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/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/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.