The Dark Side of MAGA

As many of us who are not aligned to are, I am truly confounded by the thinking of its members. Their thought processes and beliefs seem entirely unrelatable, profoundly alien, even anachronistic as if they were from our Jim Crow era or from medieval times. So I started obsessing on finding some commonality with these people in the hopes that I could somehow talk and relate to them.

I felt compelled to examine the conscious and unconscious factors that allow MAGA people to suspend their reasoning and rely on irrational belief. It seemed to me as if that they have never developed the capacity for critical thinking (the process of questioning, analyzing, evaluating, and making judgements in order to distinguish fact and opinion, and questioning one’s assumptions).

Instead, in blindly accepting Trump’s countless falsehoods and rumors, MAGA Republicans rely on a form of “reliabilism,” a self-selected process based on whatever Trump pronounces to be true, since they seem to believe that whatever comes out of his mouth is reliable (because he has never lied to them as far as they are concerned). Talk about circular logic!!

Reliablism echoes the mindset I am familiar with growing up in the Midwest: where it was common to trusted an adult to make sense of the world and help you form opinions about who you can and cannot trust and what is good and what is evil

Put yourself in the mindset of your pre-teen self, when you are scared and believe evil is alive and well in this world and is being controlled by people who are different than you. Imagine that your trusted adults tell you certain types of people are too be shunned based on their own uninformed prejudices they received when growing up from their trusted adults whose sources of information are much more limited and narrow than what is available today. This way of thinking is very common among older generations of Americans and I suspect that these many of us share or at least are able to relate to these beliefs and irrational fears.

You can see with how it is easy to become prey to all manner of ignorance passed on consciously in words or unconsciously through actions and attitudes towards “others” in our society: so called uppity women, LGTBQ+ people, blacks and immigrants.

How the American Church Gave Rise to MAGA

As many MAGAites come from families of active or formerly active church goers, they have been prey to the power of messages emanating from the bully pulpit. The power of these messages on a young mind is hard to underestimate. Even if a family stops attending church, the echoes of those sermons and its moral judgements still reverberates as unexamined beliefs and prejudices, biases, and stereotypes.

The result is akin to brainwashing, like the Manchurian candidate; the repeated lies learned as youngsters gets solidified as one grows up until what they is heard becomes indistinguishable from one’s own thoughts and no amount of questioning by others, breaks through.

This project to politicize the church began in the late 80s and early 90s by Ralph Reed’s Christian Coalition who got their hooks into American Christianity and injected right wing messages into the sermons issued from the bully pulpit transforming the message to one spiked with hatred, fear, and suspicion of the “other”.

All this takes place in the context of the growing trend towards Christian nationalism which overlaps with white supremacy, to create a toxic brew of religion, power politics and fascism (authoritarianism that manifest as a belief in racial purity or a master race), While Christian nationalism isn’t explicitly for whites only, we know there is a correlation in its popularity and the fear triggered by the rise of immigration and the demand for equality among non-white races.

The rise of MAGA culture coincides with a precipitous decline in religious affiliation. Nowadays, the power of the church has been supplanted by MAGA culture, who does a more convincing job of bestowing elation.

Fear of the Other

The fear we are talking about stems from a lack of understanding or even the desire to understand the “other.” Fear and a sense of threat of loss of privileges are motivating many MAGAites. Now I will examine some of the base fears associated with the “others” lurking deep in our psyches.

MAGAites feel under siege by the wholesale cultural changes that have been taking place in America for the past 40 years which have turned the power dynamics in our society upside down. For liberal minded Americans, who have rode the cultural journey towards a more just society and have embraced these changes struggles, its all been worth the ride. The benefits of a diverse society far outweigh the adjustments we have needed to make, as uncomfortable as it may have been to make them.

But for vast numbers of Americans who have been living under a rock in various cultural backwaters, who are only now waking up to be confronted by what is happening in society the adjustment to fit into this vibrant, diverse America is almost unthinkably difficult and must be resisted at all costs. These people are still clinging to the belief that they are living in a country where the power is still centered on white, heterosexual men (and to some degree women), who deserve the privileges of power.

Toxic Masculinity and Misogyny

Toxic masculinity is a term describing the negative aspects of exaggerated masculine traits that is particularly virulent in MAGA culture. So much so, that if you were to spend much time among MAGAites, you might pass out from inhaling its hyperbolic fumes. MAGA exploits the male fear of impotence: of not being perceived as masculine enough.

