a democracy than the reasons explained in the well-written essay.
Too many people don’t give a damn. Modern civilization has been too easy to give a damn on a macro-level, which will prevent the apathetic to see the dangers of the psychological distortions described in the essay. That’s a big difference in American life between 1945 vs. the ebb and flow all the way to 1990s-2024. So, it’s not just patriotism being distorted and all of the other psychological distortions, apathy has a huge impact, and it’s not just by people who are oppressed. Just as there are many demographics that are apathetic, there are just as many reasons for apathy. Government, especially Federal government, is not tangible enough in everyday life. This is both a fault of the individual’s lack of civic duty and our way of life, both being impacted by access to ‘clean’ information. One would think the Roe overturn would have brought more voter turnout!!??!!
We also don’t self-reflect because we don’t exercise that part of the human capacity regularly enough, which impacts our effort put into civics.
We don’t exercise empathy enough because it is too far removed with respect to macro geopolitical topics, meaning in the Information Age, aspects of The Fairness Doctrine are gone. Purveyors of the public airwaves are no longer required to provide equal time to opposing views. So, people don’t self-reflect and challenge themselves to think about other points of view. Ironic in the (mis)’Information Age’…
Authoritarianism - don’t forget apathy and the quality of Information. If we lessen apathy with better Information, then we’ll stand a better chance to kick fascism in the balls before they (it’s always a ‘he’) get in control.
Surprise! Read The posts about how 256 satellites sent into orbit 2 days before the election that erased Harris votes in NY precincts by Musk-the Rat! Michael D Sellers!
I second that political apathy is a major contributor. How much of this do you think is an IQ problem? Maybe politics has become so complex that it's impossible to have an emotionally salient relationship with it unless you have the innate talent to intuit the "cash value" impact of geopolitics. How much of this can we blame on heritability?
Voter apathy is a product of nonexistent political leadership. Kamala lost a massive electorate tiptoeing around economic strain at home and Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The DNC is dominated by donors and thus follow the lead of consultants captured by those same donor interests instead of taking up the mantle of any grass roots demands. They don’t even respond to their own polling. GOP strategy was subsumed by Trump as a shameless marketer with an established persona, and while they at first chided his lack of decorum, they and their think tankers eventually came to recognize the time they’d wasted looking a gift horse in the mouth could be better spent tailoring strategy to his irreverent bravado, as a powerful bludgeon against boundaries and barriers to their long term goals. Now he’s the Trojan horse showman, inviting all who can afford the ticket (and potentially toxic PR) into the halls of governance for a final bonanza to loot everything in sight.
I think that the key idea to keep in mind is "Status Threat".
Status threat refers to the anxiety or fear that one’s social group is losing its dominant position in society. It’s not necessarily about personal hardship, but rather about relative decline—especially when compared to other groups.
Many political scientists point to status threat—the perception among some white Americans that they are losing social, economic, or cultural dominance—as a key driver.
The U.S. is undergoing rapid demographic change: white Americans are projected to become a minority within a few decades. This triggers zero-sum thinking, especially among groups that historically held dominant positions.
In the American context, it typically refers to white Christians (especially men) who perceive that:
• Minorities are gaining too much power or representation
• Immigrants are changing the culture
• Progressive values are replacing traditional norms
• “Woke” institutions are attacking their way of life
The threat is not just economic—it’s cultural and symbolic. It’s the feeling of losing a central place in the national identity.
Decades ago, "we" (politicians, the elite, etc.) should have made the ethical decisions (and sacrifices) to produce a more equitable society, providing affordable healthcare, affordable education and housing to all Americans.
But we didn't, and now I do not think we have any choice but to pay the price: We have entered what Peter Turchin calls the Age of Discord. I recommend "End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration" (Turchin 2023).
This is a profound and deeply researched piece. Well done. In my opinion, the reason for the rise of the MAGA movement is affirmative action laws of the 1960’s. When a government try’s to regulate an issue, that action has a complete and opposite reaction. That is the underpinning reason for the MAGA discord.
Yes. FDR's New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement motivated rich white men to organize and seek power in government and a reversal of the New Deal.
Reference the Powell Memo (1971) and the formation of the CNP (1981).
The racist religious leaders on the right were activated when the SC found that they could not get tax money to support the schools they formed to avoid integration in public schools.
But they could not get people on board with a racist message.
Enter the abortion debate.
All of this has been building since then. They had dumped billions of dollars into this over decades.
This is what they wanted all along.
People need to understand this to effectively defeat it. I am seeing nothing that gives me confidence or hope that there is a true understanding what we are up against.
Wow, that was excellent. The whole basis that it’s fear of losing status and relevance, a desire to turn the clock back to a time that they perceive their lives as safe, secure and predictable driving a desire for a leader that pretends to give them that. That is the magic of Trump. He is a brilliant atuner to the societal Zeitgeist, the idea that the more you have, the more you have to lose, in other words, greed.
Marianne Williamson teaches from a course in miracles and the basis of that entire spiritual psychology is that there are two forces in the world fear and love. And that’s basically how I define the difference between somebody who is more left or liberal leaning and someone who is more right leaning. Left leaning is guided by love and care for others and the self. Right leaning is guided by fear.
I agree 100% with everything in this article says, and I’m listening to it thinking who can I send it to that aligns with Trump, and then I realize, their fear based thinking, wouldn’t allow them to hear it. And in the end that is the scariest part. The people who follow Trump aren’t interested in learning and knowing more. They’re interested in absolutes, in black-and-white thinking because they think it keeps them safe. In flexibility in thought results in a cultural narcissism that says my way or the highway. Thanks for sharing this.
