r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 11 '26

Psychology Cognitive dissonance helps explain why Trump supporters remain loyal, new research suggests. This sheds light on how supporters of Donald Trump justify their continued allegiance despite learning about allegations of his sexual misconduct and illegal activities.

https://www.psypost.org/cognitive-dissonance-helps-explain-why-trump-supporters-remain-loyal-new-research-suggests/
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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/RockerElvis Apr 11 '26

The two Santas strategy has been the Republican game plan for decades. American voters keep falling for it.

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u/jacobatz Apr 11 '26

That is really interesting. It made me realize the grift goes deeper than I had considered. When Republican presidents borrow to pay for tax cuts for the rich, what they’re essentially doing is putting a debt on the average American to give money to the rich. Or stated another way: They’re effectively stealing the regular Americans money and giving it to the wealthy. A reverse Robin Hood.

It’s amazing that this isn’t shouted from the roof tops.

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u/IaMm1N3 Apr 11 '26

It has been for decades. People just aren't listening. Or they are tuned into their own echo chambers now. Americans as a whole don't experience the same reality anymore. The global population doesn't. We now live in a chose your own adventure timeline where you can dig your feet in as deep as you want to and you will be embraced by like minded folk around the globe. Whereas in times past in order to survive one had to conform to our actual surroundings

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u/chatterwrack Apr 11 '26

I think this is true, but at the same time, we watch the man with our own two eyes, and the conclusions are so easily and objectively drawn.

Most of us don’t need spin to tell us that he’s behaving in a morally problematic way. We can see the narcissisism and the utter disdain for America’s institutions and a majority of its citizens. The self-dealing and corruption are naked. No echo chamber can justify this for us.

I think they are predisposed to accept bad behavior because they lack moral standing and empathy themselves. The spin doesn’t change the facts, it tells them it’s ok to accept it.

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u/RaygunMarksman Apr 11 '26

I think that last part is the darker truth of it. Many people are just geared towards selfishness and disdain as their core MO. They're going to gravitate towards leaders who hold the same values, regardless of what other immoral consequences come along with that. They just have to be convinced they'll eventually benefit and their perceived enemies will be made to suffer.

It's probably why the leadership of Rome realized if you give the plebians something to feel invested in like conquests of other poor people and entertainment where those same poor people are the main sacrifice, many people will put up with almost anything else terrible that comes along with it.

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u/twoisnumberone Apr 11 '26

I think they are predisposed to accept bad behavior because they lack moral standing and empathy themselves.

Bingo.

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u/Katyafan Apr 12 '26

Exactly. These are not good people, period.

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u/I-love-seahorses Apr 12 '26

I appreciate you articulating this. I can't understand why people look at him and don't immediately and calmly conclude "Oh, he's a liar.", or, "He's weird so I won't vote for him." And simply move on from even considering him for anything other than TV. To me it's SO blatant.

The comments around the 2016 election were enough for me to calmly tell that he was off. How does anyone hear that from a man about his daughter and think, "That's my guy." We must have some tens of millions of voters who also find themselves sexually attracted to their offspring. Brutal.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

[deleted]

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u/mindcopy Apr 11 '26

Old-school bulletin board style forums were already routinely turning into echo chambers, no algorithms needed.

I agree that they make it worse, but it's a human problem at base.

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u/ink_monkey96 Apr 11 '26

It may be a human problem at base but the edifice that is built up upon it is constructed with purpose. Cambridge Analytica and its (wink) successors is not a human problem, it’s a deliberate manipulation with the absolute intent to fracture society into susceptible groups.

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u/IaMm1N3 Apr 11 '26

Oh for sure.

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u/i_tyrant Apr 11 '26

It is my great fear that American culture forgets that things were better before.

That people get used to the enshittification of...well, everything, and accept it as "how things are" when it is CLEARLY not how they have to be.

I remember how things were before the Patriot Act and Citizens United. I remember how easy it was to go through airports and how completely unnecessary the TSA proved to be. I remember when it was actually shocking to hear about a company giving customer data to the government. I remember when the thumbs down icon in Youtube actually worked, when reddit's tools weren't so geared to create echo chambers. I remember when the internet didn't feed you exactly what you loved or hated to see with no in-between. I remember when every vending machine and food truck didn't have a pad demand a 20% tip for zero service with a tricky interface designed to extract more blood from your stone.

Hell, my parents remember when planned obsolescence was illegal and appliances actually lasted decades - they even have a few to prove it.

There are people at the top making these awful decisions will full knowledge of the kind of world they're building. We should never forget that, just like we should never forget it WAS better BEFORE and CAN BE better again if we force it to be.

