Thread by @ZhiZhuWeb

Journalists do not need to spend more time trying to understand Trump voters and their refusal to accept Trump's loss.

We already understand Trump voters.

Most of us are just so appalled by that understanding that we have trouble believing it.

Those who follow Trump believe they are inherently superior to “others,” though exactly who those “others” are can vary from follower to follower (ex: BIPOC, women, LGBTQ+, immigrants, intellectuals, "city folk," the poor, the "elite", the pro-choice, etc…).

Trump followers want to be able to ACT on their feelings of superiority in varying ways – from being thoughtlessly inconsiderate to being intentionally intolerant – without facing any social or legal consequences for their actions.

Some Trump followers want to be able to be racist at work without getting fired.

Some want to be able to demean, sexually harass, or physically assault women (“Grab ‘em by the …”) without facing social or legal consequences.

Some want to take away women's bodily autonomy.

Trump followers want to be allowed to discriminate against those with different religious beliefs, sexual orientations, gender expressions, abilities/disabilities, etc… without being told they are behaving hatefully and suffering the consequences of their hateful behavior.

Trump followers want unlimited tolerance for their intolerant behavior.

Trump followers have publicly claimed that they are “suffering oppression” because they are no longer allowed to act intolerantly towards “others” without facing negative consequences (social stigma, loss of job, lawsuits) for their intolerant behavior.

Trump followers claim their “freedom” is being taken away because it is no longer acceptable, socially or legally (in certain situations), to act on their racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, etc… beliefs.

(It’s rather like a rapist claiming that he is being oppressed because he is not allowed to rape whoever he wants without facing the consequences for doing so.)

Despite their "feelings" and beliefs, Trump followers are NOT inherently superior to those they consider "other," and they do NOT have the right to act inconsiderately and/or intolerantly towards anyone they feel is inferior to them.

More problematically ...

Their feelings of superiority lead Trump followers to subtly (and not so subtly) oppose the American ideals of equality & democracy.

Because their sense of self is based on a sense of superiority (i.e. inequality), it is impossible for them to fully support the idea of equality.

Since Trump followers can't fully support equality, they can't support a democracy that counts all citizens’ votes equally.

In their minds, any election where “others” win must be rigged, because in their minds, only their votes should count. "Other" votes *must be* illegal.

That Trump followers are denying the results of the 2020 elections (which Trump lost) should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to what Trump and his followers have been saying and doing for the past four years.

Trump and his followers believe that only those who share their “superiority” (in its varied forms of intolerance) are the REAL* people of America.

To Trump and his followers, everyone else (and their votes) are just “fake news.”

*and based on the number of stories & interviews of "Average American" Trump followers, far too many journalists seem to share this belief that only Trump followers are the "real" people of America when it comes to politics.