Yes Cindy. I think the progressive mindset, in principle is one of abundance and inclusion (isn’t this Jesus in ACIM?) The MAGA mindset is one of fear and scarcity and control. “There isn’t enough to go around” which perpetuates factionalism and “we need to control your view of what male and female is” rather than being compassionate to all kinds of expression of sexual identity, whether we understand them or not. The MAGA mindset, while promoting freedom is about controlling the narrative of everyone. Authoritarian repression (book banning, defining male/female in a narrow way, demanding loyalty to the leader etc) is not freedom. It is not American. Please MAGA people stop waving the American flag to indicate only you represent American values. You don’t. You represent a perversion of those values. This is a country founded on religious freedom, not adherence to the 10 Commandments and a fake Christian way, where your representation of Jesus is wildly distorted. No empathy is not a sin. There are no right wing Christians. You can be a true follower of Jesus or right wing. Sorry you can’t be both. Jesus would not have voted MAGA.
I can't help thinking that talk of society being divided into those motivated by love and those motivated by fear, is black and white thinking. I am moving toward conservatism as I age, and my take on left versus right is more about righteousness and valuing ideological purity over rational thinking (left) versus a sensible preference for building on what has worked so far (right). But possibly I am just addled by fear.
You are on the right track, Elizabeth. I encourage you to persevere. Truth, peace, and love occupy the same unified heart. The sowing of division, and labeling of people in broad categories bring chaos and an anxious heart. Choose truth. Choose love. Find peace.
When you say " a sensible preference for building on what has worked so far" I can't help but think that it has, so far, only worked for some, not all. We are only in a moment where the disenfranchised have obtained some rights, wealth and status and are simply asking for complete equality.
They are interested in retaining power and wealth in the hands of white people (Make America Great Again always meant Make America White Again)… now, they also want a bunch of billionaires to run every aspect of our lives. It’s sickening- these white men fear meritocracy because they don’t want to compete with, or share power with, anyone who doesn’t look like them… hence their focus on ‘DEI’ and erasing the many and significant contributions people who are not white or male to the tapestry that made our country strong. Notice all the women in the regime are pretty, almost all blonde and mostly ignorant & uninformed dopes. There’s a reason for that!
It Says Here that you have missed the mark. Of course MAGA is a response to a loss of status. Duh. It is a political response to tyranny of the majority by a political philosophy that focuses on Identity rather than Principle. When you demean the middle and working
classes what on earth did you expect? American democracy is not Canadian or European. Its political mechanisms of Republican government reflect an ingenious system of Constitutional checks and balances designed to delay and/or prevent tyranny: by the majority or, as in this case, tyranny by a minority. Progressive liberalism has failed to attract a majority to its ethos, and its attempts to tyrannize opposition have likewise been defeated. Lastly I find the projection of tyranny onto the opposition to be a psychological tell. Maybe you should turn your analytical lamp back onto yourselves. Rational League, my butt.
This piece is actually a psychological character assassination of Trump supporters. It downplays the destruction of the working class that is the root of the discontent in America. And mentions nothing of the escalating, homelessness and wealth inequality of the billionaire class who are crushing the middle class and working class. It is very strange that the left are so hostile towards working class Americans in fact, completely loathes them and considers them a “threat to democracy.”
It wasn’t Trump supporters that won the election. It was the swing voters who decided that Kamala Harris was an airhead and would not deliver any significant improvement to United States.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond, but I believe you may have misunderstood the central point of the piece.
This article is not a “psychological character assassination.” It is a research-driven exploration of why so many Americans have gravitated toward an authoritarian movement that offers emotional vindication rather than structural solutions. It doesn’t pathologize all Trump supporters, it explains the emotional mechanisms some have fallen into, especially when confronted with rapid cultural and demographic shifts. If you read carefully, the piece even says:
“This piece was not written to shame Trump supporters... Many are not motivated by hate, but by fear. Not by ideology, but by grievance.”
Your reply makes two assumptions that I want to challenge:
1. This article ignores economic suffering.
On the contrary, it acknowledges the real pain of inequality, globalization, and institutional failure. But unlike populist narratives that flatten this pain into a simple story of class betrayal, the data (from sources like Mutz, 2018) show that the core MAGA base isn’t comprised of the poorest, but of those who fear downward mobility, people experiencing status threat, not just material deprivation.
Economic inequality is a crisis. But using that crisis to justify authoritarian retaliation or cultural scapegoating is where critique becomes concern. That’s the psychological pivot the piece explores.
2. The Left loathes the working class.
That’s a rhetorical sleight of hand. What the Left critiques is not “the working class” but the weaponization of working-class identity by right-wing populists who claim to represent them while enacting billionaire-friendly tax cuts and anti-labor policies.
It’s also worth asking:
Who gutted unions?
Who deregulated Wall Street?
Who ballooned wealth inequality under the guise of populism?
Answer: Trump’s GOP.
This isn't hostility toward the working class. It’s a refusal to accept that blaming immigrants, LGBTQ people, or college students is an acceptable substitute for holding the billionaire class and policy architects accountable.
Lastly, swing voters are not the focus here. You’re right that elections are often won in the margins. But this article isn’t an electoral post-mortem, it’s a psychological and sociopolitical analysis of why MAGA persists despite clear evidence of anti-democratic behavior. Swing voters don’t attend rallies cheering for “retribution.” That’s a different emotional driver entirely, and it demands its own analysis.
If we want to reduce inequality, homelessness, and the erosion of opportunity, we must understand how authoritarian politics exploits these very problems to redirect rage away from the powerful and onto the vulnerable. That’s what this piece is about. If that makes you uncomfortable, that might mean it’s hitting close to the truth.
Your left-wing bias, though, has blinded you to the fact that the intellectual class of United States is so left, they dominate all the Ivy League institutions, such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton… I think what you’re missing is that the problem is on the left on the right, both sides have accepted authoritarianism, just different flavors. During Covid the left ruthlessly assaulted those who refused to take experimental medical products or wear useless masks. Censorship by social media was unprecedented, an outrageous assault on civil rights.
The Party system in United States is a complete and colossal failure, and until both sides admit it and come together to fight the common enemy not much will change.
Both Democrats and Republicans support the bloated military budget year after year… Both sides are compromised and complicit members of the military industrial complex.
All the left cares about are minorities, but democracy is about the majority, not the minority. If you check out any of my articles, you will see I have been highly critical of the Trump administration, so this is not me being a right winger. This is me pointing out that left and right are meaningless when both sides work for the same people higher up the food chain. Trump is an employee.
