Opinion: What the media still get wrong about Trump voters

lettruthout@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 75 points – Opinion: What the media still get wrong about Trump voters
latimes.com

Archived version: https://archive.ph/XeqEM (But this source is really worth subscribing to if you're in the Southland.)

Many factors explain why people across Western democracies vote for politicians like former President Trump, including economic concerns, rural resentment and racial animosity. Although Trump supporters have been characterized as “left behind,” “stigmatized” or even “marginalized,” these ascriptions are dangerously off base.

For one, they fuel the self-victimization narratives common among radical right movements, driving conspiracies and support for this ideology. Moreover, they neglect that historically powerful groups such as white people, men and Christians are overrepresented among Trump supporters. Even today, these groups remain privileged politically, economically and culturally. By objective measures, most Trump supporters are not left behind, stigmatized or marginalized.

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They aren't marginalized or 'left behind,' though they feel excluded. They want to keep their white, Christian, male privilege.

That pretty much sums it up -- do I even need to read the article?

As the saying goes:

To the privileged, equality feels like oppression.

They're not losing any rights. Other groups are just starting to get some of those rights.

The "rights" they are losing is the ability to treat people differently than them as interior.

The people who have nothing to be proud of except their skin color or what genitals they have are now being told those aren't something they should be proud of. And now they realize that they don't have anything to be proud of, they're rebelling. But they're blaming those they look down on, instead of directing their rage at the real reason they have nothing- the wealthy ownership class and the political party they control.

I don't like how this phrase has been weaponized but yeah nobody can deny that this is what's happening here

No, it's wrong.

They are left behind.

Because they choose to deny reality, believing we're still back in the later roman era where the church controls all and slaves exist to serve their bidding.

We don't point at the Taliban and say "Oh, the poor, left behind, economically anxious, marginalized rural folk!"

You can't point at Dixiecrats and act like they're some kind of innocent victims in this, they've had a century and a half to actually try to do anything and they've doubled down every time.

What the media still gets wrong about Trump supporters is that the vast majority of them are some combination of stupid, racist, or psychopathically greedy. Stop beating around the fucking bush.

They're dixiecrats still screaming because we took their segregation away.

That's all they've ever had, and it looks like it's all they'll ever be.

You're still over here in your made up plane of existence just so you can whine that facts don't line up with what you want reality to be. Blimey, haha.

All Trump supporters are either bigots or billionaires.

And that's an inclusive or, by the way. We aren't Republicans you know. 🙂

You're dirtying Dio's name posting shit like this.

You will never know enlightenment, because you cannot conceive of being wrong.

For every Trump supporter you can find that lives in the unpopulated country in a trailer on a swamp, there are a dozen upper class spoiled brats for whom Trumpism has become core to their identity:

Trump voters’ median income exceeded the overall statewide median in all 23 states, sometimes narrowly (as in New Hampshire or Missouri) but sometimes substantially. In Florida, for instance, the median household income for Trump voters was about $70,000, compared with $48,000 for the state as a whole. The differences are usually larger in states with substantial non-white populations, as black and Hispanic voters are overwhelmingly Democratic and tend to have lower incomes. In South Carolina, for example, the median Trump supporter had a household income of $72,000, while the median for Clinton supporters was $39,000. (from 2016)

Throwing a little bit of anecdote behind that data, the most rabid Trump supporters in my family like to complain about "government teat" liberals while lounging on their 20+ foot boats which they launched from private docks beside their $1+ million lakeside or shoreside homes. That includes my father in law, 1 of my father's cousins, 4 of my uncles, and the husband of my own cousin. Not even exaggerating that they all either live on the waterfront or have a waterfront vacation home, and they all have huge boats. Three of my wife's uncles who are feverish Trumpers inherited a textile fortune from daddy and have never had to work a day of hard labor in their lives. The most rabid Trump supporter in my wife's extended network who routinely bitches and moans about how offended she is at the idea of "white privilege", lives on a 154 acre estate and inside a 7,550 square foot home that overlooks a private lake. She's as die-hard a Trump supporter as they come.

I wish I were joking.

I remember hearing an interview with a guy who studied the Jan 6 insurrection. He found that the most common demographic other than white, male, and Christian was that they were a small business owner.

I mean when I see people talking to folks at the rally those folks talk about traveling around and getting to them like they don't otherwise have to work.

George Carlin explains the MAGA cult almost perfectly:

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

Social psychological theories suggest two necessary conditions for people to feel included. First, they need to simply belong to the larger group — as white people, men and Christians racists in U.S. society do. Second, they need to feel that their unique racist backgrounds are respected and appreciated within the larger group. Hence, people may feel excluded from a group when they feel unseen or disrespected for their racist backgrounds even if they belong to the group.