I've learned an important lesson from this election

[Ursus Arctos]

38. I listened to an excellent

podcast today that really helped me understand some important points about how Trump grew his support. On her podcast Fast Politics, Molly Jong Fast talked to Angelo Carusone. He outlined the strategy that Maga has used of appealing to and welcoming into the fold, smaller fringe (often batshit crazy) groups of people through social media--Anti-vaxxers, Q-anon, the he-man woman haters, and of course the eating the dogs and cats people among others. This is accomplished with a huge assist from algorithms. You end up with someone who might disagree with much of what Trump stands for, but he acknowledges their conspiracy theory beliefs, so they feel he understands them. Tucker Carlson's announcement that he was attacked by a demon in his sleep, coupled with Trump's use of the word demonic to describe the Democrats are related. The religious people who really believe that demons are actively at work, hear that and their limbic reward systems light up with a rush of dopamine. That's the "They feel seen" we keep hearing about. There's so much more. It's worth a listen.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dahlia-lithwick-angelo-carusone/id1645614328?i=1000675986948