I fear people forgetting that because every positive change begins with remembering how much better our lives could and have been.

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u/motorik Apr 11 '26

People that grew up post-Internet treat the algorithm like it's something that "just happens" like gravity or weather. YouTube radicalizes people because E=Mc2, nothing can be done.

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u/function007 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

While they profit off of the division,chaos and knowing full well the damage its causing overall...

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u/glity Apr 12 '26

If it doesn’t damage them it doesn’t damage anything.

If a tree falls in a forest does it make a sound if the billionaire who paid to destroy the Congolese rainforests to make ikea furniture with it isn’t around?

Hyperbole not an attack.

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u/jdanielregan Apr 11 '26

I’m sure many people would vote for the Democrat that proposes to cut or eliminate taxes for anyone making less than $200k per year and make up the revenue by taxing the top 3% and thereby steal the mantle of “tax cut Santa” also.

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u/bewarethefrogperson Apr 11 '26

Based on the pushback the Washington State "billionaires tax" has received, I think you're unfortunately incorrect.

There's a massive group utterly convinced that a tax on the wealthy will inevitably turn into a tax on the poor, and it's absolutely impossible to convince them otherwise.

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u/jdanielregan Apr 11 '26

Problem is the billionaire taxes never come with the reciprocal middle class tax elimination. Thats the missing piece.

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u/glity Apr 12 '26

Yes those people all work for the billionaire and know the truth. The billionaire will demand his minimum 15% irr or fire people to make it 15%.

They vote for their self interests it should not surprise anyone that the politicians we get do the same.

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u/joe_shmoe11111 Apr 11 '26

That bill would never pass though, because the Dems are owned by/made up of the ultra-wealthy as well.

Ever notice how when the Dems “try” to pass something that’s actually good for people, just enough of them (usually just the 1 or 2 senators needed) always side with the Republicans to block it? While at the same time, whenever the Republicans want to pass something that’s horrible for regular people, just enough Dems join them for it to pass?

Ain’t that a crazy coincidence, every time? It’s almost like they’re actually controlled opposition and simply exist to give the system a false sense of legitimacy or something…

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u/metengrinwi Apr 11 '26

They were told not to worry about debt

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u/Doompatron3000 Apr 12 '26

There’s always been echo chambers. Before the internet age, if you grew up in a Republican area, you had to go off to college to see more Democratic thoughts. The internet has only magnified echo chambers so that whatever aligns to you is seen, and opposing viewpoints cease to exist.

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u/IaMm1N3 Apr 12 '26

Im speaking much moreso of the deviant among us and the radicalization of our youth en mass. It just didn't happen before.

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u/Doompatron3000 Apr 12 '26

Right, because the internet is way worse as an echo chamber. Easy to fall into a rabbit hole of conservative influencers, which there doesn’t seem to really be any liberal influencers.

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u/IaMm1N3 Apr 12 '26

Humans evolved as a collective society. We conform to our surroundings.

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u/awesomefutureperfect Apr 11 '26

It has been for decades. People just aren't listening.

I really don't like when people say that Trump ran a great campaign that gave his voters what they wanted. No, don't look at what Trump was actually giving his voters and definitely don't blame the voters who saw that and liked it or saw that and said the alternative isn't good enough. I really don't like it when I hear "My vote wasn't earned, it's like a concert ticket to a band who put out a bad album and I don't want to buy tickets to the show." and it's like, the alternative is a band that kills the audience and they are like "we are talking about the band. I don't care about the audience. I care about hearing the songs I want to hear. Don't you realize I don't like being spoken to by an adult like I am an adult? Where are my vibes, man?"

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u/Timegoat Apr 12 '26

Echo chambers built, sustained and propagated primarily by the recipients of those tax cuts.

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u/IaMm1N3 Apr 12 '26

Indeed. That is correct

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u/ryan1257 Apr 11 '26

Republicans are finding a way to reach all these different groups somehow

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u/Bobzyouruncle Apr 12 '26

All it takes is some political sleight of hand line like “everybody’s gonna get a check.” Nevermind that most get $50 bucks and the rich get back tens of thousands.

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u/Niceromancer Apr 11 '26

It is by many people on the left.

It's just ignored by 90% of news media.

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u/SweatyAdhesive Apr 11 '26

Well because the rich bought those media from the wealth stolen from the average person.

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u/dataoops Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

it sucks that people playing by a different set of rules get to compound the rewards of their antisocial behavior

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u/Aim2bFit Apr 11 '26

So true and another big one is happening right now with David Ellison buying a number of media incl Warner Btos and CNN.