I hear your frustration, but your response doesn’t engage with what I actually wrote, it sidesteps it. When an argument about authoritarian psychology gets met with “both sides are bad,” “elites run everything,” or “the real issue is the system,” it often signals discomfort, not counterpoint. That’s not a debate, it’s an escape hatch. The fact that criticism of MAGA behavior triggers a pivot to intellectual conspiracies and mask mandates tells me the article struck a nerve. That’s fine. But let’s be honest: dismissing research as left-wing and reframing everything as a global puppet show may feel satisfying, but it doesn’t answer the deeper question, why does authoritarianism feel like liberation to so many?
//When an argument about authoritarian psychology gets met with “both sides are bad,” “elites run everything,” or “the real issue is the system,” it often signals discomfort, not counterpoint.//
it signals that I'm aware of how the world works. It is naive to believe that Trump is anything more than a colorful monster, but still an employee.
//The fact that criticism of MAGA behavior triggers a pivot to intellectual conspiracies and mask mandates tells me the article struck a nerve.//
Check out this survey on Harvard if you don't believe that the intellectual class in USA is captured by left wing ideologues...
// But let’s be honest: dismissing research as left-wing and reframing everything as a global puppet show may feel satisfying, but it doesn’t answer the deeper question, why does authoritarianism feel like liberation to so many?//
it's a good question but the left needs to understand it enjoys authoritarianism when it suits them. I wish the world was a "global puppet show" but the truth is we are heading into a multipolar world dominated by the billionaire class. What the left consistently fails to realize or acknowledge is not the fact of the wealth transfer to the billionaire class but the agenda of the billionaire class. What the left calls "conspiracy" is a fact. The left just can't see it for some strange reason I have yet to figure out. Do you honestly believe billionaires who get together regularly don't come together and form policies and agendas? This is either forgivably naive or willful ignorance or just plain moral blindness ... you tell me.
The most ironic thing is it was the Trump administration who funded and organized the vaccine rollout through Operation Warp Speed ...
You’ve just demonstrated the very dynamic I was describing.
Instead of reckoning with why MAGA attracts authoritarian psychology, why domination is mistaken for freedom, you’ve reframed the issue again: this time as elite naivety, billionaire collusion, and a multipolar world. It’s not an answer. It’s a narrative shield, designed to make skepticism look blind, and yourself look initiated. That’s not awareness. That’s insulation.
Yes, billionaires exert power. Yes, institutions lean liberal. But none of that explains why cruelty gets cheered at rallies, or why resentment is marketed as patriotism. Pointing at Harvard faculty surveys doesn't answer why people chant for political retribution or cheer the rollback of civil rights. It dodges the moral psychology that underpins it.
You say the left "enjoys authoritarianism when it suits them," but that’s just another form of whataboutism, the reflex that collapses specific critiques into “both sides are corrupt” so no one has to take ownership of anything. It’s a way to stay above the fray without ever being accountable to the ground truth. And that’s fine, if your goal is to feel informed rather than be transformed. But I’m not here to debate who the real puppeteers are. I’m here to ask why so many people find identity, revenge, and imagined restoration more compelling than democracy itself.
Until that question is answered honestly, everything else is a distraction dressed as insight.
This dialogue between RL and 009 is perhaps not either or but both and. Spiritual institutions have been and are central to shared values and community building. Our democratic republic separates church and state in recognition of spiritual institutions potential for being corrupted by the same forces described in this excellent piece. The psychological forces herein described are some of our most ancient and fundamental. Our cooperative social success seems to track the evolutionary “control” (term used very loosely) over these forces….but change disrupts and there is no shortage of rapid change; disruptions create fear and uncertainty, and we are then prone to listen to the wolves of power who claim they will protect us…and how well has that ever worked out?
Your question is appropriate but it needs to be framed on a broader scale, instead of reducing America's problem to MAGA. If you were more cognizant that the LGBTQ rainbow movement has it's own share of non-democratic posturing, it might help your case. I mostly agree with your view of MAGA btw. It is just that the authoritarianism that is happening in the world is happening on both sides of the spectrum. China's human rights abuses are well documented, as well as Israel's current massacre in Gaza, Putin has murdered over a hundred journalists ... I could go on with many examples. The destruction of democracy is bi-partisan and a global experience. My Coles notes answer to your question is that the lack of spirituality in a society leads to authoritarianism. Our world is infected with a materialist philosophy and secular govts. People falsely believe that secularism leads to democracy but the opposite is in fact true.
We are the working class 009. Bloody hell. What the fak are you talking about. This is the problem- you make comments that are false. Kamala is not an airhead. You were threatened by her. As you were by Hillary. Sad……
If you think Kamala Harris is capable of running the most powerful nation in the world, you need to get a better therapist. Both sides are controlled by the Israel lobby if that isn’t obvious by the massacre in Gaza, then I don’t know what else to tell you…
Here’s a nice video of Benjamin Netanyahu getting 58 standing ovations…Don’t try and tell me about the working class
Harris is a experienced lawyer, she is articulate, able to hold a debate, she has a good rational mind; and you are comparing her with a wannabe dictator who can't even read the daily presidential briefings? His attention span is low, he is dyslexic and has little intellectual curiosity and is governed by emotion more than reason. And you don't see that? Wake up or is this just misogyny or cultish worship of a "strongman"?
Neither of them are qualified to be the leader of the most powerful country in the world. If you read my blog, you will see I have criticized Trump more than any other politician. He is without a doubt the worst president in America has ever had. Kamala Harris would not have been much better, because both them would just do whatever Israel wants…
This was probably the most compelling analysis of this nascent fascist movement I’ve ever come across. It really deepened my comprehension of the phenomenon. Thank you.
But as an excuse, I always have been left wing / liberal ever since I became politically interested and it’s becoming more intense while getting older.
Banning over 400 books at the Naval Academy for discussing race, gender, and inequality. Scrubbing government websites of images that celebrated marginalized trailblazers who were ignored in their own time. Removing the labels “African American,” “Hispanic American,” and “Women” from Arlington Cemetery’s Notable Graves section. Signing executive orders that erase identity language across federal agencies. And detaining American citizens because they “don’t look American.”
