The single biggest reason Trump won? The median voter ignores real news to consume endless disinformation

[marmar]

Conspiracy theory is the new normal: 2024 was the year QAnon went mainstream
The single biggest reason Trump won? The median voter ignores real news to consume endless disinformation

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published December 26, 2024 6:00AM (EST)


(Salon) In the face of Vice President Kamala Harris losing the presidential election to Donald Trump, the punditry's focus has been almost exclusively on asking how the Democrats couldn't beat a relentless liar with 34 felony convictions and a previous attempted coup under his belt. Everyone has a different theory about Harris' "messaging," with every critic inevitably arguing that if she had just talked more about their pet issue, she would have won.

Another option, however, is to listen to what swing voters who backed Trump said about their decision. That would seem the wisest choice, but to be fair to people who don't want to go there, hearing these people out is a truly miserable experience. What quickly becomes evident about the median voters in an American focus group is how profoundly opposed they are to even the most basic factual information. On the contrary, it's a community with a pathological aversion to reality, where people compulsively react to anything truth-shaped with hostility, running as hard as they can toward disinformation. They are addicted to BS. Of course they voted for Trump, the country's most reliable dealer of their favorite drug.

This may sound ungenerous to these voters, but only if you've been sparing yourself the torture of engaging their actual opinions. If you hold your nose and dive in, it's startling how much the typical swing voter is allergic to facts. It's not just ignorance, but overt hostility to anything that smacks of veracity. Such as the Trump voter who insisted to the New York Times that Democrats are "lying about pregnancies," by conveying factual information about abortion bans. Or the one who falsely believed "so many people just walk right across the border and get free housing, free food." Or the one who was excited that "Trump brings a Robert Kennedy Jr. or a Tulsi Gabbard and Elon Musk." Or the one who said the "Democratic Party [is] going after average people who disagreed on Covid, who disagreed on school boards, who disagreed on boys playing in women’s sports," which is just a way to complain about liberals who criticize him on social media for saying things that aren't true.

Sarah Longwell's "Focus Group" podcast ended the year by interviewing Joe Rogan fans who voted for Trump for the first time this election. It was a smart choice, and not just because Rogan's endorsement likely pushed Trump over the top in a shockingly close election. Rogan's audience perfectly illustrates the way the firehose of disinformation online — his conspiracy theory-hyping podcast has over 16 million followers — has pickled the brains of so many otherwise normal people. Most of the people Longwell interviewed couldn't go two minutes without coughing up a conspiracy theory. Everything is a shadowy plot, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the guy who shot Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The straightforward details of the shooting of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson came out after the arrest of Luigi Mangione, and yet these voters refused to believe the banal facts. Some are wallowing in theories that Mangione is a patsy, or that the shooting is a psyop. The truer any information was, the more they rejected it. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/12/26/conspiracy-theory-is-the-new-normal-2024-was-the-year-qanon-went-mainstream/

[walkingman]

1. I think the following quote from your article explains a lot -

it's a community with a pathological aversion to reality, where people compulsively react to anything truth-shaped with hostility, running as hard as they can toward disinformation. They are addicted to BS. Of course they voted for Trump, the country's most reliable dealer of their favorite drug.

I'm not sure how we get back from here? Maybe a sociologist or phycologist can explain the addiction to this kind of stuff? It's been building since Russ Limbaugh, then Jerry Springer, then Jerry Falwell, etc.

How do we come back to sanity once people have willingly began to accept crazy shit as reality - much like some people have to tabloids like "National Enquirer"?

[Justice matters.]

10. How? IMHO, by a massive Depression brought by the felon's actions...

Starting with 25% tariffs on all imports, which will result in a 20% inflation rate at the minimum.

Then his crazy ideas of annexing Canada and Mexico probably by force... same with Greenland (although it wouldn't take too much "force" to achieve these annexations).

By losing everything they have, only then they might consider to vote for FDR 2.0 if one is found (male of female).

[LT Barclay]

11. I'm waiting for FDR 2.0

But sometimes I wonder if we don’t have one because they fear meeting JFK’s fate

[Justice matters.]

14. Maybe after the future great State of Canada gets its share of Reps...

Plus two Liberal Senators, one of its liberal pol will show up fearless?

Trudeau (like)?

[LT Barclay]

25. He sure clobbered that right wing MP in that charity boxing match!

[Wiz Imp]

15. Jerry Falwell was stirring up shit and doing damage long before Rush Limbaugh

And while there are many things to criticize Jerry Springer for, he doesn't fall in the same category as the right wing peddlers of disinformation like Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Tucker Carlson, etc.

