Let’s summarize what we’ve learned from my very own digest of some socio-neuro studies attempting to pin down why people might have voted for Trump:<\/p>\n
On the other hand, it’s discouraging, isn’t it? Really, what we’re trying to do here is find a way to breach the wide gap between us and them, to convince them to inform themselves with facts and to think about those facts. In something approximating rationality.<\/p>\n
Well, they can’t, so screw ’em. The good thing is, they are and always will be in the minority. So the solution to “why did these people vote for Trump?” is: we who did not and never could must get our majority asses to the polls every time we are given the opportunity to deny anyone like Trump any public office ever again. We must vote.<\/strong><\/p>\n This is unquestionably my favorite because it’s factual. It’s been scientifically tested and mapped. Of course, sadly, it’s also a dead end, but that lifts the burden of helping these people right off our shoulders and dumping the responsibility onto the shoulders of neuroscience. Maybe some neuroscientist can develop a pill. Which they can advertise in TV commercials every third second. Maybe they can come up with a neato name for this pill. Or maybe they’ll just call it Lyrica.<\/p>\n worldviews that protect our sense of self-esteem<\/a>, worthiness\u00a0and sustainability and allow us to believe that we play an important role in\u00a0a meaningful world. Our survival instincts, and the need to reinforce our cultural significance\u00a0in the face of death, often result\u00a0in displays of\u00a0prejudice<\/a>, or the\u00a0belief that\u00a0the group with which we identify is superior to\u00a0other groups.\u00a0 In this way, we confirm our self-importance and insulate ourselves from our deep fear of merely living an insignificant life permanently\u00a0eradicated\u00a0by death. <\/em><\/p>\n So how would this explain voting for Trump? Indeed, I would argue voting for Trump would tend to confirm you think you’re insignificant. As well as belonging to a group definitively not<\/em> superior to other groups. (When you slime us as being “elite,” I assume you know what “elite” means, right?)<\/p>\n Unless, of course, you care to delve into the tacit religious implications of this theory: voting for Trump affirms your allegiance to some great supernatural power — for which Trump is a spokesperson, a (small) handmaiden, a surrogate, a lesser but related diety. And he will convey upon you immortality and major significance right after the apocalypse you seem to be working toward. And cultural superiority. Well, maybe not that. But this will take us right back to Reason One, the Dunning-Kruger Effect: smug ignorance and blank incuriosity about learning anything else.<\/p>\n That’s what I’ve got so far.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let’s summarize what we’ve learned from my very own digest of some socio-neuro studies attempting to pin down why people might have voted for Trump: The Dunning-Kruger Effect.\u00a0This one was fun, wasn’t it? Because once a writer, i.e., me, got … Continue reading \n
\n
\n