# A mystery \[Why people accept Trump\] **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 6, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565 "2020-02-06T21:24:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![contradancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@contradancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/contradancer)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/1 "2020-02-06T21:24:11Z")
What mind set is it that allows millions of people to seemingly approve of a president who is so obviously mentally ill; who makes bad decisions, and is morally bankrupt?☹ ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/2 "2020-02-06T21:30:05Z")
Since we are in GQ, you won’t get an answer, as there is no factual response that exists. While I may (and, indeed, do) agree with your description, it is still an opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/3 "2020-02-06T21:36:10Z")
This is better suited to The BBQ Pit rather than General Questions (although largely redundant). Title edited to indicate subject. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/4 "2020-02-06T21:38:37Z")
“I hate these people. He says he hates these people. Ergo, he’s my friend. We’re a team. Go team us !” ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/5 "2020-02-06T21:45:58Z")
It indicates just how far the liberal intelligentsia have left behind “the deplorables” over the past couple of decades. Progress may well be inevitable but you can’t leave behind a bloc that represents an electoral majority in a functioning democracy. In a nutshell, it’s schadenfreude. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/6 "2020-02-06T21:48:02Z")
> [@contradancer](#): > > What mind set is it that allows millions of people to seemingly approve of a president who is so obviously mentally ill; who makes bad decisions, and is morally bankrupt?☹ Resolved: Deplorable. ---
**Author:** ![DoggyDunnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@DoggyDunnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoggyDunnit)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/7 "2020-02-06T21:49:41Z")
> [@contradancer](#): > > What mind set is it that allows millions of people to seemingly approve of a president who is so obviously mentally ill; who makes bad decisions, and is morally bankrupt?☹ Colonialist sociopathy. People like Trump, Bolsonaro, Boris, Putin, Morrison, etc & their acolytes are of course gonna be big numbers amongst a species that’s turned its back on God & Nature. Not that Trump’s electoral opponent was much better. “Pool full o’ piss, or pool full o’ shit? Sorry, clean water is not a viable option!” ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/8 "2020-02-06T21:53:09Z")
> [@contradancer](#): > > What mind set is it that allows millions of people to seemingly approve of a president who is so obviously mentally ill; who makes bad decisions, and is morally bankrupt?☹ Because he is a bigoted, fascistic bullying son of a bitch who gets away with it. They wanna get away with it too. He mouths the same shit they quietly (sometimes) think. He tries to shit on the same groups of people they want to shit on. > [@Kobal2](#): > > “I hate these people. He says he hates these people. Ergo, he’s my friend. We’re a team. Go team us !” Yes. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/9 "2020-02-06T22:05:13Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > It indicates just how far the liberal intelligentsia have left behind “the deplorables” over the past couple of decades. Progress may well be inevitable but you can’t leave behind a bloc that represents an electoral majority in a functioning democracy. > > In a nutshell, it’s schadenfreude. I’ve linked to this article before: [This Political Theorist Predicted the Rise of Trumpism. His Name Was Hunter S. Thompson.](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/this-political-theorist-predicted-the-rise-of-trumpism-his-name-was-hunter-s-thompson/) _In Hell’s Angels, the gonzo journalist wrote about left-behind people motivated only by “an ethic of total retaliation.” Sound familiar?_ > [@](#): > > Most people read Hell’s Angels for the lurid stories of sex and drugs. But that misses the point entirely. What’s truly shocking about reading the book today is how well Thompson foresaw the retaliatory, right-wing politics that now goes by the name of Trumpism. After following the motorcycle guys around for months, Thompson concluded that the most striking thing about them was not their hedonism but their “ethic of total retaliation” against a technologically advanced and economically changing America in which they felt they’d been counted out and left behind. Thompson saw the appeal of that retaliatory ethic. He claimed that a small part of every human being longs to burn it all down, especially when faced with great and impersonal powers that seem hostile to your very existence. In the United States, a place of ever greater and more impersonal powers, the ethic of total retaliation was likely to catch on. > > What made that outcome almost certain, Thompson thought, was the obliviousness of Berkeley, California, types who, from the safety of their cocktail parties, imagined that they understood and represented the downtrodden. The Berkeley types, Thompson thought, were not going to realize how presumptuous they had been until the downtrodden broke into one of those cocktail parties and embarked on a campaign of rape, pillage, and slaughter. For Thompson, the Angels weren’t important because they heralded a new movement of cultural hedonism, but because they were the advance guard for a new kind of right-wing politics. As Thompson presciently wrote in the Nation piece he later expanded on in Hell’s Angels, that kind of politics is “nearly impossible to deal with” using reason or empathy or awareness-raising or any of the other favorite tools of the left. > > … > > But though Thompson’s depiction of an alienated, white, masculine working-class culture—one that is fundamentally misunderstood by intellectuals—is not the only one out there, it was the first. And in some ways, it is still the best psychological study of those Americans often dismissed as “white trash” or “deplorables.” ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/10 "2020-02-06T22:10:07Z")
