The MAGA Cult’s Behavioral Problems

By J. Michael Atherton

MAGA folks seem unable to control themselves. Always shouting, cursing, and waving war flags. Good people must ask why all this anger. Certainly not because of Biden.

Democrats have served the whole nation well by:

• saving everyone from a post-COVID economic depression, reducing COVID risks for us all
• bringing unemployment to historically low numbers
• keeping American troops safe by strengthening NATO
• improving infrastructure in every state and territory
• reducing health care and prescription drug costs across the board
• cleaning our air, water, and soil by fighting climate change
• managing inflation rates that are the envy of the rest of the world
• returning manufacturing jobs to America, and on and on.

All these things directly or indirectly help every single American. Such things should not provoke the rage we hear from MAGA people for the simple reason that they benefit too. What gives?

In light of such overwhelming rage, I offer some observations.

Radical Simplification

MAGA folks cannot concentrate on complex issues. They need things simplified to gain focus and clarity. Simplicity energizes them because it lets them pursue a singularity of purpose. So, they take the whole complex world and reduce it to black and white contrasts. No gray, just one or the other. It is either Trump’s way or damnation. They will do whatever Trump says in order to remain a member of Trump’s cult. The complex world outside the tribe scares them.

Seeking simplicity is not in itself a stupid quest: unfortunately, when MAGA troops simplify, they jam complex issues into rigid containers, and, when things inevitably get stuck, they just shave off all the bits that don’t fit their boxes. This places MAGA folks in the position of ignoring whatever they don’t want to be true. They resemble someone throwing a dart at a blank wall, drawing a bullseye around it, and claiming victory. The person is not a marksman; they just rigged the game to get what they wanted. Radical simplification distorts the reality that life is just not simple.

Anger Management

MAGA crowds cannot manage their emotions, so they constantly erupt with anger and rage. They use harsh words, group chants, bizarre letters to the editor, travel in pseudo-military packs, war flagging, aggressive signage, and physical confrontation. No matter which tactic they use they pin down opponents, scream their dogma, and move on. They don’t see the other side as fellow Americans who live next door, only as enemies to defeat. If a MAGA reader challenges these comments, do the following: when engaged in confrontation would their fellow MAGA troops typically employ calm, civil discourse, or would they throw down their Trump signs, scream “attack”, and throw punches? Recent history says the latter.

Self-Regulation

The MAGA pack cannot self-regulate so they submit themselves to Dictator Trump who gleefully tells them everything to think and do. Leader-worship simplifies life, gives them purpose, and allows (encourages?) them to rage. Their singular political task is to find what Trump says. Trump answers all MAGA questions. Remember, the MAGA universe is a simple one, which suits Trump just fine because he also occupies a small world that consists exclusively of himself. MAGA’s idolatry also suggests laziness. They don’t have to think first and then act; they just act. By avoiding work researching things for themselves (otherwise known as thinking), they leave themselves with more energy to flap their arms in anger.

Fact-Blindness

MAGA people live in a world of fact-blindness. They pick through scientific verification, economic data, historical evidence, or legal procedures as though they are walking through a supermarket free to select only what they want. Phrases like “the preponderance of evidence” means nothing to them. They seek only information that matches their preconceived notions. As they stroll down the aisles of ideas, they show that they are indoctrinated with the fallacious notion of the equivalency of all ideas. If, for example, they find one doctor who supports any claim they believe to be true, that single doctor’s word satisfies them.

In order to accomplish this amazing feat of false equivalency, they accept the comments of a few outlying scientists, economists, historians, or lawyers while rejecting 98% of the scholars who challenge the Republican dogma with verifiable evidence, repeatable experiments, historical records, legal precedent, and mathematical modeling.

For example, 16 Nobel laureates in Economics signed a letter describing the dire consequences of Trump’s economic plans - 16! Not one or two but 16 and they all won the world’s most prestigious economics award. So, when MAGA boosters trundle out their favored economist to support familiar Trumpisms, there is no equivalence. None! Their self-imposed fact-blindness locks them into tribal MAGA-chanting that drowns out any attempt at fact-finding.

Self-Deception

MAGA followers practice self-deception believing they all benefited from Trump’s actions, when the vast majority did not. Trump’s tax break, for example, benefitted only the wealthy. Those with incomes of $400,00 or more loved Trump’s tax breaks. Most of the country does not pull in $400,00 per year; nevertheless, polls show MAGA people believe Trump can handle the economy better than anyone in the history of the world and mysteriously cite Trump’s tax break as their evidence.

MAGA followers’ self-deception allows them to trust the world’s most complex economy to a convicted felon who has filed for bankruptcy 6 times. How many Trump University graduates are celebrating with Trump Vodka over a Trump Steak at any of the following locations: Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza and Casino, Plaza Hotel, Trump Castle Hotel and Casino, or Trump Entertainment Resorts? The answer for all those questions is “none”. And yet they believe.

MAGA believers have a lot to answer for. Their blind submission to a felon could cripple America. Trump has already sewn divisiveness and hatred throughout the country. MAGA followers carry his flags and live in denial. They deny both that Trump is an existential threat to the nation and that their sign-carrying emboldens his megalomania. When he amps up their anger, he also dampens their thinking, and that is just fine with Trump. If MAGA disciples stopped long enough to think, they might realize their emperor has no clothes and what they see is embarrassing.