None of that points to a movement trying to end discrimination. It points to one trying to erase its visibility.
Yes, there are Black, brown, female, and LGBTQ+ MAGA supporters. But supporting a movement doesn’t mean it supports you back. Internalized oppression is real, and no, it doesn’t always come with a gun to your head. Sometimes it comes in the form of erasure. Of policy. Of silence.
You have to re-read the article., Those black, brown, female and gay people who slipped into the MAGA crowd as the few non-white male masculine/authoritarian worshippers who want to to "take back or steal a dominant status."
This is, by far, the best article I've read on Substack. It's impressive how you were able to identify the psychology behind this mass movement, which is also present in other countries. People continue to believe in these illusions. There's always a "system" that we fight against, but no one can identify it; they are just phantoms.
Totally agree . Identifying the causes that create the situation is helpful; producing cogent suggestions and strategies to begin a movement away from these psychological reactions is many times more complex.
Shame is NEVER a tool for social justice. Regardless of how exhausting the other person’s arguments are to you, you will never create connection and progress by shaming them. Shame always leads the other person to harden their stance in order to protect their ego. The author writes that they don’t write this article to shame MAGA, but of course it shames MAGA.
Changing your opinion on something means you must accept that you were wrong. People will rarely do this publicly and certainly not as a result of an article and its comment thread. This is all loaded with shaming. We just can’t help ourselves. All is lost until we figure out how to stop this madness in how we deal with each other.
Perhaps a first step is to stop wasting our energy on Substack writing things that seem so beautifully reasonable, but change absolutely nothing. I’m going to stop typing now and go talk to my neighbor.
I think it’s permanent for so many. This has been going on for over a decade and maybe approaching close to two. The black man becoming President was tinder to start all this for so many. They named it in 2016 with those stupid hats.
If I can digress a bit to the politics side of some points in this well done article, fear has been the driving force behind much of the Republican Party ever since FDR. From the Republican isolationists and conspiracists who claim FDR knew in advance about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, to Joe McCarthy’s list of communists in the government, to Nixon’s southern strategy to Bush’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction, Reagan’s welfare queen, right up to Trump, playing the fear card has always been an early and often thing for Republicans.
This article gives much psychological context as to where ( at least today’s) fear is coming from. Thank you.
Oh, the Democrats have used fear also, but not like the Republicans. An example of Democratic use would be the little girl picking daisy petals while a nuclear blast goes off in the background, during the Johnson- Goldwater presidential election in 1964.
But the Republicans tend to use fear against other people or groups. They tend to offer us fear of the “other,” someone who is not “like us.” Whether it’s progressives or socialists, immigrants or the people on food stamps, it’s this type of fear we usually see from the Republicans. I don’t see that coming from the Democrats.
Several passages seemed to resonate with both MAGA and the Progressive movement in 2010s and early 2020s. They both have the same issue: they feel like victims of a few real issues, but then make up 10 issues that aren't real, and seemingly try to forcefully convince everyone else that all the threats, unfairness, and persecution is real.
I would have enjoyed this a bit more if the author could have analyzed it from an objective perspective and shown how this oppressive victimhood cultural phenomenon has metastasized on both sides of the political spectrum--not just MAGA. As of now, this cancerous way of thinking seems to be more destructive with MAGA, but Progressive identity politics has/had the same potential too. They're both cut from the same cloth, they just happen to be on different sides of the political spectrum.
This resonates — especially the idea that the real threat isn’t just Trump, but the emotional scaffolding that holds him up. Fear, shame, and the need to belong get hijacked long before anyone casts a vote. The real question now is: how do we interrupt that cycle without triggering more defensiveness? Can we meet those same human needs — safety, meaning, connection — in ways that don’t rely on control or scapegoating? If we want to dismantle the machine, we have to give people somewhere better to go.
Stop. Please just stop.
The Civil War Confederacy has always been here, and hasn’t gone away since the end of the civil war.
Stop. Please just stop.
The German Nazism has always been here, and hasn’t gone away since before, during, and end of the second World War.
(Look at Steven Miller (Mueller?)
Amen to that of course demoNcrats would project their collective narcissism onto conservatives. But not a single one of them has said they were sorry for stealing 4.7 trillion of your tax dollars. Not a single one has even denied they did it. They stole it n are proud to not be held accountable for it.. Yea collective narcissism is all them dems that stole the 2020 election and committed 5 years of terrorism since. Atta boys n girls and its... Be prousd of destroying america then acting like the victims. Yall are cowards if ya ask me. Theres your opinion reaction and watch yall delete this commmentcuz theres too much raw truth :
Wow lester,
Just so sad to see that you have every accusation wrong by 180 degrees.
Really step back and dig into the actual facts and not what the right-wing / Russian propaganda machine is pushing at you. You do have it completely backwards.
So we are all fucked??? Seriously! How about we evolve into a better species? We take care of each other. Before it is too late.
It's 2025 and no one has put lsd in the water system yet? Or did they?
Yeah its called a shallow battlefield grave
Read the naked communist and watch agenda documentary. Com, draw your own conclusions 🧐
Religion is an indoctrinated ignorance and the only cure is in rejecting the indoctrination. Evangelican Fascist Christianity was Hitler's motivation to promote hatred for the Jews for the crucifixion of their non-existent savior from extinction in the universe. The only purpose in the universe is the prevention of a life species is survival of the species, their knowledge, and technology. Only a very intelligent species can conquer the laws of thermodynamics and create technology to spread their progeny throughout the Galaxy and universe to escape natures entropy and extinction of life species. 99% of all life species that once existed on earth are already extinct!
I think what you are saying is that you
Wat
This essay is absolutely brilliant. I’d love for there to be a follow-up with strategies for exactly how to disrupt and dismantle the psychological engine of “resentiment.” This is the way forward out of this collapse that is taking place on every level, from an individual’s psychology to national and global politics.
Dr. Brandy X. Lee shows us the way forward in her One World or None, series.
