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Stereotyping Trump Voters as "Stupid and Cruel" is Often False and Does "Zippo" to Combat Fascism [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-25
I was recently reading a staff KOS article entitled ”Trump voters wanted to harm other people—or at best didn’t care” when I thought “what a regrettable title” it was.
It began reasonable enough by saying, “This is an occasional roundup of people who voted for Donald Trump and are shocked to find out no one is immune from the damage and pain he causes. Many are now grappling with the consequences of their choice as it affects them and their loved ones—and possibly regretting their vote.”
But then it immediately launches into more of the heart of the article, “Trump voters are stupid in many ways, but they knew exactly who and what he is when they voted for him. They either voted for Trump because they gleefully wanted to hurt those groups and individuals or because they simply didn’t care.”
The rest of this article deals with why such an extremely broad and overly inclusive, border-line criminal appraisal of Trump voters, made apparently in anger and frustration, that I find it as not very useful. It provides less than an accurate and complete picture as to who those voters are as well as why Trump won a second term.
My own successful accountant, for example, is neither cruel nor stupid, yet he has drunk the cool aid and is supporting Trump. I know of many more examples. The following will explain some of the factors why many lean towards Trump.
Authoritarianism and why so Many Submit to it
Women can also fall victim to fascism. (Left) Nazi Germany, right a Trump Rally.
This second quote listed above indicates to me a lack of a more complete understanding of fascism and its mass psychology and why it may work on some individuals.
A building block of fascism is not only racism and the other ultra common biases fascist leaders appear to pander to.
One of the anchoring blocks of fascism is a blind, preexisting submissiveness and trust of high authority figures. Unscrupulous leaders backed by the oligarchy look to exploit these characteristics and make friends with their potential supporters by pandering to as many popular biases and racism as possible. For example, patriarchal misogyny is probably just as significant of a bias today used to recruit as racist and white supremacist tendencies.
While this quote may not appear sinister, it demonstrates the extent some religions go to advocate blind submission to authority figures.
Their submissiveness and dependency on god-like authority figures, built within them since childhood, is what makes followers of fascist leaders incapable of breaking away from them, their various weaknesses and biases add to the control miss-leaders like Trump hold over them.
It also can create a sort of euphoric emotional relief, giving up the difficult burdens of figuring out rights vs. wrongs in society, truth from lies, and their own self interests, creating in them an illusionary sense of their leader’s power, wisdom and motives. As most readers may already be aware of, it can blind them so they no longer having any concept of their own common senses or interests. It’s both child-like and cult-like in its trusting naivete and attitudes toward Trump, appearing to them as a trusted parent/father/god-like figure never to be questioned.
In a very real sense, the fascist leader can suspend a person’s sense of morality and twist it to accepting all sorts of atrocities and inhumanities. We saw this is Nazi Germany and we see the beginnings of this this phenomenon here in America. The leader in effect sanctions certain biases and permits abuses.
A Deadly Plague
Resisting fascism is crucial, as is understanding what we are up against.
Fascism evolves into is a very deadly societal disease that can strike any type of society not in sufficient control by those it purports to represent, in our case the voters.
Merely understanding that the fascist panders to biases is insufficient in understanding the mass psychology of the disease.
Which I strongly believe should be listed in the field of psychiatry and psychology DSM as a disease, perhaps on a par with diseases like the black plague in its mass deadliness.
Non-Racial Links to American Fascism “It should also be noted that leaders other than fascist ones can and do also pander to biases. Additionally, many fall victim to fascism and similar cult like addictions who are not driven by the classic biases! In other words, falling down the fascist worm hole does not require adherence to any of America’s most common biases.”
Trump, Hitler, Mussolini, and Caesar.
A Disease for the Ages
Fascism is a disease effecting the entire human race throughout the history of civilization to one degree or another and which the most unscrupulous among us in the upper circles of power have learned how to activate and exploit. Sometimes spontaneously without really understanding the control such appeals to fascist ideology can bring.