Researchers agree that toxic masculinity is motivated by a constant need for power in all situations, especially in men’s relationships to women, that manifests through a compulsion to exert control and to get others to do what you want, even if its to their detriment. People with toxic masculinty’s self-worth as a man is paramount and is measured by how aggressively they dominate others.

Elon Musk refers to anyone who does not subscribe to this form of masculinity as “low testosterone males.”

This fear is amplified in the MAGA world as hyper masculinity. MAGA males tend to have a sense of sexual entitlement that fits in with toxic masculinity: using sex as a form of aggression or control like the way that their celluloid heroes (Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Leonardo di Caprio, Chris Hemsworth , Liam Neeson, Jason Stratham, The Rock, Vin Diesel) do. The public persona of these stars iaares devoid of feminine traits, such as expressing emotions, asking for or accepting help from others, acts of domesticity, ect. They are the very model of old school toxic masculinity.

Following suit, the typical MAGAite has a disdain for “uppity women”, who seemingly prioritize career life over home life and who demand equality in the workplace, the home, political space, artistic expression, religious expression, athletic competition, and every other arena of life. These aspirations are rejected out of hand by MAGA men and women who see the role of women as conforming to a 1950s America where daddy is the strong one and wears the pants in the family literally and figuratively.

You can see the devastating effects of MAGA misogyny on American women play out in the loss of access to abortion rights in large swaths of our country, to the banning of books of the female experience to overt sexualization of women in popular culture; to the gender pay gap and the prevalence of single women and single mothers in poverty to their unequal position of women to men in the American family and the classification of women as intellectually inferior and submissive to men.

And yet, with all this domination there a foreboding sense of fear that women are claiming too much power in our society. I propose that MAGAites fear a matriarchy, mirroring our present-day patriarchy, where women are the ones in power, demanding obedience from men and emasculating them in the myriads of ways that today’s men control women’s bodies, and dictate their appearance.

Transphobia and Homophobia

The LGBTQ+ community are the natural fall guys and gals of MAGA’s toxic masculinity. Anyone who so flagrantly rejects the traditional male and female sex roles is bound to stir up hatred from MAGAites. I suspect MAGAites are afraid that gay and Trans folks are sex crazed and use their cunning to manipulate and seduce straight men and women against their will.

The rise of the visibility of the Trans population in recent years has excited these suspicions while sparking irrational concern and fear of pedophilia. The uproar surrounding Trans people using bathrooms has fueled this concern. But bathrooms are just the start: MAGA want to control Trans participation in sporting events supposedly to prevent unfair advantages and there are legal efforts to control to what extent doctors can treat Trans individuals.

Measures to ban books that deal with gender identity themes are gaining traction with a large segment of MAGA America as well. The thinking on these bans seems to be the less young people know about and sympathize with the LGBTQ+ experience, the less likely they will sympathize with them or heaven forbid choose it a lifestyle. There are already battle lines being drawn to inhibit LGBTQ+ expression, focusing on the religious rights of evangelicals as the victims, simply being exposed LGBTQ+ behavior. What is particularly telling is when Trans rights are pitted against the rights of right-wing religious people— LGBTQ+ rights always lose.

White Domination of Blacks: Slavery Redux

Though you see the occasional black or brown face at Trump rallies, the MAGA base is clearly dominated by white people, why is that? The answer you hear most frequently is that the MAGA movement is most at home when expressing white grievance.

White grievance is a form of victimhood that MAGA uses to express their ‘feelings’ that the system is rigged against them. In other words, the laws and policies enacted to level the playing field for the disenfranchised minorities are actually victimizing white people.

MAGA view blacks, despite substantial evidence to the contrary, as lazy, stupid, violent people who have a chip on their shoulder that makes them antagonistic to white people. This is an old trope to have someone to blame for society’s problems who you deem as inferior. Let me give you a personal example from growing up in the 60s. Although I was a small person (5 foot 6 inches), I still considered myself superior to the black people in my life which (to some degree) make me feel slightly better about who I was. Reflecting back, I had a very paternalistic relationship with my black friends. For instance, Earl K., a talented musician, who was the 2nd black kid in my newly integrated Detroit elementary school, confessed to me that he saw little opportunity for his future because of his race. Wanting to make him feel better, I said I knew of lots of successful black athletes and entertainers on TV that he could emulate, reflecting my limited awareness of what a black person could become. Thankfully Earl paid no attention to my advice. He went on to become a highly successful jazz musician who draws large audiences to his concerts.