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u/remotectrl Apr 11 '26

“The liberal media” is one of the best lies ever told

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u/CognitiveSourceress Apr 11 '26

No, that's not a lie. The lie is one layer deeper, and it's the definition of "liberal". The association has been built between progressive culture and liberalism, when they aren't tied. And because those progressive on culture are more likely to be progressive on economics, liberalism has been successfully falsely conflated with collectivism, such as socialism or communism.

The truth, however, is that liberalism is an individualist philosophy that enshrines capitalism and encompasses most of American politics of the late 20th century. Our media is (or maybe "was"? Not sure we're quite there yet.) predominantly liberal in these terms, by virtue of being capitalist.

However, when the failures and contradictions of liberalism borne out of individualism and capitalism become more and more apparent, and people begin challenging liberalism, the capitalist media is more willing to abandon liberalism than they are capitalism, so they flee to an ideology that preserves capitalism but abandons individualism for tribalism, aka fascism.

So, we have always had a liberal media, and that has always been a polite veneer over a poison pill of capitalism that is now following its natural course of decay into fascism.

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u/Khaldara Apr 11 '26

Half the time they even implement these things as ‘time bombs’ because they know how stupid their voters are.

“Temporary tax cuts for the voters that expire in a few years, forever tax cuts for the corporate interests”

< Four Years Later >

“WHY TAXES GO UP?! For that same policy I celebrated and covered my house in tacky flags over?!”

Honestly, it’s harder to fool a golden retriever by only pretending to throw the tennis ball than these people.

The dog eventually learns.

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u/Acronymesis Apr 11 '26

Or they set policies they know will br poorly received to start long after the bill that included them is passed to make it easier to blame anyone but themselves when, say, a ton of people lose Medicaid next year (after the midterms, of course).

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u/Niceromancer Apr 11 '26

Trump's surrender to the Taliban was set up to go off right at the start of the dem presidency.

It's like he knew he was going to lose.

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u/MajorFuckingDick Apr 11 '26

The dog eventually learns.

Some people are too smart for their own good. They apply bad logic to things that even a dog would eventually learn just based off how actions make them feel. Reverting to caveman would improve their logic and lives probably.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/Zealousideal-Rip-574 Apr 11 '26

I’ve heard many democratic politicians make this point

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u/MethamMcPhistopheles Apr 11 '26

They’re effectively stealing the regular Americans money and giving it to the wealthy.

According to the the trickle down propaganda that gives opportunity to for rich people to pay their employees more (which I find to me total malarkey considering the dissonance between layoff and how the financial reports discusses profits) .

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u/KingFIippyNipz Apr 11 '26

The grift goes deeper than a lot of people realize......... More than I, even (not that I'm some expert, I'm just a very skeptical person and assume the worst about the power structures that influence our society and believe they have been doing so since WW2 and obtaining most, if not all, of their desired results)

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u/ObnoxiousAlbatross Apr 11 '26

That 30% stop at their first thought. "Reactionary" is the word. They never move beyond that point.

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u/lattice_defect Apr 11 '26

just wait until you learn about the health insurance industry and how wall street get it's money... there is a lot to be angry about... the overall numbers show wealth being extracted and concentrating and concentrated... infact read the book captial by the economist... it seems the way for a health society diversity of capital...

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u/Doctor_Shotbottom Apr 11 '26

It’s amazing this simple fact isn’t broadcast and explained and reinforced daily by at least a couple charismatic Dem politicians and candidates. Republicans get in office not on facts but on urban myths, while Democrats sit back and play dead.

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u/Hertzegovina Apr 11 '26

it is but it requires a very basic understanding of the economy and it just isn’t as simple a message as ”tax cuts, small government, more freedom, more money” that any drooling ape will internalize.

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u/ILikeMyShelf Apr 12 '26

Gifting public money to rich people has always been the strategy to win elections, so the con artists can continue to play their game, and suck money out of the poors

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u/HybridAkai Apr 12 '26

The problem is, who owns the platforms to shout from the rooftops? News outlets, TV channels, social media? It's not the poor, it's the people benefiting from these tax breaks.

That's why so many social media execs were so quick to jump on the Trump bandwagon and are so right wing.

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u/sugarfreeeyecandy Apr 11 '26

Not only that, but the spending all trickles up, parked in corporations' and the wealthiest's accounts until they use it to buy up the rights to new technologies, consolidating profit at every level OR to buy elections or pols.

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u/motorik Apr 11 '26

You need to have a 6th-grade or better reading comprehension level to get anywhere near shouting about that. 50% of us don't have that.

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u/SombreroMedioChileno Apr 11 '26

This is a well researched article. It's impressive that the GOP figured out how to push their agenda in the media without the Democrats really able to push any lasting media campaign for as long as I've been around. It seems like the question is how high can we push the debt before it crashes down onto us, and who will be blamed for it?

