This is even more interesting now because my husband recently reached out to his best friend in about why they voted for Trump. They gave all the same reasons to vote for Trump that I would have given to explain why I voted for Biden, except for the tax cuts. They are both really decent and smart people and both my husband and I were struggling with why yet another person we knew and loved, supported Trump.
What we realized is that no matter how many lies he told, they believed him. We could debunk the lies all day long with "proof" and just be told that the "proof" was left wing and "Antifa" propaganda. Their "belief" in Trump is more like religion than politics because someone's "beliefs" can't be challenged in the same way that actual information can. It's emotional, not logical, so no mater how many links to Snopes and other debunking sites we could find to prove that something was a lie, it didn't matter. They [Trump Supporters] see him as some kind of savior, they believe every word he says and they follow the same batshit crazy groups that they think he does, including QAnon.
This is why, despite a Biden win of the presidency, I think we are in a very scary place in our country and that the very heart of democracy is at stake. Recently, I asked myself if I was the one who was crazy, am I the one being manipulated by a left wing media but then when I actually looked at credible sources (sources I've trusted my entire life), I can't bring my self to believe the mountain of horse shit Trump is dumping on the American people. It's batshit crazy being legitimized and that is a cult I can't join.
Yes, it's damn hard. When I was arguing with my sister, who went down the rabbit hole super fast, she said to me in relation to the media, "I thought you were smarter than that." I bit my tongue and continued.
I explained that the MSM, yep she already has that down, has been around for decades, in some cases like the NY Times over a century; that these are the people we have trusted to give us the news for so very long; that they gave us Walter Kronkite. But yes, she did begin to make me doubt everything I know. Now, my sister only has an 8th grade education. I don't mean that to say she is stupid, far from it, just lacking formal education. She never learned about world history, American history. She doesn't have that same fear that history is repeating itself, not exactly of course, but in its own new way.
We see people so devoted to Trump that they lie in the hospital screaming about fake news, that the virus is a hoax and so on. We see them willing to give up democracy itself in this cult worship. I will never understand it, because he has NEVER held any sort of appeal for me. I have tried, believe me, over the last number of years to find ONE single virtuous thing about him. I have been unable to do so. People that I care about, aside from my sister, apparently do see good in him. I'll never understand it.
As for asking ourselves if we are crazy, isn't that gaslighting? I never knew much about narcissism until he came around. I knew of it in a vague manner, never truly understanding it. Oh boy, I've had a crash course. Isn't a huge part of it making those around you doubt reality? To question everything you've ever believed in, the truth itself? I think that holds true, only it's at a country level now, not just a small group of people. I think I've read that when people deal with narcissists, they either capitulate to their desires, their truth or they rebel and hold true to what they know, their experiences, the truth. So, half of the country is in the former group and half is in the latter.