How does the constant inferiorizing and stigmatizing ffect black Americans? Here are some examples shared with me by friend Ray:

• When a crime in Tacoma where Ray lives, is reported on the TV news, he is asked if he knows the person who was victimized? As if he knows all the black people in Tacoma.

• At the grocery store, being forced to get out of the way by a white guy racing his cart right at you.

• On the freeway, being flipped the bird the bird by white men and women for driving slowly.

• At a jewelry store being eyed suspiciously as if you as no right being there (i.e., you don’t have enough money to shop here)

• At the Olive Garden, being the first party among several parties to be seated by the host, and then being the last party served by a waitress.

• On Facebook, seeing your friend agreeing with a post that says civil rights have gone too far, and advocating a return to a white dominant society.

When asked “What scares you the most about the MAGA movement?” Ray responded: “the name itself is about returning to the time pre-Civil Rights when things weren’t too great for my people.”

He believes that MAGA’s end goal is to “eliminate us (the black race)” He says “All the MAGA folks want black folks for is to entertain them– to be their court jesters. If it wasn’t for football they wouldn’t care about us at all, we are just there to help their team win.” This reminds me of back in 2017 when Trump told the NFL players protesting the American anthem to “just shut up and play!”

Ray continues “If they closed the border and kick out the illegal immigrants, who picks the fruit? Who cleans the toilets? He speculates “those jobs will fall to The Black Man, who else?”

Deep down I suspect that MAGA fears, that if given the chance, blacks will do to whites what whites have been doing to them for centuries: subjugate the white men and women to slavery, cruel domination and repression where they become the slave owners with access to free sex (rape) of their female slaves. In other words, deep down they fear that what goes around, comes around.

Immigrants and Blood Libel

A lot has been made about MAGA fear of immigrants, especially Latin Americans, who are seen as being a threat to this country, eventually replacing the white majority. (Although a lot of Asians as well as LatinX are supporters of Trump, the general profile of a MAGAite is white).

When it comes to who belongs here, MAGAites believe in first come, first serve. Anyone who is late to these shores (after say 1975) i s not welcomed and should not be allowed to stay. In fact, they need to be rounded up and forcefully removed.

President Trump’s claim that immigrants have “infested and poisoned the blood of this country.” He has called them drug dealers, criminals, gang members and terrorists or simply “animals” or “rats.” These descriptions are largely viewed as precursors to genocidal violence and have roots in Nazism and in fact go all the way back zto medieval times. The remarks "poisoning the blood of our country" are straight out of Hitler's 1925 autobiographical manifesto, "Mein Kampf" — his blueprint for a "pure Aryan" Germany and the “permanent” removal of Jews from Europe.

"All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning," Hitler wrote referring the intermarriage of Jews and Christians.

Blood libel was a central component of modern antisemitism dating back to the 12nd century when Jews were accuse of using the blood of Christian children to bake matzahs. Blood libel accusations often led to pogroms, violent riots launched against Jews and frequently encouraged by government authorities.

“The Jews will not replace us” chants from Charlottesville stem from an irrational fear that Jews are the masterminds of a conspiracy to allow immigrants, specifically black and brown people, to outnumber white people at the ballot box and use that power to promote and institute their own “nefarious”, anti-American and Anti-Christian agenda. By evoking references to blood poisoning, Trump is evoking this old racist ideology that America as the Promised Land for European Christians and that people of color must be eliminated.

As psychologist Albert Bandura explains, dehumanization is a form of moral disengagement that allows people to abandon normal human sympathies toward oppressed minorities. Dehumanization allows politicians and the public to excuse abuses against migrants—and it mobilizes voters through fear.

Conclusion: Call for Action

I hope this article goes a small way to explain the inner fears that activate the MAGA mindset. The key, in my opinion, is to be willing to look at your own “dark side”, your subconscious, and explore your fears and mistrust that you had when you were young. Then think about what allowed you to overcome prejudices. What did you have to struggle against and grapple with internally? For me, it was my own sense of inferiority masquerading as superiority, that and a lot of fear. Each of us needs to ask ourselves: How has our own deep seated irrational fear of blacks, women, LGTBQ+ and immigrants affected our attitudes towards these people? These are all activating points of the MAGA mentality. Can you identify even a small bit of this in yourself as well? Your ticket to ride on this crazy hall of mirrors ride will be uncomfortable but could yield a greater empathy with MAGAites which could give you a starting point for talking about what you have in common. By sharing your own personal struggles with your own prejudices and inner fears and labeling them as such, you can break down some underlying beliefs and create openings through which MAGA hearts can shift towards a more tolerant min