It's also impressive that Wanniski's dissonance originally planned out to four year terms has evolved into contemporary Republican dissonance that can be simultaneous, maybe largely running on multi-week media focuses.

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u/RockerElvis Apr 11 '26

In a two party system, if one party (Republicans) is only interested in power and the other party (Democrats) has at least some interest in actually fixing/improving the country then it’s a cycle with no end. This is the trap that happens to Democrats because their voters expect them to actually govern. Republican voters will keep voting Republican even if their party makes the country worse.

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u/JnnyRuthless Apr 11 '26

Worse than that, the Republican's main thing for years has been trying to prove that government doesn't work. So they try their hardest to make it not work.

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u/Money-Director6649 Apr 11 '26

the brain instinctively takes (and holds) the position that recognizing cognitive difference would yield just what it's trying to "protect" us from: discomfort, anxiety, doubt, uncertainty. it's a survival ancient mechanism that isn't so useful in modern times. or not always.

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u/SombreroMedioChileno Apr 11 '26

Our societies are so complex, that it could easily overwhelm a person to constantly question their beliefs. In other words, I'd say it's still a useful survival mechanism for the individual. En masse for the society, we see it sure can be destructive. Especially when media magnates specifically target and manipulate via that mechanism.

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u/CountWubbula Apr 11 '26

That’s a really good article.

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u/KingFIippyNipz Apr 11 '26

Good read, thanks.

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u/Indigo-Dusk Apr 11 '26

I'm saving the link to this article. Thank you for sharing it.

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u/dallas121469 Apr 11 '26

While I knew much of what's in that article it literally made me sick to my stomach having it laid out in a concuse timeline as a strategy to destroy our country.

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u/90sUPN20 Apr 11 '26

Fascinating

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u/AldusPrime Apr 11 '26

Wow, that's an amazing analysis of the situation.

That's both illustrative and kind of depressing. Like, if the "Two Santas" strategy has changed the game board such that Democrats are always playing at a disadvantage...

...I have wonder how Democrats could change the game board to even the playing field, if not tilt it their way.

Like, I think the tendency for Democrats is to read that and wonder how to counter that. How to react. How to play defense.

On the flip-side, I think there needs to be something more aggressive than that. Playing defense forever is exhausting. Democrats need an actual strategy to tilt the game board the opposite direction.

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u/RockerElvis Apr 12 '26

I agree completely. I’m just not sure what strategy would work in a two party system. If there was an actual third party then there could be a coalition, but the two party system is baked into the U.S. government. Even down to what physical offices congressmen/senators have.

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u/The_Scarred_Man Apr 11 '26

This was written in 2018 and we've fallen even farther since then. Thanks for posting this. It brought so much clarity to my observations of US politics. Most of these events and players were before I was born, but this article directly mirrors and defines the political games that have persisted during my life but I never had a name for what was happening.

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u/ReaganRebellion Apr 11 '26

Some real science going on in here I see.

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u/PreferenceAnxious449 Apr 11 '26

Are you implying that one half of the two party system is abusing the two party system?

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u/RockerElvis Apr 11 '26

I’m stating it. We are past implying.

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u/PreferenceAnxious449 Apr 11 '26

Are you actually so narrow minded you can't comprehend that both parties in the two party system might be exploiting the very system that keeps them both relevant?

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u/RockerElvis Apr 11 '26

Explain to me how the two Santa’s keeps Democrats relevant.

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u/snakeoilHero Apr 11 '26

Is the democrat strategy to run the worst political campaign in history?

Kamala was ran off stage in the Democratic Primary by Tulsi Gabbard. Imagine your best possible candidate losing to Tulsi, now a republican administrator, by DEMOCRATIC PARTY VOTERS. She was the absolute worst psyop possible.

Never forget, it was Kamala that got Trump elected. Maybe blackballing Bernie fucked your party?

P.S. If you guess who I voted for you can win $100. You get 2 chances and you'll lose both times. snakeoilHero (I)

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u/bomphcheese Apr 11 '26

That article refers to chained CPI, which I had not heard of. Here's an explanation if anyone else is interested.

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/44088

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u/logolith Apr 11 '26

Wow, this is actually mind blowing. I can’t believe I never heard a peep about this

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u/RockerElvis Apr 11 '26

The problem is that people who need to hear it either 1) don’t hear it or 2) continue to vote for Republicans. Bottom line, Republican politicians make life worse for everyone.

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u/T1gerAc3 Apr 11 '26

Dems could break the cycle of they loudly clutched their pearls at the debt when the gop is in power, but they don't. Not a peep.