What is the percentage of alcoholism in families of Democratic and Republican parties?
Resentment leads to fear, resulting in alcoholism anger, leads to gun related violence.
If there is a strategy, it includes ceasing the use of the word "dismantle". It's tainted with woke self-righteousness and disconnect. At least that is my knee-jerk emotional reaction, and I accept your message as a whole as coherent.
Language is ‘huge’, bigly even.
Seriously, trump won a significant # of voters during the 2015 GOP primary debate solely based on the fact that he didn’t sound like a politician. It didn’t matter what he said, especially since he was criticizing fellow GOP candidates.
Some will say the effects of his way of talking are examples of all that is researched and described in this essay, but I think the essay missed an important chunk of the problem: apathy.
Authoritarianism rose in the USA from two main reasons:
1. A LOT of people are completely tuned out no matter who was/is talking on a political rally stage or primary stage.
2. Someone came along (in this case, ironically, descending down his escalator as if we’re beneath him and he’s a King!) …and he talked like he was part of a conversation at the bar the weekend before or banter at a job site. Trump quickly became ‘their guy’ to break their apathy, regardless that he had a history of stiffing family-run businesses in the trades. This second group fits within the essay’s demographics but the first didn’t seem to be addressed.
Arguably, he won the 2024 election more because people didn’t show up to do their part of a democracy than the reasons explained in the well-written essay.
Too many people don’t give a damn. Modern civilization has been too easy to give a damn on a macro-level, which will prevent the apathetic to see the dangers of the psychological distortions described in the essay. That’s a big difference in American life between 1945 vs. the ebb and flow all the way to 1990s-2024. So, it’s not just patriotism being distorted and all of the other psychological distortions, apathy has a huge impact, and it’s not just by people who are oppressed. Just as there are many demographics that are apathetic, there are just as many reasons for apathy. Government, especially Federal government, is not tangible enough in everyday life. This is both a fault of the individual’s lack of civic duty and our way of life, both being impacted by access to ‘clean’ information. One would think the Roe overturn would have brought more voter turnout!!??!!
We also don’t self-reflect because we don’t exercise that part of the human capacity regularly enough, which impacts our effort put into civics.
We don’t exercise empathy enough because it is too far removed with respect to macro geopolitical topics, meaning in the Information Age, aspects of The Fairness Doctrine are gone. Purveyors of the public airwaves are no longer required to provide equal time to opposing views. So, people don’t self-reflect and challenge themselves to think about other points of view. Ironic in the (mis)’Information Age’…
Authoritarianism - don’t forget apathy and the quality of Information. If we lessen apathy with better Information, then we’ll stand a better chance to kick fascism in the balls before they (it’s always a ‘he’) get in control.
Language? Read the posts of James B Greenberg who details trumps “bar talk” …
Surprise! Read The posts about how 256 satellites sent into orbit 2 days before the election that erased Harris votes in NY precincts by Musk-the Rat! Michael D Sellers!
I second that political apathy is a major contributor. How much of this do you think is an IQ problem? Maybe politics has become so complex that it's impossible to have an emotionally salient relationship with it unless you have the innate talent to intuit the "cash value" impact of geopolitics. How much of this can we blame on heritability?
Voter apathy is a product of nonexistent political leadership. Kamala lost a massive electorate tiptoeing around economic strain at home and Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The DNC is dominated by donors and thus follow the lead of consultants captured by those same donor interests instead of taking up the mantle of any grass roots demands. They don’t even respond to their own polling. GOP strategy was subsumed by Trump as a shameless marketer with an established persona, and while they at first chided his lack of decorum, they and their think tankers eventually came to recognize the time they’d wasted looking a gift horse in the mouth could be better spent tailoring strategy to his irreverent bravado, as a powerful bludgeon against boundaries and barriers to their long term goals. Now he’s the Trojan horse showman, inviting all who can afford the ticket (and potentially toxic PR) into the halls of governance for a final bonanza to loot everything in sight.
Haha yes I am all for community
I think that the key idea to keep in mind is "Status Threat".
Status threat refers to the anxiety or fear that one’s social group is losing its dominant position in society. It’s not necessarily about personal hardship, but rather about relative decline—especially when compared to other groups.
Many political scientists point to status threat—the perception among some white Americans that they are losing social, economic, or cultural dominance—as a key driver.
The U.S. is undergoing rapid demographic change: white Americans are projected to become a minority within a few decades. This triggers zero-sum thinking, especially among groups that historically held dominant positions.
In the American context, it typically refers to white Christians (especially men) who perceive that:
• Minorities are gaining too much power or representation
• Immigrants are changing the culture
• Progressive values are replacing traditional norms
• “Woke” institutions are attacking their way of life
The threat is not just economic—it’s cultural and symbolic. It’s the feeling of losing a central place in the national identity.
Decades ago, "we" (politicians, the elite, etc.) should have made the ethical decisions (and sacrifices) to produce a more equitable society, providing affordable healthcare, affordable education and housing to all Americans.
But we didn't, and now I do not think we have any choice but to pay the price: We have entered what Peter Turchin calls the Age of Discord. I recommend "End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration" (Turchin 2023).
This is a profound and deeply researched piece. Well done. In my opinion, the reason for the rise of the MAGA movement is affirmative action laws of the 1960’s. When a government try’s to regulate an issue, that action has a complete and opposite reaction. That is the underpinning reason for the MAGA discord.
Yes. FDR's New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement motivated rich white men to organize and seek power in government and a reversal of the New Deal.
Reference the Powell Memo (1971) and the formation of the CNP (1981).
The racist religious leaders on the right were activated when the SC found that they could not get tax money to support the schools they formed to avoid integration in public schools.
But they could not get people on board with a racist message.
Enter the abortion debate.
All of this has been building since then. They had dumped billions of dollars into this over decades.
This is what they wanted all along.
People need to understand this to effectively defeat it. I am seeing nothing that gives me confidence or hope that there is a true understanding what we are up against.
