With Trump it’s more than just people (his supporters) possessing an organic “default setting” to believe other people. The inherent “default setting” contains or presupposes an element of “good will”. There may have been an initial element of good will may have been in play…1/
…when Trump first started getting attention/traction, thanks to billions of dollars in free media coverage which, depending on the media outlet’s ideology/agenda, was seduced by Trump’s headline/attention grabbing sensationalism/crudeness/cruelty. 2/ thestreet.com/politics/donal…
What the story doesn’t mention is the role that “authority” plays in people’s "default setting" to “believe”. The greater the perceived authority, the more likely people are to "believe",….especially people who are more hardwired to reflexively “obey”: 3/
Compounding the problem is that society has become so celebrity-obsessed, that priorities have become misplaced, and people's perception skewed….4/
These two intersecting factors contributed to Trump’s rise….5/
As a result, Trump’s celebrity-manufactured appearance of authority/competency, combined with his rhetoric that not only induced fear, acknowledged the white working class’ sense of grievance, and legitimized/validated their identity of victimhood…6/
….but that (Trump’s) rhetoric also explicitly scapegoated “others” (minorities/non-Christians/women) in a way that previously intact societal norms had required to hide behind or be coded in “dog whistles”. 7/
Essentially, Trump simultaneously normalized/weaponized his pathologically-disordered thinking/beliefs…& then armed his supporters with those beliefs...which when provided by/with Trump’s “authority”, appear to exist with self-reinforcing justification. 8/
Over time, any semblance of neutrality in Trump’s supporters’ “default setting” eventually gave way to a combination of:
1) Confirmation bias….9/
1) Confirmation bias….9/
2) Emotional fulfillment….10/
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...and
3) Identity….
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3) Identity….
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