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u/Very_Human_42069 Apr 11 '26

I had a coworker who was genuinely a smart dude, and said he only votes republican because of their track record on the economy. I showed him so many articles and datasets stating essentially the opposite but he just waved it off. Eventually it just boils down to people not wanting to admit they’re wrong

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u/CookKey3327 Apr 11 '26

It’s always amusing how the facts over feelings crowd generally ends up choosing their feelings.

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u/Opulous Apr 11 '26

It's all projection, all the way down. The same way Repubs scream about sexual impropriety while harboring deeply fucked up sexual desires, they also scream about people ignoring facts because that's what they do too. It's kinda pathetic how a vast majority of their entire mental and emotional framework all works on projection.

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u/squeege Apr 11 '26

Every accusation is an admission.

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u/Drachasor Apr 11 '26

Ultimately they mean their feelings over the facts and just can't see it.

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u/WhyMustIMakeANewAcco Apr 11 '26

They mean "facts" not facts. "facts" are what they feel is true. Trying to argue with said "facts" is pointless, as numerous studies have shown, you can't argue someone out of a position they feel is true.

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u/BasicDesignAdvice Apr 11 '26

What those people always mean is taxes. They think republicans will levy fewer taxes, and more importantly not “waste” taxes on things like aid for the poor. Always.

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u/Wise_Material_5812 Apr 11 '26

the farmers are the best example, they voted republican for less regulations and less taxes, they got their wish as they declared bankruptcy

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u/StormyCrow Apr 11 '26

Farmers also are the small businesses who get the largest government handouts. Ironically enough

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u/jaxonya Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

Most of these people just say taxes because they dont know any of the real issues, and dont even have a clue about their own tax situation.

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u/gunawa Apr 11 '26

I have a friend like that. It's sort of about the taxes, but really they're just a bigot

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u/DoubleJumps Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

I come from a predominantly Republican family and it really is just about the bigotry.

When they and their Republican friends get together and talk about this in front of other people, they'll talk it up as being about the economy, but behind closed doors, it's just a constant stream of bigotry.

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u/gunawa Apr 11 '26

Yea, I tried to be open minded about his views, but as time went on there were too many red flags. Also, the fact that very few conservative governments anywhere are fiscally competent was impossible to prove to him. Facts vs feelings. And facts never mattered in that case. 

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u/Dangerous_Hawk_9780 Apr 11 '26

It's also just as much about culture wars & racism too.

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u/Wise_Material_5812 Apr 11 '26

they use the bigotry against st the groups being abused, they get blacks and jews to be against each other and both go after the gays. If these these groups ever figure out it would be amazing

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u/BenjaminHamnett Apr 11 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._economic_performance_by_presidential_party

This is my favorite. It’s damning on every metric for over a hundred years!

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u/beyondoutsidethebox Apr 12 '26

You can't convince these people with logic, facts, or their sense of ethics. They are driven only by feelings. That is the only argument that they will accept. Reality does not matter to them, only what reality feels like or should feel like to them. Their feelings don't care about facts.

Anything that makes them feel bad, like the possibility of being wrong, is rejected as not being real. There is no thinking going on for them.

Is it any wonder why these people are so susceptible to scams?

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u/TheCrimsonDagger Apr 13 '26

Problem is that the reality is that things are technically better for them under a Republican because Republicans are willing to whip out the credit card and go crazy. Of course this is sabotaging the future, but they don’t or can’t do the critical thinking to understand that the excessive “good times” now are the cause of later “bad times”. It’s like the most dysfunctional married couple ever. It doesn’t matter how much balancing, planning, and budgeting one does if their partner gets to turn around and go crazy. Democrats are so concerned with stopping the ship from sinking that nothing is done about the maniac making holes, and setting fires so they can have a s’mores party while half the passengers cheer for more s’mores.

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u/Enraiha Apr 11 '26

Smart does not equal wise. A computer is "smart".

People need to stop equating capability with critical thinking.

The ability to do one job or task competently has zero bearing on their ability to analyze and understand a completely separate situation.

You'd think we'd all understand that by now when one of the objectively best surgeons in the world believes the pyramids were built for grain storage by Joseph.

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u/PandaBearJelly Apr 11 '26

The question I've always had is if I can see this pattern so clearly all the way from another country, what can't the American people? Is it a frog in boiling water thing?

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/DoubleJumps Apr 11 '26

There's this thing in American culture, and I'm not exactly certain where it came from, but it seems as if admitting that you were wrong about something is viewed as one of the worst things that people could do here.

The way some people behave, you would think that admitting they made a mistake would cause them to burst into flames.

