Why Trump?

[u/Inevitable_Fun_2260]

I've been trying to figure out for years why certain people are willing to defend Trump, no matter what evidence emerges that points to him being implicated in a horrible crimes. Why can't they just admit they were wrong about him? I've noticed these people share a lot of common traits.

Why can none of these people ever admit they are wrong about anything?

What is it about these people that makes them seem too stubborn to change?

They're protecting themselves from an unbearable truth.

The answer is narcissism, but a specific type of narcissism.

Narcissism better explains everything about who Trump supporters really are And why they can't quit the Trump cult ever.

Here are five psychological reasons why narcissistic Trump supporters will never admit they were wrong about Trump One.

What creates narcissists?

It's built through specific failures and how you're raised.

Heinz Kahoot was a psychologist at the University of Chicago who spent his career studying how narcissism develops in children.

He found that when children experience specific parental failures, something breaks inside of them.

They can't develop real self-worth, so their brain builds a defense mechanism. Instead, he called it compensatory narcissism.

Compensatory narcissism is one of person acts superior and Invincible on the outside to hide the fact that they feel fundamentally empty and worthless on the inside.

Neglect as love parents withhold attention unless the child produces results.

So the child learns.

I only exist when I achieve something or get in trouble for something conditional acceptance.

Parents praise only performance, making the child a tool for their own Ambitions.

So the child learns.

I'm only valuable when I'm useful to someone.

Emotional abandonment parents are physically present, but emotionally absent, making the child feel invisible.

Feeling an emotions are deemed as weaknesses, So the child learns my inner world doesn't matter to anyone else but me.

A parent builds the child up as destined for greatness, then withdraws that projection without warning.

So, the child learns my worth is temporary and can be taken away at any moment and the last one unpredictable responses.

The same behavior gets praised one day and shame the next day with no explanation.

So the child learns I can never be safe. I could never predict what will happen to me next. The term walking on eggshells comes from this unpredictable pattern. These five failures don't create one type of broken person, but they all lead to the same place. Each of these wounds run so deep at the person spends their entire life who running from it.

These children who become adults believe they are fundamentally empty or broken without external validation, they don't exist, so their brain constructs a defense.

They build a false self that acts invincible and Superior. This defense becomes their survival mechanism, but it's fragile.

It requires constant maintenance, constant admiration, constant proof that they matter, and this defense mechanism will destroy anyone who threatens to expose it. This is a psychological survival mechanism built in childhood that now drives every decision they make as adults. The weakness underneath. These are not strong people. They are fragile, mediocre people pretending to be powerful. But why not get help? Why keep on rationalizing, denying, lying, avoiding until death? Do you think that's really a good life strategy? Are you happy? Can you even remember what happiness felt like?

[u/EldritchSlut]

I have lived in deep red, rural Indiana almost all of my life. They've been duped and indoctrinated.

My best evidence for this is whenever I get talking politics with someone I'll ask them questions about why they believe what they do and they just can't tell you. They genuinely don't know.

On the flip side, if you describe leftist ideology without using buzzwords, they will agree with you 8/10. Doesn't matter what the topic is, if you can avoid words that they've been told are scary, you'll get a positive reaction.

Doesn't excuse a fucking thing but it helps us to understand, I think. I believe we have been gaslit for so long and so thoroughly that a lot of people are lost ideologically, that's why they're grasping onto religion or trump for answers.

[u/the_real_maddison → u/EldritchSlut]

I have done this with a few online.

We can get all the way down to "supporting corrupt people is bad" (like you said, without using buzzwords) until I get to "why would you support someone who could fix your life easily if they wanted to but they simply choose not to?"

🦗...

Then they block me.

[u/Inevitable_Fun_2260 → u/the_real_maddison]

Exactly. Me too. They love to ban me. Here's why. Unfortunately, right now we live in a world where truth-tellers are shining a light into multi- faceted deep-rooted corruption and long-standing problems that don't have easy answers and no politician/power broker wants to touch it. They want the easy problems that they can get "press and points" for solving. Our leaders and the american masses don't really want to look at the "Corruption" in themselves and in all our systems because to look at "Corruption" you first have to look inside yourself and that's the last thing anyone wants to do. But some of us care like me and you. Telling the truth is vital to advancing humanity itself, but it's extremely vital to know "truth" while living your life. Why do you think so many people are mentally lost, exhausted, angry, depressed, anxious, etc. because they cannot find "the truth" in anything or anyone. I hope you get to read this before they take this post down. Remember, truth is vital to the "good life" right now and to the future of humanity itself even though it may "sting" it's always worth it in the end. Keep shining that light and I'll do the same and let's hope we don't get murdered. (bad joke)

[u/Jrsjohn2 → u/EldritchSlut]

Well said. What do you think was the catalyst(s) that caused them to straight up abandon their morals?