Wow, that was excellent. The whole basis that it’s fear of losing status and relevance, a desire to turn the clock back to a time that they perceive their lives as safe, secure and predictable driving a desire for a leader that pretends to give them that. That is the magic of Trump. He is a brilliant atuner to the societal Zeitgeist, the idea that the more you have, the more you have to lose, in other words, greed.
Marianne Williamson teaches from a course in miracles and the basis of that entire spiritual psychology is that there are two forces in the world fear and love. And that’s basically how I define the difference between somebody who is more left or liberal leaning and someone who is more right leaning. Left leaning is guided by love and care for others and the self. Right leaning is guided by fear.
I agree 100% with everything in this article says, and I’m listening to it thinking who can I send it to that aligns with Trump, and then I realize, their fear based thinking, wouldn’t allow them to hear it. And in the end that is the scariest part. The people who follow Trump aren’t interested in learning and knowing more. They’re interested in absolutes, in black-and-white thinking because they think it keeps them safe. In flexibility in thought results in a cultural narcissism that says my way or the highway. Thanks for sharing this.
Yes Cindy. I think the progressive mindset, in principle is one of abundance and inclusion (isn’t this Jesus in ACIM?) The MAGA mindset is one of fear and scarcity and control. “There isn’t enough to go around” which perpetuates factionalism and “we need to control your view of what male and female is” rather than being compassionate to all kinds of expression of sexual identity, whether we understand them or not. The MAGA mindset, while promoting freedom is about controlling the narrative of everyone. Authoritarian repression (book banning, defining male/female in a narrow way, demanding loyalty to the leader etc) is not freedom. It is not American. Please MAGA people stop waving the American flag to indicate only you represent American values. You don’t. You represent a perversion of those values. This is a country founded on religious freedom, not adherence to the 10 Commandments and a fake Christian way, where your representation of Jesus is wildly distorted. No empathy is not a sin. There are no right wing Christians. You can be a true follower of Jesus or right wing. Sorry you can’t be both. Jesus would not have voted MAGA.
I can't help thinking that talk of society being divided into those motivated by love and those motivated by fear, is black and white thinking. I am moving toward conservatism as I age, and my take on left versus right is more about righteousness and valuing ideological purity over rational thinking (left) versus a sensible preference for building on what has worked so far (right). But possibly I am just addled by fear.
You are on the right track, Elizabeth. I encourage you to persevere. Truth, peace, and love occupy the same unified heart. The sowing of division, and labeling of people in broad categories bring chaos and an anxious heart. Choose truth. Choose love. Find peace.
Could you explain where/how you got your take on left versus right?
The right is wanting fear and they have succeeded that is why we must all go left then it will be centered!!!
Yes. You are.
When you say " a sensible preference for building on what has worked so far" I can't help but think that it has, so far, only worked for some, not all. We are only in a moment where the disenfranchised have obtained some rights, wealth and status and are simply asking for complete equality.
They are interested in retaining power and wealth in the hands of white people (Make America Great Again always meant Make America White Again)… now, they also want a bunch of billionaires to run every aspect of our lives. It’s sickening- these white men fear meritocracy because they don’t want to compete with, or share power with, anyone who doesn’t look like them… hence their focus on ‘DEI’ and erasing the many and significant contributions people who are not white or male to the tapestry that made our country strong. Notice all the women in the regime are pretty, almost all blonde and mostly ignorant & uninformed dopes. There’s a reason for that!
It Says Here that you have missed the mark. Of course MAGA is a response to a loss of status. Duh. It is a political response to tyranny of the majority by a political philosophy that focuses on Identity rather than Principle. When you demean the middle and working
classes what on earth did you expect? American democracy is not Canadian or European. Its political mechanisms of Republican government reflect an ingenious system of Constitutional checks and balances designed to delay and/or prevent tyranny: by the majority or, as in this case, tyranny by a minority. Progressive liberalism has failed to attract a majority to its ethos, and its attempts to tyrannize opposition have likewise been defeated. Lastly I find the projection of tyranny onto the opposition to be a psychological tell. Maybe you should turn your analytical lamp back onto yourselves. Rational League, my butt.
This piece is actually a psychological character assassination of Trump supporters. It downplays the destruction of the working class that is the root of the discontent in America. And mentions nothing of the escalating, homelessness and wealth inequality of the billionaire class who are crushing the middle class and working class. It is very strange that the left are so hostile towards working class Americans in fact, completely loathes them and considers them a “threat to democracy.”
It wasn’t Trump supporters that won the election. It was the swing voters who decided that Kamala Harris was an airhead and would not deliver any significant improvement to United States.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond, but I believe you may have misunderstood the central point of the piece.
This article is not a “psychological character assassination.” It is a research-driven exploration of why so many Americans have gravitated toward an authoritarian movement that offers emotional vindication rather than structural solutions. It doesn’t pathologize all Trump supporters, it explains the emotional mechanisms some have fallen into, especially when confronted with rapid cultural and demographic shifts. If you read carefully, the piece even says:
“This piece was not written to shame Trump supporters... Many are not motivated by hate, but by fear. Not by ideology, but by grievance.”
Your reply makes two assumptions that I want to challenge:
1. This article ignores economic suffering.
On the contrary, it acknowledges the real pain of inequality, globalization, and institutional failure. But unlike populist narratives that flatten this pain into a simple story of class betrayal, the data (from sources like Mutz, 2018) show that the core MAGA base isn’t comprised of the poorest, but of those who fear downward mobility, people experiencing status threat, not just material deprivation.
Economic inequality is a crisis. But using that crisis to justify authoritarian retaliation or cultural scapegoating is where critique becomes concern. That’s the psychological pivot the piece explores.
2. The Left loathes the working class.
That’s a rhetorical sleight of hand. What the Left critiques is not “the working class” but the weaponization of working-class identity by right-wing populists who claim to represent them while enacting billionaire-friendly tax cuts and anti-labor policies.
It’s also worth asking:
Who gutted unions?
Who deregulated Wall Street?
Who ballooned wealth inequality under the guise of populism?
Answer: Trump’s GOP.