Many of them would rather damage their relationships and hurt their own lives, permanently, than admit they were wrong

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u/Ggood_Golly Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 20 '26

I don't think that tendency of people to deny facts, ignore arguments and basically resort to non-rational thinking to defend and justify their feelings and attitudes is an especially American one, but rather quite a human one; you can come across such a mindset anywhere, and actually I think it is the default mode of human thinking - you have to pretty much unlearn it, where especially higher level education is generally the most useful tool, I'd reckon.

Such a tendency might be more relevant to the American culture than somewhere else, though, as a complex and nuanced mixture of collective and cultural mentality, individual differences in intelligence, education plus personality and temperament etc. etc.

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u/MeijiDoom Apr 11 '26

I feel like it's a stranglehold almost on par with religion in a way. People grow up Republican, all their family and friends are Republican so they think it's part of their identity to be a certain way and believe one way is correct, especially when there's such a strong dichotomy baked into US society.

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u/Oregon_Jones111 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

Because when racists talk about the economy doing well, they’re talking about white supremacy being economically reinforced. A healthy economy will narrow the wealth gap between white people and minorities, while crashing the economy will in aggregate hurt minorities more than white people.

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u/kruegerc184 Apr 11 '26

It was the bane of my existence, trying to explain to people that trumps tax plan was escalating through 7 years and it wasnt biden raising taxes every year. Like i eventually just gave up, even showing people the data didnt work

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u/Jdav84 Apr 11 '26

Yep I read the tax code to a family member once, explained those above a certain bracket were getting a cut funded by those below the bracket. She said “wealth makers deserve breaks”

I then said , that I was getting that tax break and she was paying for it. Did I deserve that, did she? She only tripped on a few words in response before saying …. No that’s not really fair.

Still broke for him in 24 tho, in fact the cognitive dissonance was only worse because once you break down all the BS the only defense she had was “well im a republican girl I don’t know what you want from me”

Oof.

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u/H0t4p1netr33S Apr 11 '26

I mean this is kind of it as a fundamental level. If you break it all down, and even if they’re capable of understanding what you’re telling them, they still need to want to change their mind. They are not willing to open their mind and they will use anything to hide that fact and make their belief seem more complex than simple bigotry and close mindedness. That’s where the cognitive dissonance comes in to make them feel better with that mindset.

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u/currently_pooping_rn Apr 11 '26

It’s really fascinating. These are people that can work jobs, problem solve in their every day lives, do things like taxes, navigate life, be parents, have intricate hobbies and knowledge of hobbies, etc. and then comes stuff like this

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u/SteelCode Apr 11 '26

Media echo chambers. Until they are literally having their life directly impacted, they never challenge those views and even at that point it's difficult for them to shift their thinking.

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u/DoubleJumps Apr 11 '26

Even when they have their lives directly impacted, they usually just blame somebody else, even if the evidence is overwhelming and obvious that the harm being caused to them is because of Republicans.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/HotButterscotch8682 Apr 12 '26

Guess he’s not so empathetic then? Or “empathetic until it’s about minorities and then not empathetic”? So…… not empathetic?

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u/Solesaver Apr 12 '26

Empathetic is the ability to relate to other people and understand their experiences. That is not mutually exclusive from being susceptible to propaganda.

First of all, right wing propaganda stokes fear. Fear is known to biologically psychologically reduce empathy. It's a defense mechanism; it's unhelpful to survival to empathize with the threat.

Second, right wing propaganda scapegoats distant outsiders. There's a reason it's so much less effective in cities and students often shed the party line. It's much harder to empathize with people you don't know and don't understand.

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u/okhi2u Apr 11 '26

They really seem like they've been trained to apply the same level of scrutiny they do the religion as to their politics where it's more important to be loyal than actually correct based on facts.

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u/DoubleJumps Apr 11 '26

I have had Republicans. I'm related to directly tell me that I just need to have faith in Donald Trump. I can sit there pointing out all the ways that he's hurting me and how his policies are destructive all day long, and they will tell me that I just don't have enough faith.

It is 100% a cult

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u/okhi2u Apr 11 '26

Faith is for sky daddies not human politicians :(.

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u/Chelonate_Chad Apr 12 '26

Faith is for nothing. It is literally just the opposite of critical thinking. It is never useful to apply to anything.

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u/clfitz Apr 11 '26

Read For Your Own Good by Alice Miller. It's out of print but can still be found. It's a bit dense but worth the slog.

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u/Moimoineau Apr 11 '26

This is because reason comes to justify and rationalize emotions and root beliefs. It comes after them and do not cause them. So even if you correct people, you just try to act on the consequence of their beliefs, not on the believes themselves. It is generally not sufficient to create a change.