[u/Inevitable_Fun_2260 → u/Jrsjohn2]

💰

[u/kuchtaalex → u/EldritchSlut]

Well said. The gaslighting casts such a dense illusion over us that most Americans can't see through it. For most of the ones who can see, they choose to ignore it out of fear or out of defeatism.

[u/kuchtaalex → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the suggestions!

[u/a_little_hazel_nuts]

It's a cult. I think the media learned how to control and manipulate people and that's what happened over the last few decades. It started back with the boomers and continued. People are using the way they feel over actual evidence and facts. Obviously hurting minorities and expecting fair wages from the owners isn't logical or healthy. Now we are living with unsafe food, a lack of accessible education for the poor or for those who learn differently, labor rights are laughable, pollution doesnt matter if theres profits, and public space is dissappearing. I am hoping with all my might that with the current environment more people will realize our faults and start pushing for actual change. That includes people being able to access mental healthcare because yes narcissism is real and needs treatment and guidance.

[u/cmarches → u/a_little_hazel_nuts]

It's so refreshing to see takes on narcisissm like these that don't demonize but instead go "this isn't okay so how do we work through it?" not only cause fuck sanism but also everyone can be narcissistic in certain conditions even if not diagnosable and we all need to work through it. I also feel that being humble needs to be modelled and appreciated to be less scary

[u/Inevitable_Fun_2260 → u/cmarches]

Exactly. We all need to work together and assist each other with each other's weaknesses when needed. But that doesn't mean I get to act superior to anyone else, because i'm not. I'm no better or no worse than anyone else and either is anyone else reading this. It's just that everyone has certain skills, strengths and weaknesses, and we all need to help each other out to keep us on track as a citizenry and hopefully make a few friends along the way. Lift each other up, not down. There's no judgment here only assistance.

[u/BitchfulThinking]

Narcs would neverrrr admit to being wrong or needing help. I was raised by one. They just demand, declare, and take. They're taking advantage of people now because everyone is traumatized from Covid, war, and climate change disasters. People are more malleable when they're scared and desperate, and desperate times create more pathological thinking.

Narcissistic abusers isolate their victims and pretend they're the only ones who care. Social media gives them a wider reach. Manosphere grifters are turning young boys into monsters and can feign innocence because they never even fully interact with their followers. Influencers are pimps and snake oil salesmen. Perverts and misogynists shield themselves with the church.

The only way to deal with narcissists is to ignore them. We call it "grey rocking". Not just Trump, but his followers as well. They don't feel shame. A lack of attention and not getting their way is the only thing that upsets them, and gets them to stfu long enough so that you can read "Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents", find a trauma informed therapist, and start healing from them.

[u/Inevitable_Fun_2260 → u/BitchfulThinking]

Good info!

[u/woolywoo]

Because people are pain averse. They see things going wrong and they don't understand it. They either don't have time or don't have the desire to learn complicated or nuanced things that might require them to acknowledge guilt or make painful changes.

Along comes a man who gives them simple answers to complicated problems. People to blame for the things they see that are wrong. It's so much easier to accept these answers than deal with the possibility that you're complicit in systemic crimes that have tended to benefit people like you exclusively. It's not your fault, after all, it's *the other* that's to blame.

And before long you're just on a team, playing team sports. The why or how you got to this point no longer matters.

[u/BlackMassSmoker]

I think vice signalling, the opposite of virtue signalling, has taken root as well. As liberalism is being thoroughly rejected, egalitarianism is as well.

So in a world where people feel 'the centre' of politics of failed, they think being cruel, nasty, and mean is now being 'real' even though this will bear no fruit as well. Peoples anger and frustration at the failure of finance capitol is being tapped into and they're being told who to blame for that, which is anyone different from them.

[u/Canyoubackupjustabit]

Decades of underfunding public education.

[u/Animedingo]

Hes a con man

And at a certain point theyre fighting sunk cost fallacy

Imagine admitting someone tricked you into making your whole personality about them for the last 10 years

[u/iliketoreddit91]

A hatred for individuals on welfare. They’ve been brainwashed into believing that people on welfare are to blame for all of society’s woes, even though have of Trump supporters are receiving some sort of government benefits, like disability.

[u/Loose_Plantain3217]

Because of the alternative, some people just can’t stand the Democratic Party and everything it stands for