This isn't hostility toward the working class. It’s a refusal to accept that blaming immigrants, LGBTQ people, or college students is an acceptable substitute for holding the billionaire class and policy architects accountable.
Lastly, swing voters are not the focus here. You’re right that elections are often won in the margins. But this article isn’t an electoral post-mortem, it’s a psychological and sociopolitical analysis of why MAGA persists despite clear evidence of anti-democratic behavior. Swing voters don’t attend rallies cheering for “retribution.” That’s a different emotional driver entirely, and it demands its own analysis.
If we want to reduce inequality, homelessness, and the erosion of opportunity, we must understand how authoritarian politics exploits these very problems to redirect rage away from the powerful and onto the vulnerable. That’s what this piece is about. If that makes you uncomfortable, that might mean it’s hitting close to the truth.
Your left-wing bias, though, has blinded you to the fact that the intellectual class of United States is so left, they dominate all the Ivy League institutions, such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton… I think what you’re missing is that the problem is on the left on the right, both sides have accepted authoritarianism, just different flavors. During Covid the left ruthlessly assaulted those who refused to take experimental medical products or wear useless masks. Censorship by social media was unprecedented, an outrageous assault on civil rights.
The Party system in United States is a complete and colossal failure, and until both sides admit it and come together to fight the common enemy not much will change.
Both Democrats and Republicans support the bloated military budget year after year… Both sides are compromised and complicit members of the military industrial complex.
All the left cares about are minorities, but democracy is about the majority, not the minority. If you check out any of my articles, you will see I have been highly critical of the Trump administration, so this is not me being a right winger. This is me pointing out that left and right are meaningless when both sides work for the same people higher up the food chain. Trump is an employee.
I hear your frustration, but your response doesn’t engage with what I actually wrote, it sidesteps it. When an argument about authoritarian psychology gets met with “both sides are bad,” “elites run everything,” or “the real issue is the system,” it often signals discomfort, not counterpoint. That’s not a debate, it’s an escape hatch. The fact that criticism of MAGA behavior triggers a pivot to intellectual conspiracies and mask mandates tells me the article struck a nerve. That’s fine. But let’s be honest: dismissing research as left-wing and reframing everything as a global puppet show may feel satisfying, but it doesn’t answer the deeper question, why does authoritarianism feel like liberation to so many?
//When an argument about authoritarian psychology gets met with “both sides are bad,” “elites run everything,” or “the real issue is the system,” it often signals discomfort, not counterpoint.//
it signals that I'm aware of how the world works. It is naive to believe that Trump is anything more than a colorful monster, but still an employee.
//The fact that criticism of MAGA behavior triggers a pivot to intellectual conspiracies and mask mandates tells me the article struck a nerve.//
Check out this survey on Harvard if you don't believe that the intellectual class in USA is captured by left wing ideologues...
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/7/13/faculty-survey-political-leaning/
// But let’s be honest: dismissing research as left-wing and reframing everything as a global puppet show may feel satisfying, but it doesn’t answer the deeper question, why does authoritarianism feel like liberation to so many?//
it's a good question but the left needs to understand it enjoys authoritarianism when it suits them. I wish the world was a "global puppet show" but the truth is we are heading into a multipolar world dominated by the billionaire class. What the left consistently fails to realize or acknowledge is not the fact of the wealth transfer to the billionaire class but the agenda of the billionaire class. What the left calls "conspiracy" is a fact. The left just can't see it for some strange reason I have yet to figure out. Do you honestly believe billionaires who get together regularly don't come together and form policies and agendas? This is either forgivably naive or willful ignorance or just plain moral blindness ... you tell me.
The most ironic thing is it was the Trump administration who funded and organized the vaccine rollout through Operation Warp Speed ...
You’ve just demonstrated the very dynamic I was describing.
Instead of reckoning with why MAGA attracts authoritarian psychology, why domination is mistaken for freedom, you’ve reframed the issue again: this time as elite naivety, billionaire collusion, and a multipolar world. It’s not an answer. It’s a narrative shield, designed to make skepticism look blind, and yourself look initiated. That’s not awareness. That’s insulation.
Yes, billionaires exert power. Yes, institutions lean liberal. But none of that explains why cruelty gets cheered at rallies, or why resentment is marketed as patriotism. Pointing at Harvard faculty surveys doesn't answer why people chant for political retribution or cheer the rollback of civil rights. It dodges the moral psychology that underpins it.
You say the left "enjoys authoritarianism when it suits them," but that’s just another form of whataboutism, the reflex that collapses specific critiques into “both sides are corrupt” so no one has to take ownership of anything. It’s a way to stay above the fray without ever being accountable to the ground truth. And that’s fine, if your goal is to feel informed rather than be transformed. But I’m not here to debate who the real puppeteers are. I’m here to ask why so many people find identity, revenge, and imagined restoration more compelling than democracy itself.
Until that question is answered honestly, everything else is a distraction dressed as insight.
This dialogue between RL and 009 is perhaps not either or but both and. Spiritual institutions have been and are central to shared values and community building. Our democratic republic separates church and state in recognition of spiritual institutions potential for being corrupted by the same forces described in this excellent piece. The psychological forces herein described are some of our most ancient and fundamental. Our cooperative social success seems to track the evolutionary “control” (term used very loosely) over these forces….but change disrupts and there is no shortage of rapid change; disruptions create fear and uncertainty, and we are then prone to listen to the wolves of power who claim they will protect us…and how well has that ever worked out?
Your question is appropriate but it needs to be framed on a broader scale, instead of reducing America's problem to MAGA. If you were more cognizant that the LGBTQ rainbow movement has it's own share of non-democratic posturing, it might help your case. I mostly agree with your view of MAGA btw. It is just that the authoritarianism that is happening in the world is happening on both sides of the spectrum. China's human rights abuses are well documented, as well as Israel's current massacre in Gaza, Putin has murdered over a hundred journalists ... I could go on with many examples. The destruction of democracy is bi-partisan and a global experience. My Coles notes answer to your question is that the lack of spirituality in a society leads to authoritarianism. Our world is infected with a materialist philosophy and secular govts. People falsely believe that secularism leads to democracy but the opposite is in fact true.