[Johonny]

2. The moron is the most arrogant voter

The college educated liberal is called arrogant and elitist by the media because we call stupid people stupid

The reality is, it is the moron that is vastly more arrogant. They think their ignorance is superior to your facts. They cannot be persuaded by reality. They believe in the mythical strawman liberal, the mythical pure rural voter, the mystical big city of urine and death, the illegal immigrants of laziness and welfare. They are Christian, you are the devil. Just think how elitist that is! Hey, I'm the God's chosen and my party is Christian and liberals cannot follow God. Talk about fucking elitism. But the media ignores this shit. If you can string a policy talk to a paragraph instead of a Tweet you're an elitist and arrogant. If you talk about windmills cause whales to die while your followers call you Jesus 2.0, you're a man of the people.

[Wiz Imp]

17. Exactly. I don't think anyone ever imagined how pervasive the Dunning-Kruger effect could be, but it has

taken control of American Society.

Dunning-Kruger effect
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. It was first described by David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999.

[Redleg]

28. Dunning-Kruger in full display

Not only are some of these morons ignorant of the facts, they are over-confident that they know the facts. A dangerous combination.

[sop]

3. There are many reasons why Trumpers voted for him, and the reasons are always based on trumped-up lies.

[Jkanad]

21. Don't leave out reasons related to ...

… hate, racism and sexism. They are powerful drugs.

[Figarosmom]

4. They dont alwYs

Ignore it. When it does creep in they don't get it. They don't have any comprehension of what is being g reported. There has to be a dumbing down of news presentation. Like FOX only the truth.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Generations long attack on the media

They’ve spent decades disparaging the legitimate media and now people question everything, even basic science, because of it.

So it’s become a situation where ABC nightly news is one side of things, but “free thinkers” weigh Steve’s YouTube channel with 116 followers equally to ABC… and the CDC… and Nobel Laureate economists.

You spread so much bullshit that no one knows what’s true anymore.

[RainCaster]

6. Half this country has below average intelligence

That's the ones who voted for TSF.

[Dave Id]

7. Nope

Convince me Kamala Harris didn't lose because of two factors, racist, misogyny. People keep dancing around what is IMO the most obvious reason. Kamala was/is by far the most qualified candidate. The nation will get what it deserves from electing the orange POS.

[Wiz Imp]

18. It can be argued that a big part of racism and misogyny is disinformation.

People are often bigoted against minorities or women because they believe they are "not as capable" as themselves.

[PaulRevere08]

8. Tim Horford did a very good podcast on conspiracy theorists and

why it can be so difficult to change their minds.

https://timharford.com/2022/10/cautionary-conversations-the-conspiracy-theorist-who-changed-his-mind/

[keep_left]

9. It's the "I've done my own research" people, writ large in society.

[ColinC]

12. Regardless of the reason, the median voter doesnt think Democrats are significantly different from Repugs

There are ways of getting past the noise and getting through to them that they are, but it might require potentially losing major donors and significantly changing their messaging to a thoroughly anti establishment/ pro-worker message.

[HereForTheParty]

13. Mainstream media is not our problem - it's the "alternative" media like Rogan

They spread the Q-Anon crap.

[Wiz Imp]

19. They're both a problem

[Trenzalore]

16. In PA it was trans people and immigration

There were hardly any ads on the economy. The clip of Kamala seemingly behind gender reassignment surgeries for inmates, men playing women's sports and undocumented immigrants killing people were a majority of the ads and I believe it worked more than any media reporting.

[Wiz Imp]

20. I made the comment elsewhere that these people will believe "anything except the truth"

Tell them any conspiracy theory or a flat out lie, they lap it up. Tell them the truth about the economy and they will never believe you no matter how much evidence you give them to back it up.

[Dem4life1234]

22. These

These are the same types of people who inhale fast food every single day and have poor diets.

You see it in the school system, willful ignorance and entitlement.


Something is wrong with many of the people of this country.


There is no excuse, how WE get it and they don't? Why do we get it?

[moondust]

23. News consumption poll:

Link to tweet

DFP: https://www.dataforprogress.org/memos/2024-post-election-report

[City Lights]

24. I think this is spot on.

So many MAGA live in a fantasy world with they are enraged about things that aren't happening, and completely unaware of the awful things that are happening.

[Woodwizard]

26. Democrats are not immune to disinformation.

Just look on the video selection on here.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

27. I've been calling them "belligerently ignorant" for years.

"... it's a community with a pathological aversion to reality, where people compulsively react to anything truth-shaped with hostility, running as hard as they can toward disinformation."

A deeply unfortunate fact is that there seems to be no way of changing them.