I suspect that Trump, and especially those unknown advisors behind him, are a lot more understanding of how to manipulate their cult like base and how the disease works. Trump himself may not fully grasp why the manipulations work so well for him. He may attribute his powers and influence to his own exaggerated narcissistic capabilities. Those that advise him seem much more knowledgeable of how to manipulate the masses, based on some of his propaganda.
This ruthless racist world view survived and haunted us into modern times, transferred to segregationist and racist leaders and to some degree even to Northern whites. Donald Trump seems to have understood this and had KKK sympathies in his family in the form of his own father.
Mass Activities Can Build or Destroy Fascism
The Nazis turned out tens of thousands for rallies, exploiting the social gathering appeal inherent in humanity to cement them to Hitler.
The dominant culture most of us live under is handed down from the elite upper classes. It emphasizes individuality and mimics many of the materialistic values like becoming wealthy, powerful and competitive.
It does not emphasize collective or cooperative social action in politics. In fact it does the opposite.
Hidden Dangers
Little do we realize that these values, harmless as they may seem, can create a narrow mindedness, even selfishness and a comfortable arrogance towards the less fortunate, and for many, the bogus fears fascism feeds off of. And a very narrow, even hostile world view. Not everyone mind you, not by a long shot, but enough to support a fascist movement.
The Downside of the “Nuclear Family”
The ideal “Leave it to Beaver” nuclear family is a prosperous one, with two perfect parents, the dad with an office job, mom as a house wife, two cars, a swimming pool and your own middle class home. In many ways you are isolated as such from your neighbors. I would describe our version of fascism as markedly different in one important respect to Nazi Germany’s fascism.
Massive May Day Demonstrations against the War in 1971.
German fascism was filled with large social events, competitions, rallies, youth activities, group psychical training and more. Of course it was partly for war preparations, usually directed at Fuhrer worship and had other hidden nefarious purposes. But it also had an aspect to it that could have been used for progressive social purposes had their government been a just and fair one.
One that brought people together for a positive purpose. Of course, part of that purpose in Germany was to prove to Hitler that they were the “master white race”, something they gleaned from studying the post-Civil War South.
Collective Action Can be Used to Defeat Fascism
MLK’s “I have a dream speech in 1965.
The effect, ingrained in me to some degree from studying German history of that era, created a dislike and even fear of their large mass rallies and other such events they were fond off organizing.
But I eventually came to realize that bringing people together for a common cause in large numbers can also have a positive side.
After all, it was mass events and demonstrations, thousands of them — collective action — that helped end the Vietnam War and led to many other positive changes in America. And ironically, it’s also a way to defeat the fascists.
Sex Negative Practices are Still Common
And it is soon taken away from many of us.
A truly knowledgeable mass psychological messaging strategy needs to be discussed and applied to combat fascism effectively. Part of it is getting sane people to openly resist. But I would not underestimate the benefits of fully grasping a greater awareness and understanding of other ways to struggle.
Using Mass Psychology
We need to understand how to not just weaken leaders like Trump, but also his follower’s pathological, self-destructive support for him.
In short, we need to develop mass psychology that works in a time of fascism.
Wilhelm Reich was a German Psychoanalyst during the 1920s and 30s in Nazi Germany, who also emphasized sexually repressive practices are one cause of conditions linked to fascism and excessive submission to authority among the masses, one I did not raise here until now.
We find many sex negative practices in major religions, cultures and even parents in early childhood extending into early adult life that contribute to vulnerabilities such as being drawn in fascist movements. Sufficient to say that sexual negation of natural human sexuality is still widespread, although rarely recognized as such.
Unintended Pathologies
It can create all sorts of unintended pathology and neuroses which can break and warp our humanity, values and independence, leading to the cruel, sadistic and racial behaviors we often see among authority dependent fascists.
I’’ll be working on writing one that explains in more complete detail how and why some sexually repressive practices can break the human spirit and warp it, laying the groundwork for an unhealthy obedience to and dependence on authority figures. []
Recommended
The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich and Sexology from Below
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