There are no Liberal Anti-maskers.
Not that I’ve seen anyways. Anti-maskers are either mentally ill individuals or Trump supporters with an ae to grind against Liberals. If you know of any cases, please let me know.
The past few years we have seen countless cell phone footage videos of people being unpleasant, starting fights, confronting someone for speaking Spanish or having utterly abhorent behaviour. Their epitaphs are many times followed up with a MAGA slogan or a promise that Trump will send them back to their country. It seems that the elections of Donald Trump has emboldened bigots across the country. I’m grateful for the cell phone technology that we have today. I’m a first amendment advocate just like other conservatives are 2nd amendment advocates. Your word is a weapon. If you misuse it you must face the consequences. Gun advocates almost always stress the responsibilities that come along with owning a weapon, no one disagrees with them. I believe that your word is a weapon and if you wind up shooting yourself in the foot because you’re being a prick, you deserve to pay your pound of flesh.
I want to focus on the correlation between Trumpism and general unpleasantness. In the last episode I talked about trait agreeableness. I have found that the most ardent and feverish Trump supporters show dimensions of low agreeableness. Not everyone of course, I know many people that voted for Trump that are perfectly pleasant and would never slander someone in public. Yet, you cannot ignore the contingency of Trumpers who feel like they need to go out in the world and antagonize people because they feel entitled to do so.
Agreeableness falls into the categories of compassion and politeness. Highly agreeable people are compliant and easy to get along with. This is not an unmitigated good, however. If you are highly agreeable, you tend not to advocate on your own behalf. For instance, a highly agreeable person may not be able to ask for a pay raise or stand up for themselves in a conflict. High agreeableness is a target for predatory behavious from others who wish to take advantage of their good hearted nature.
I have several highly vocal Conservatives in my circle who love to display their contrarian nature. They are my trolls and they are adorable. I can think of three particular individuals who seem to enjoy trolling me. All three of them are pretty successful, they are men, they enjoy flexing their success. Although generally pleasant in person, they seem to enjoy rubbing people the wrong way online. I would categorize them as low on agreeableness if I had the opportunity to psychoanalyze them, I would bet on it.
I think that if you have a magic combination of conscientiousness and low agreeableness, Trump is your guy. I need to constantly emphasize that this is a trait and not something that these individuals necessarily choose to wear like a red hat. I think that new information can steer reasonable people one way or another but if you are low in agreeableness, you may not be particularly enthusiastic to admit that you’re wrong. Pair it with low Openness and low neuroticism and you aren’t getting these people to budge.
If awards were given for low agreeableness, Trump would win every year he has lived. He’s astronomically disagreeable. Look at his petty Twitter feuds. Look at how he personally attacks private citizens and political opponents. It’s pathological to be that venemous. What kind of wound do you need to have to go about your life in such a manner?
Now, back to the Trumpers. You might have a good argument against Trump, but they have an answer for you. It goes something like “You are a Liberal so therefore your argument is invalid and that article you posted is fake news.” Trumpism has become an ideology over the years. Ideologies are Walmart quality religions. They are cheap, transient lenses in which you perceive the world. People die over ideologies, they already have. You see the MAGA’s who said that Covid was a hoax one week only to die from it a month later. This is ideological possession and it can extract a heavy toll. Today, our ideologies are costing us our lives in many cases.
Ideological possession is present in the Left as well, but it hasn’t been embodied in this age as conveniently as it has been with Trump. Maybe with Bernie Sanders and AOC, but they haven’t enacted policies that articulate their persona like Trump has over the last few years. The steer to the left that may take place over the next few years might articulate it more clearly, but that is a subject for another day. This series is an autopsy on Trumps first and perhaps last term.