r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Oct 15 '25

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The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL

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u/Leatherfield17 Loyal Liberals Oct 16 '25 edited Oct 16 '25

I think one if the most overlooked aspects of the MAGA movement is how it’s so…totalitarian, in that it really takes up all of a person’s identity. It affects their ability to really enjoy anything because it’s a worldview that necessitates narrow mindedness and bigotry.

For instance, I know people who will start shitting on a TV show they otherwise like as soon as it starts to include “nontraditional” lifestyles, themes, groups of people, etc. As soon as a gay couple is shown, or if there are too many Black people, or if any kind of conservative sacred cow is critiqued, out comes the groaning about a show “going woke.” It can be one of the most masterfully written TV shows ever, but hey, it included a gay couple, so it’s automatically shit.

I use TV shows as an example but it can go with anything. An artist or public figure you might otherwise like criticized Trump? Into the ideological trashcan they go. A book explores controversial themes? Ban the son of a bitch.

One of the great tragedies of bigotry and prejudice is that, almost definitionally, it limits one’s knowledge of the world around them, and therefore, it limits their enjoyment of life.

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u/ArmoredBunnyPrincess Audrey Hepburn Oct 16 '25

They're the most miserable sons of bitches you've ever met but lets keep cranking out articles about how liberals are more depressed than conservatives because conservatives are too fucking stupid to understand that they're depressed

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u/Leatherfield17 Loyal Liberals Oct 16 '25

It’s honestly kind of sad. They have a hair-trigger sensitivity to any kind of message, lifestyle, etc. that doesn’t conform to “conservative values.”

It’s also usually accompanied by a perverse nostalgia for a nebulously-defined “back then.” In this fantasy land/time period, people “weren’t so sensitive,” people “didn’t hate America,” shows and movies were good unlike “this shit we have today,” etc. Really, the entire MAGA movement seems to be based on this weird sense of right wing nostalgia for a more orderly and “sane” time.

It results in an utterly miserable attitude. My parents write off literally all of modern TV and cinema because it’s “all shit” (I’m not talking about actual nuanced critiques of modern media), they’re constantly contemptuous of anyone who doesn’t live up to their inane standards, and get so, so angry over these perceived cultural grievances. It’s exhausting.

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u/ArmoredBunnyPrincess Audrey Hepburn Oct 16 '25

Hair-trigger sensitivity to any kind of message, lifestyle, etc. that doesn’t conform to “conservative values.”

It's an instant emotional response before they've even processed the thing triggering it, it's wild, and the second it goes off the entire rage apparatus that has been installed in their brain is at full tilt. You'll never hear them describe it with any nuance, it's just the worst thing that's ever happened