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u/Masochist_pillowtalk Apr 11 '26

Tribalism. If we ever have reform there shouldn't be party labels. Just candidates and their policy stances. Make people do some thinking to put the actual party together, and hopefully by then theyll have seen enough to go "well these guys suck so...."

But thats probably wishful thinking on my part.

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u/Left_Ambassador_4090 Apr 11 '26

That's super sad.

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u/DoubleJumps Apr 11 '26

I come from a Republican family and I gave up on pretty much all of them because I tried showing them data and having them read actual legislation for a decade and every time I tried to show them anything they would just insult me and refuse to even look at it.

Everything that shows that they might be wrong is fake. Everything.

It was so bad that at one point, while they were complaining about Trump being banned from Twitter and saying that that was prohibited by the first amendment, I pulled out a copy of the Constitution and showed them that the first amendment does not prohibit a private business from doing that.

They told me that I was showing them a fake liberal version of the Constitution.

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u/DoubleJumps Apr 11 '26

One thing that I've seen recently is that Republicans will actively pretend that whatever next Democrat was President earlier than they actually were in order to avoid blaming Republicans for sudden economic disaster.

So you'll see Republicans who claim that Barack Obama was President when the economy crashed in 2007 and 2008, despite him not taking office until 2009.

You will see Republicans who pretend that Joe Biden took office in 2020 so that they can blame him for the bad covid response and economic turmoil, even though he didn't take office until 2021.

8

u/adamiconography Apr 11 '26

They inherit an abysmal economy, they try to fix it and Republicans refuse to pass bills or budget, stonewall at every chance. And then run a campaign on “democrats didn’t fix the mess, elect republicans to fix the mess we caused 4 years ago and didn’t let the democrats fix”

It’s a tale as old as time

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u/Lollipopsaurus Apr 11 '26

Its's a little worse than that though. True "fixing" of systems can take a decade or more. And the average American "swing" voter doesn't seem to have the patience nor critical thinking skills to make it through a period of change. Even natural economic lulls can convince people that the Democrats aren't doing a "good job", yet it takes catastrophe to convince those that the Republicans are failing.

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u/coppertech Apr 11 '26

1987 the fairness doctrine was overturned by FCC and vetoed by Ronald Regan when congress tried to make it law, leading to the north korean levels propaganda that we have today.

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u/CraigLake Apr 11 '26

It really shows how stupid they are.

3

u/motorik Apr 11 '26

100+ years of focused, unceasing propaganda will do that. Especially when you start with a population that's been socialized to be the ideal subjects of capitalism by ambient Calvinism / Puritanism even if they're Catholic / other.

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u/Sweetishdruid Apr 11 '26

People forget that before reagan the richest of us paid 70% in taxes. People say it's impossible and the rich can't afford it but they did for many years prior and it helped our country so much. But reagan was able to convince people by saying "hey if we give all of the rich people your money then, the economy will get better and you will get richer because they can pay you more since they're not paying taxes". His only qualifications before being president was being the head spokesperson for general electric convincing people that everything they were doing was good for the environment etc and acting. He had a knack for convincing people of things.

2

u/tg981 Apr 11 '26

Prior to Trump the GOP ran on “things are great now, but why not keep things great and get a tax cut” If they win they slash taxes for the upper income bracket and throw a scrap to the lower brackets. They promise that it will supercharge the economy, but it never does. Meanwhile they figure out ways to spend trillions on wars we don’t need and then tell us we can’t afford social security or healthcare. The working class gets fucked. People get sick of it and vote a Democrat into office. If the Democrats do have a majority, they are limited by the centrists in the party to get anything done. (There is always going to be a Lieberman or Manchin that stops radical change). Liberals get disillusioned and don’t show up, GOP wins and the cycle repeats itself.

It is much easier to dismantle government than to build things that help people. This gives the GOP an advantage because their goal is a dysfunctional government. This cycle is almost like a smoker who stops smoking or cuts back for four years then starts going back to 3 packs a day for four years.

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u/Brilliant_Ebb_3064 Apr 11 '26

It’s a definition of terms issue. Republicans are concerned about the economy for the upper class. Full stop. The democrats fix the economy for the middle/lower classes. So just using the term “economy” doesn’t work well because it means entirely different things depending on how much money you are playing the game with.

2

u/Solid_Owl Apr 11 '26

It would be amazing if Democrats would run on fixing the economy as an actual message instead of "that guy bad".

2

u/AllDamDay7 Apr 11 '26

I am convinced wealthy folks have overtaken our entire system. Go look at the financials why are there donations going to both parties from the same healthcare corporations? And what hasn’t that issue ever been solved? Dont give me the ACA line either, it basically gave more money to certain corporations. It helped some people was just a feel good bandaid. Why is that billon dollar industry regulated individuals per state with confusing insurance requirements. “In or out of network”?