> [@contradancer](#): > > What mind set is it that allows millions of people to seemingly approve of a president who is so obviously mentally ill Most assholes are not mentally ill. Differentiating the two situations is worthwhile, since one is treatable. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/11 "2020-02-06T22:13:58Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > “I hate these people. He says he hates these people. Ergo, he’s my friend. We’re a team. Go team us !” And his distinct lack of a brain/mouth (or brain/thumbs) filter appeals to those who appreciate “telling it like it is”. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/12 "2020-02-06T22:21:48Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I’ve linked to this article before: > > [This Political Theorist Predicted the Rise of Trumpism. His Name Was Hunter S. Thompson.](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/this-political-theorist-predicted-the-rise-of-trumpism-his-name-was-hunter-s-thompson/) > > _In Hell’s Angels, the gonzo journalist wrote about left-behind people motivated only by “an ethic of total retaliation.” Sound familiar?_ Best thing I’ve read on the subject that has crystalized the Trumpcult ideology so succinctly and accurately. Rings so true in context of the comments Trump has made in the past about the biker “tough guys” being some of his greatest supporters. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/13 "2020-02-06T22:37:10Z")
Ahh, I see we’re now in the correct forum for the answer: Trump supporters are really fucking stupid people who are woefully misinformed and lacking in critical thinking skills. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/14 "2020-02-06T22:42:26Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Ahh, I see we’re now in the correct forum for the answer: > > Trump supporters are really fucking stupid people who are woefully misinformed and lacking in critical thinking skills. Rebels without a clue. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/15 "2020-02-06T22:51:20Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > > [@dasmoocher](#): > > > > I’ve linked to this article before: > > > > [This Political Theorist Predicted the Rise of Trumpism. His Name Was Hunter S. Thompson.](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/this-political-theorist-predicted-the-rise-of-trumpism-his-name-was-hunter-s-thompson/) > > > > _In Hell’s Angels, the gonzo journalist wrote about left-behind people motivated only by “an ethic of total retaliation.” Sound familiar?_ > > Best thing I’ve read on the subject that has crystalized the Trumpcult ideology so succinctly and accurately. Rings so true in context of the comments Trump has made in the past about the biker “tough guys” being some of his greatest supporters. OK, I read it. So is there any way to reason with this crowd? Or does the Democratic Party just need to out-vote them? (BTW, it seems weird that they’re identifying with him, given that he’s pretty much the social opposite of them; born to wealth, Manhattan resident and hobnobs with the elites.) ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/16 "2020-02-06T22:58:58Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I’ve linked to this article before: > > [This Political Theorist Predicted the Rise of Trumpism. His Name Was Hunter S. Thompson.](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/this-political-theorist-predicted-the-rise-of-trumpism-his-name-was-hunter-s-thompson/) It’s a good article. I can’t help thinking that the trouble with modern politics in a lot of Western nations is that it’s aligned itself around the wrong things. Time was (certainly in the UK, don’t know about America) when the difference between left and right was primarily economic - left was for the workers, right for the bosses. That seemed to change in the UK when Thatcher swooped in and gathered up a whole bunch of socially conservative working class voters on the basis of _values_ and it never really changed back (Disclaimer: I was nine at the time and may be oversimplifying by a lot). It’s still mostly aligned with economic issues in Australia - the Big Two parties flirt with Identity Politics occasionally, but mostly they leave it to fringe parties - and honestly I think that makes Australian politics way more functional than what I see coming out of the US (for the rest of the Anglosphere, NZ and Canada seem to be going okay too, though I’m hardly an expert) It honestly does mystify my that Trump - a born millionaire who is well known to stiff his workers whenever he thinks he can get away with it - has somehow become the candidate of choice for working class Americans. It’s like their economic interests aren’t even a thing - the conversation just inevitably gravitates to social and identity themes over and over again ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/17 "2020-02-06T23:12:14Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > OK, I read it. So is there any way to reason with this crowd? Or does the Democratic Party just need to out-vote them? (BTW, it seems weird that they’re identifying with him, given that he’s pretty much the social opposite of them; born to wealth, Manhattan resident and hobnobs with the elites.) No. I don’t believe there is common ground to reason with them on this subject. My understanding is that they identify not with his upper class social standing (which they do find aspirational and therefore lends him additional credibility), but with his ‘call a spade a spade and burn it all down’ attitude. He gives them permission not to be nice in polite society. They’ve not had that kind of freedom for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/18 "2020-02-06T23:15:51Z")
I’m trying to imagine a way the DNC can appeal to them. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/19 "2020-02-06T23:27:03Z")
Once in a while, I hear/read something that Trump himself or one of his supporters has said, and I think, “I wish I believed that. It would make me a lot happier about the way things are going right now.” I suspect that many Trump supporters have made the decision to believe in him, and have decided not to listen to or to seriously consider anything that anyone says against him. It’s not that they’re stupid _per se_; it’s that they’re filtering everything they see and hear and think through Trump-colored glasses. A lot of people do this kind of thing, not just Trump supporters. “Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2020, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565/20 "2020-02-06T23:35:44Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > It honestly does mystify my that Trump - a born millionaire who is well known to stiff his workers whenever he thinks he can get away with it - has somehow become the candidate of choice for working class Americans. It’s like their economic interests aren’t even a thing - the conversation just inevitably gravitates to social and identity themes over and over again Like I said years ago: blue collar workers are frustrated as hell. The system does not work for them; in fact, it works off of them, and they know it. They know they are taxes more than millionaires, that they work harder than millionaires and that ultimately, those millionaires will use lawyers and lobbyists and laws to take what little they have left after they are over-charged for rent, food, clothing and medical care. They know the system is rigged, so why not try a different way of rigging it? The problem is, as noted above, they are really fucking stupid people who are woefully misinformed and lacking in critical thinking skills. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-mystery-why-people-accept-trump/847565.md?page=2)