Considering studies have shown that conservatives have, on average, smaller parts of the brain that are related to things like empathy and higher rates of aggressive personality disorders and the like, I’d say all of the above. Bigotry is learned, not natural, but people are also emotion based and don’t like to be proven wrong, so facts and logic don’t really convince many people. It’s why so many conservatives only change their opinions when it happens to them, and why so many who do have it happen to them continue to do the thing that hurts them.
It’s always a very case by case kind of situation, but I’d say don’t expect them to change their opinions. Even the ones who aren’t in it because they were already bigots.
Trump runs a cult, and after a certain point of commitment to a cult, it becomes basically impossible to get someone out because of the sunk cost fallacy of making it their entire personality and having to admit what they did in service to the cult was wrong.
Are there truly so many of them in the US or are they just super active in the (social) media? I live in Germany and we unfortunately have quite a lot of right wingers too but it’s seems to be less of them and they seem way less stubborn with their position. A bit more open minded.
Also the whole spectrum is shifted in Germany. Your Democratic party would be seen as very conservative and almost right leaning in Germany (except for Bernie maybe, he would be leaning slightly to the left). Your Republican party would be an extreme right party.
It’s difficult to say, but they’re definitely overrepresented both online and in the news. They’re definitely a minority, the Republican party knows this and it’s why they fight so hard to maintain control, but other context in the country makes it hard to say how much of a minority they are. Conservatives generally make up the areas of the country with the lowest population density, with cities running very much in the opposite direction. And a big part of Republican policy is convincing voters to vote against their own interests. I’ve seen stats that say that 60% of the population is more left-leaning than the government at any time. But we also have very low voter turnout here due to things like disenfranchisement and gerrymandering. Without that and things like the Electoral College, Republicans would never hold enough seats to hold any real power ever again. Trump actually got noticeably less votes in 2024 than he did in 2016 - it’s just that the Dems got way less votes and the Electoral College that allowed him to win.
As for the political spectrum here, I’d argue that the spectrum in Germany (and the rest of Europe) is normal, while the spectrum here is so shifted to the right that it’s unhealthy. And it’s gotten way worse just in my lifetime. Trump’s party called the Republican party of the 90s communists for their policies. Back then, the two parties largely disagreed on the details of policy, though there has always been the bigoted side of the Republicans. It wasn’t until the country elected a black man to office that things really went off the deep end. The Democrats every year say that they have to court some mythical moderate Republican to vote for them or else they won’t win, so they shift to the right and disenfranchise the left. But that’s not how Republicans operate, especially anymore. They no longer care about policy but about hurting Democrats, so they’d never vote for them anyway.
It’s also important to note that Bernie isn’t even really a Democrat, he just runs with them because they’re the closest to being a leftwing party. The Democrats don’t want him, he’s too leftist for them.
Considering studies have shown that conservatives have, on average, smaller parts of the brain that are related to things like empathy and higher rates of aggressive personality disorders and the like, I’d say all of the above. Bigotry is learned, not natural, but people are also emotion based and don’t like to be proven wrong, so facts and logic don’t really convince many people. It’s why so many conservatives only change their opinions when it happens to them, and why so many who do have it happen to them continue to do the thing that hurts them.
So you think there is no cure besides letting it happen to themselves?
Maybe Trump is a good thing then because so far it seems he doesn’t mind to betray his own supporters.
It’s always a very case by case kind of situation, but I’d say don’t expect them to change their opinions. Even the ones who aren’t in it because they were already bigots.
Trump runs a cult, and after a certain point of commitment to a cult, it becomes basically impossible to get someone out because of the sunk cost fallacy of making it their entire personality and having to admit what they did in service to the cult was wrong.
Are there truly so many of them in the US or are they just super active in the (social) media? I live in Germany and we unfortunately have quite a lot of right wingers too but it’s seems to be less of them and they seem way less stubborn with their position. A bit more open minded.
Also the whole spectrum is shifted in Germany. Your Democratic party would be seen as very conservative and almost right leaning in Germany (except for Bernie maybe, he would be leaning slightly to the left). Your Republican party would be an extreme right party.
It’s difficult to say, but they’re definitely overrepresented both online and in the news. They’re definitely a minority, the Republican party knows this and it’s why they fight so hard to maintain control, but other context in the country makes it hard to say how much of a minority they are. Conservatives generally make up the areas of the country with the lowest population density, with cities running very much in the opposite direction. And a big part of Republican policy is convincing voters to vote against their own interests. I’ve seen stats that say that 60% of the population is more left-leaning than the government at any time. But we also have very low voter turnout here due to things like disenfranchisement and gerrymandering. Without that and things like the Electoral College, Republicans would never hold enough seats to hold any real power ever again. Trump actually got noticeably less votes in 2024 than he did in 2016 - it’s just that the Dems got way less votes and the Electoral College that allowed him to win.
As for the political spectrum here, I’d argue that the spectrum in Germany (and the rest of Europe) is normal, while the spectrum here is so shifted to the right that it’s unhealthy. And it’s gotten way worse just in my lifetime. Trump’s party called the Republican party of the 90s communists for their policies. Back then, the two parties largely disagreed on the details of policy, though there has always been the bigoted side of the Republicans. It wasn’t until the country elected a black man to office that things really went off the deep end. The Democrats every year say that they have to court some mythical moderate Republican to vote for them or else they won’t win, so they shift to the right and disenfranchise the left. But that’s not how Republicans operate, especially anymore. They no longer care about policy but about hurting Democrats, so they’d never vote for them anyway.
It’s also important to note that Bernie isn’t even really a Democrat, he just runs with them because they’re the closest to being a leftwing party. The Democrats don’t want him, he’s too leftist for them.
Thank you, quite interesting. Makes it a little easier to understand the situation.