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When Bush Jr was president I was absolutely confounded by how people could support him. Then I got older and could see how people don't know how to do basic research.
With Trump, you just watch a speech or see his social media posts. It should be immediately apparent to anyone that he's a spineless, lying, idiot.
Trying to comprehend how such a loser remains in power hurts my brain.
Propaganda is MUCH more effective than most people think.
In popular media, it's usually only the stupid and the weak willed, but in reality, pretty much ANYONE can be fooled to a lesser or greater degree by propaganda if it's persistent and/or effective enough.
The fascist Republican party is literally a religious cult, complete with being just as difficult to escape without strong social support and deprogramming as for example Jehovah's Witnesses or Scientology.
Another example, see: ads
There's a reason the advertising industry is maaaaaassive. And no, you aren't "immune to ads" or willingly make yourself "less likely to buy the product". You think you are, but you're not.
You're not immune to propaganda
Adblock on every screen nearby. No broadcast / cable TV. Aggressively filtering things that add ads.
People model this as an insane overreaction. The world outside is a madhouse.
Yeah I think the people who drank the Koolaid were WELL indoctrinated into this stupidity before Trump came along, they don't question Trump because they never questioned anything that came before when it was maybe reasonable (not really).
Never discount... people, too.
How many out there think: "He's just like me, but gets to say what he wants to!"
Try comparing Trump with a scam email and you'll get why people fall for his antics.
A scam email uses bad grammar and misspellings to deter less gullible people so the scammers can focus on the gullible people instead of wasting resources on people who at best won't interact, or at worst will try to limit gullible people who are getting sucked in.
Trump does the same thing.
A scam email uses hyperbole, this to try and deny you time to think and just proceed without thinking.
Trump does the same thing.
A scam email will constantly lie.
Trump does the same thing.
A scam email will often focus on your ego, complimenting you or your circumstances.
Trump does the same thing, but less focused on a specific person.
And so on.
TL;DR:
Trump is a scam email.
A very apt analogy and reminds me of the early days of the 'net. Among my peers, I was one of the first on the 'net, but I had been on BBSes quite a bit and had some minimal use of Qlink prior. And so you saw things that became memes in their own right in the early days, like MAKE.MONEY.FAST, and you wondered who fell for that stuff.
Then came Eternal September. And as the rest of the world started to get on the 'net, I'd have associates, friends, family fall for all kinds of stuff - forwarding me emails involving wildly stupid urban legends, or the "if you forward this, Bill Gates will give you $$$" stuff, etc.
It felt like I was always telling the same sort of person that you could easily think this through. It would bounce right off the skulls of some and they might drop the current thing, but fall for the next...usually the consequences were just wasting everyone else in their contact list's time and clogging up email inboxes just a bit more.
These days, I have a feeling virtually all these people that I'd try to gently coach on some rather basic critical thinking all voted 3x for Taco.
Their pastors and bishops tell them who to vote for based on a single issue. It's really that simple.
Not just once, twice. I try not to think about it because it's enraging.
Just remember - voters looked at the 2 candidates and said 'yup. I like the orange one'. This is not a good look, America.