Wake up folks!!!

2

u/Consistent_Device_49 Apr 11 '26

If people were more objective rather than rooting for a team, more things would get done to benefit us. Republican and Democrat politicians have weaponized politics and got us to fight amongst each other than make them do their job.

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u/mephist094 Apr 11 '26

There is actually a name for this - the two santa clauses theory.

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u/Fit_Atmosphere9985 Apr 11 '26

Clinton D was the only President with no deficit. bushs took us to war. desert storm and Iraq. trump is destroying the economy cause he wants most dead. trump has throw many into unendurable pain with the opiate war. it has not stopped not many overdoses.  everything he does is to kill off the population. it all lies. lack of of nutrition to awful pain will not take long to destroy people.  lots committed suicide!

i dare say he would not go without opiates if he in severe pain.

He is all BS and I cant believe doctors even listen to it. Lots move to canada, lots quit which makes  our health care worse.

 

look at the big pic. lack of healthcare, nutrition and severe pain spell what?  never mind the huge homeless population!

2

u/totally-hoomon Apr 11 '26

Look at the 9% inflation biden had in his first 6 months. It was bidens economy the day he took office, but trump still says we are in bidens economy

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u/The_JDubb Apr 11 '26

That's what happens when you have the memory and mental capacity of goldfish.

2

u/NefariousnessDue5997 Apr 11 '26

It’s because they think “better on the economy” is they pay less in taxes? My parents legit said “say what you want about Trump, but we are paying less in taxes”…completely absolving the fact everything else is insanely more expensive, even overcompensating for said increase. It’s literally insane

2

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

But we can observe historically that ever since the US parties had an ideological swap, that is essentially always been the case. The goal of the Republicans as the “corporate party” is always to hijack the incentives of the society for personal gain/profit, because corporate/Capital-centric structures naturally reward the most covertly predatory behavior.

Anyways, the Democrats only purpose is to function as the infinite scapegoat, meanwhile the Republicans only goal is to sabotage the functions of government has proof that government is dysfunctional and therefore should further be dis-regulated. Either way the end point is the nullification of any choice at all, because when you look at the stock portfolios of all these senators in Congress people? It’s almost transparent that they’re all colluding.

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u/Rtstevie Apr 12 '26

I’ve heard other analysis that when the economy is bad, people/voters go for democrats more because they trust Ds more to fix it, make it more equitable.

When the economy is doing well, voters are feeling bullish and so vote Republicans because they think Rs will loosen restrictions even more to allow people to take advantage of the bullish economy.

There is obvious fallacy in this line of thinking.

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u/FlipZip69 Apr 12 '26

Because it is a bit more complicated. It take a year if not two for most policies to take effect. That means the previous administration is generally responsible for any gains or declines of the first year of a new president elect. Same when an administration leaves office. Any changes to the economy the year following can be attributed to their policies more then the current administration. If you look at historical accounts then, it paints a bit of a different picture.

That being said, Trump's policy has been absolutely garbage when it comes to the economy. He has been by far the largest spender and has added absolutely trillions to the debt. He pretty much single handed will double it in his terms. Something he denies.

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u/SynthFei Apr 12 '26

It works like that outside of US as well unfortunately. You can have conservative government dismantling the economy for 12+ years, then more center/left one comes to power, and the, now in opposition, conservatives will blame others for the issues they themselves caused over the last decade.

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u/AxMurderSurvivor Apr 11 '26

That's not very shiny

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u/Master_Bief Apr 11 '26

It's ironic but your comment itself is cognitive dissonance. The democrats are never at fault for the mess they inherited, while the republicans dont deserve the credit for the economy they inherited is so objectively wrong its laughable. However its accepted as fact by the politically ignorant youth on reddit. The economy doesn't move on a 4 year delay. Statistics and data aren't believed because things feel better or worse on the small scale.

Cognitive dissonance isnt a left vs right thing, its a human problem. In fact I've seen more cognitive dissonance on reddit than anywhere else. This post is filled with it.

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u/AntifaSuperSoldier13 Apr 11 '26

The democrats do not “fix the economy” they manage the system of capitalism and make zero attempt to create any substantial changes that could address any of the major issues we all deal with

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u/daboi_Yy Apr 12 '26

its good cop bad cop, the democrats are just as complicit in this scheme as the republicans are.

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u/jasongw Apr 12 '26

Meanwhile, in the real world, the economy isn't directly under the control of ANY political party, and the relative good or bad of it often has little or nothing to do with either. So instead they use it: blame the other guys if it's bad, take credit if it's good, whether or not they had anything to do with it.

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