The Twisted MAGA Mindset

The Twisted MAGA Mindset

I had a conversation yesterday with an acquaintance who is a hardcore MAGA Maggot. He is a member of an evangelical church I used to attend before I was aware of its political leaning toward the far-right Christian ideology — one which professes tolerance and acceptance and mercy and love and forgiveness — until, heaven forbid, someone who is gay, or transgender, or worst of all, a Democrat, appears on the scene. Then the truth is made poignantly clear, not by their words, but by their actions. Our conversation quickly became one-sided, with the MAGA Maggot getting louder and louder to drown out facts and reality and to parrot the MAGA line he's been brainwashed into believing.

The First Amendment of our Constitution is founded on the separation of church and state. Yet what I found is that there is no hate like Christian love. The pastor of the church ever so calculatingly and discreetly preached with a bias toward the political right, and his "flock" so blindly followed his lead that the beliefs of a gullible congregation therefore followed his far-right political bias. After all, no one wants to question or challenge the pastor. Where was the separation of church and state? In the Bible, I Thessalonians 5:21 is very clear. It says, "test everything that is said." Yet too many today question nothing. They latch onto a pastor or some authority figure or, even worse, some far-right social media web sites, and their minds and their belief systems slowly but surely get indoctrinated and brainwashed. They become part of a filter bubble.

A filter bubble occurs when someone is only exposed to news that confirms his or her beliefs, or solely interacts with like-minded peers. Filter bubbles are unhealthy for both personal psychology and democracy/politics at large because they shut out alternative viewpoints, which ultimately inhibits nuanced thinking. When users do not see information, data, or ideas that might challenge their existing views, their biases are confirmed. The result? A society where people only see one side, leading to a highly polarized political environment. As filter bubbles develop, we become confidently ignorant. We see this clearly in the MAGA movement and MAGA mentality.

For example, my acquaintance was adamant that Trump won both the electoral college and popular votes. That's a lie. Fact-checking proves that Trump lost the popular vote. But far-right web sites and social media will lie and report otherwise. When I professed that I have no respect whatsoever for Trump as my president, my acquaintance asked me why. I was quick to tell him that I could not vote for someone I didn't respect — a convicted felon, an adulterer who paid hush money to a porn actress, a man who failed at business so badly that he filed for bankruptcy six times, a lover of dictators, a traitor to our Constitution who initiated an insurrection against our Capitol that ended up killing five people and injuring 174 police officers, and the list goes on and on. He then told me that none of those things were proven — in other words, they were "fake news" — and if I didn't like it, I could move to a different country! The word "compromise" does not fit in with the MAGA movement. This is the MAGA mentality. There's no tolerance for a difference of opinion, even when it's FACT and not opinion at all. Our country has had different political parties since its inception. When one party loses, there has always been a peaceful transition of power, and the members of the party that loses don't move to a different country, as was suggested that I do.

The MAGA cult is filled with hate mongering, conspiracy theories, blatant lies, verbal bullying, racism, and just plain mean-spirited behavior. They learned it from Trump and his brainwashing. Trump's thinking is that if he tells a lie often enough, he can make his cult members believe it's the truth — and it's worked for him. How can any person with any integrity whatsoever want Trump in the White House? Social psychologists suggest an answer. The short version? Their analysis indicates Trump is not a politician and the MAGA movement is not a political party. Rather, Trump is the charismatic leader of a personality cult seeking to dominate and exploit its members for his own purposes using psychological manipulation, group-think and peer pressure designed to alienate and sometimes isolate members from those who are not true believers. This creates a closed feedback loop, a psychological echo chamber and house of mirrors. MAGA members are immersed in information praising them and their movement. No criticism of the cult gets in. Trump tells them what to believe, and there are no other voices saying otherwise. Essentially, it’s brainwashing. 

Most MAGA cult members know little to nothing about Trump’s policy positions. Multiple interviews show, aside from a few campaign slogans, that they are clueless. There’s no need to think for themselves because according to them, Trump has all the answers. So, many MAGA devotees who struggle financially fail to realize Trump’s economic plans will push them further into poverty. MAGA voters are now discovering that much of what Trump and his billionaire lapdog, Elon Musk, are cutting as “waste, fraud, and corruption” are programs that benefit them, often more than they benefit Democratic-dominated states.

Psychotherapist Philip Chard wrote, "Psychological studies indicate most MAGA adherents share certain personality traits. Among these is a high degree of “social dominance orientation,” meaning support for a social hierarchy in which their in-group (the cult) dominates all other out-groups. They prefer authoritarianism over democracy, harbor a strong sense of entitlement, engage in collective narcissism (“We’re the best”), exhibit an overactive fear response and suffer from 'high BS receptivity,' which is just like it sounds. Sadly, once in a cult, fractured relationships often follow."

Trump did not win the popular vote, but he came close. That means that nearly half of the voters in the United States are MAGA supporters. Therefore, nearly half of the people you encounter in church, at the store, and on the road are just plain ignorant. Remember, it was Trump himself who said, "I love the poorly educated."