We are the working class 009. Bloody hell. What the fak are you talking about. This is the problem- you make comments that are false. Kamala is not an airhead. You were threatened by her. As you were by Hillary. Sad……
If you think Kamala Harris is capable of running the most powerful nation in the world, you need to get a better therapist. Both sides are controlled by the Israel lobby if that isn’t obvious by the massacre in Gaza, then I don’t know what else to tell you…
Here’s a nice video of Benjamin Netanyahu getting 58 standing ovations…Don’t try and tell me about the working class
https://youtu.be/i90yOSAM-7I?si=Bivnj9x1tV3sHuay
Harris is a experienced lawyer, she is articulate, able to hold a debate, she has a good rational mind; and you are comparing her with a wannabe dictator who can't even read the daily presidential briefings? His attention span is low, he is dyslexic and has little intellectual curiosity and is governed by emotion more than reason. And you don't see that? Wake up or is this just misogyny or cultish worship of a "strongman"?
Neither of them are qualified to be the leader of the most powerful country in the world. If you read my blog, you will see I have criticized Trump more than any other politician. He is without a doubt the worst president in America has ever had. Kamala Harris would not have been much better, because both them would just do whatever Israel wants…
This was probably the most compelling analysis of this nascent fascist movement I’ve ever come across. It really deepened my comprehension of the phenomenon. Thank you.
The Archie Bunker theme song is the MAGA anthem.
🎶 Guys like us we had it made, those were the days 🎶
Insert ‘old white men’ in place of MAGA.
Agree, although I am an old white man myself.
But as an excuse, I always have been left wing / liberal ever since I became politically interested and it’s becoming more intense while getting older.
But your tongue-in-cheek comment flys in the face of the millions of black, brown, female and gay people who fall under the MAGA banner.
Banning over 400 books at the Naval Academy for discussing race, gender, and inequality. Scrubbing government websites of images that celebrated marginalized trailblazers who were ignored in their own time. Removing the labels “African American,” “Hispanic American,” and “Women” from Arlington Cemetery’s Notable Graves section. Signing executive orders that erase identity language across federal agencies. And detaining American citizens because they “don’t look American.”
None of that points to a movement trying to end discrimination. It points to one trying to erase its visibility.
Yes, there are Black, brown, female, and LGBTQ+ MAGA supporters. But supporting a movement doesn’t mean it supports you back. Internalized oppression is real, and no, it doesn’t always come with a gun to your head. Sometimes it comes in the form of erasure. Of policy. Of silence.
You have to re-read the article., Those black, brown, female and gay people who slipped into the MAGA crowd as the few non-white male masculine/authoritarian worshippers who want to to "take back or steal a dominant status."
I’m sorry it made the impresssion of a tongue in cheek comment. It wasn’t meant that way.
This is, by far, the best article I've read on Substack. It's impressive how you were able to identify the psychology behind this mass movement, which is also present in other countries. People continue to believe in these illusions. There's always a "system" that we fight against, but no one can identify it; they are just phantoms.
Spectrals in the spectacle
This is a brilliant thesis on the MAGA mindset. It fits perfectly with what I have observed but not been able to fully articulate.
Psycho Babble at its best
Great post! ....So now I'm waiting for a comprehensive post that explains how to put all this grievance back in the box.
Totally agree . Identifying the causes that create the situation is helpful; producing cogent suggestions and strategies to begin a movement away from these psychological reactions is many times more complex.
And that is the great conundrum!
Shame is NEVER a tool for social justice. Regardless of how exhausting the other person’s arguments are to you, you will never create connection and progress by shaming them. Shame always leads the other person to harden their stance in order to protect their ego. The author writes that they don’t write this article to shame MAGA, but of course it shames MAGA.
Changing your opinion on something means you must accept that you were wrong. People will rarely do this publicly and certainly not as a result of an article and its comment thread. This is all loaded with shaming. We just can’t help ourselves. All is lost until we figure out how to stop this madness in how we deal with each other.
Perhaps a first step is to stop wasting our energy on Substack writing things that seem so beautifully reasonable, but change absolutely nothing. I’m going to stop typing now and go talk to my neighbor.
nicely said.
I think it’s permanent for so many. This has been going on for over a decade and maybe approaching close to two. The black man becoming President was tinder to start all this for so many. They named it in 2016 with those stupid hats.
If I can digress a bit to the politics side of some points in this well done article, fear has been the driving force behind much of the Republican Party ever since FDR. From the Republican isolationists and conspiracists who claim FDR knew in advance about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, to Joe McCarthy’s list of communists in the government, to Nixon’s southern strategy to Bush’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction, Reagan’s welfare queen, right up to Trump, playing the fear card has always been an early and often thing for Republicans.
This article gives much psychological context as to where ( at least today’s) fear is coming from. Thank you.
To say that the Republican Party used fear since FDR and the Democrat party by implication never used fear !
I missed the joke. So naïve of me.
Oh, the Democrats have used fear also, but not like the Republicans. An example of Democratic use would be the little girl picking daisy petals while a nuclear blast goes off in the background, during the Johnson- Goldwater presidential election in 1964.
But the Republicans tend to use fear against other people or groups. They tend to offer us fear of the “other,” someone who is not “like us.” Whether it’s progressives or socialists, immigrants or the people on food stamps, it’s this type of fear we usually see from the Republicans. I don’t see that coming from the Democrats.
Several passages seemed to resonate with both MAGA and the Progressive movement in 2010s and early 2020s. They both have the same issue: they feel like victims of a few real issues, but then make up 10 issues that aren't real, and seemingly try to forcefully convince everyone else that all the threats, unfairness, and persecution is real.
I would have enjoyed this a bit more if the author could have analyzed it from an objective perspective and shown how this oppressive victimhood cultural phenomenon has metastasized on both sides of the political spectrum--not just MAGA. As of now, this cancerous way of thinking seems to be more destructive with MAGA, but Progressive identity politics has/had the same potential too. They're both cut from the same cloth, they just happen to be on different sides of the political spectrum.