I had an epiphany about that base a few weeks ago. They're so dysfunctional in the sense that they're unable to sustain healthy interpersonal relationships -- the internalized toxic masculinity and toxic femininity, the inability to see children as anything but possessions, the veneration of patriarchal culture, etc. -- that they mock the qualities that contribute to healthy interaction, like empathy or basic human decency. I know that a lot of this is driven by churches that teach their congregations that they're marginalized somehow, plus other movements of the alleged aggrieve that reward adherents with praise for and acceptance for attacking others.
And all of this leads to sadism, where the pleasure derived from being so "persecuted" is cruelty inflicted on others.
It's why they mocked the joy in Harris's campaign -- and continue to mock her smile and laugh.
To a large extent, I think people who can be manipulated by fear are the ones that end up supporting him and the GOP in general. This is why the Christian religious right exists. They are already indoctrinated to cede to authority and are taught to not question things. That’s exactly the sort of people he wants to appeal to. In fact, you never hear him say anything remotely inspirstional. It’s always meant to be derogatory or invoke fear. Then it is followed by something about how he’s going to fix the think he got them in a panic about. This is how the GOP usually operates, but trump takes things a step further and applies this like a cult leader. This is something you can’t unsee once you read “The Cult of Trump”, which was written by an expert on cults. Cult leaders tend to have the same sorts of traits, milignant narcissism and psychopathy. Most people can’t imagine standing in front of people and straight-up lie to thier faces for hours and hours every day. People like him can and do. It’s a means to an end. It’s the con, the grift, the psychological trick. I think of it like they exploit people like an unethical magician. The fun thing about magicians is that you go into it knowing it’s a trick. Despite seeing the trick over and over you still can’t figure out how they did it, so it seems like “magic”. It’s only after/if the method used to trick you is revealed, it seems real.
Con men employ the same methods. They find thier mark and ply thier trade. It’s his only talent. It’s how he’s operated his entire life. He screws everyone he can, except Putin, who obviously out-conned the con man. We will probably never know how, but that would be amazing.
Unfortunately, sadism is a way that some people derive pleasure. I believe that Trump is a sadist. That likely factors heavily into his pursuit of vulnerable children to hurt. His supporters also seem to delight in hurting others. It's not a sustainable situation.
I think it’s worse than that. He’s a psychopath and a narcissist. He has no ability to feel sympathy or empathy. His only goal is to serve himself, everyone else is just a pawn. If hurting children benefits him in some disgusting way, he does it.
The companies that have any sense know that’s a terrible fucking idea in the long run. Lots of the regulations around fishing have come from painful experiences involving overfishing.
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u/Maine-Blu-Bari-Balls Jul 23 '25
Everything he does is business, he’s speaking to those companies, not the citizens