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posted by janrinok on Thursday December 07 2017, @01:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the and-a-polite-discussion-ensued... dept.

Recently published in Journal of Social and Political Psychology by Thomas F. Pettigrew seeks to understand the psychological profile of Trump supporters:

The Trump movement is not singular within the United States (the Know Nothing movement in the 1850s, the Wallace movement in the 1960s, and the more recent Tea Party Movement). Moreover, other democracies have seen similar movements (e.g., Austria's Freedom Party, Belgium's Vlaams Blok, France's National Front, Germany's Alternative for Germany Party (AfD), and Britain's U.K. Independence Party (UKIP).

In virtually all these cases, the tinder especially involved male nativists and populists who were less educated than the general population. But this core was joined by other types of voters as well. Five highly interrelated characteristics stand out that are central to a social psychological analysis – authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, outgroup prejudice, the absence of intergroup contact and relative deprivation.No one factor describes Trump's supporters. But an array of factors – many of them reflecting five major social psychological phenomena can help to account for this extraordinary political event: authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, prejudice, relative deprivation, and intergroup contact.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:13AM (20 children)

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:13AM (#606556) Journal

    Trump won because most of us thought he was slightly less awful than Clinton.

    Trump won because most of us - the plurality of voters - thought Clinton was less awful than Trump, but the electoral college mechanism discarded the "most of us" vote in favor of the "fewer of us" vote.

    That was how the game was played, and we got Trump because of it – now we have to dig out of the incredible mess he's made, and we will, when we're rid of him.

    But let's not pretend "most of us" wanted Trump. It's simply not true. It's never been true. It's still not true.

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  • (Score: 1, Troll) by Arik on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:52AM (2 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:52AM (#606584) Journal
    Cheerleading bullshit. First, he clearly got the majority of *unique* votes, and second even if that weren't true, that's not how the vote works as you well know. This is a federal system deliberately (and wisely) designed to prevent a narrow geographic interest from taking office without broader support. Clinton voters are concentrated in a few densely populated cesspools. The rest of the country would rather elect a syphilitic dog than that blood-drenched harpy.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 07 2017, @10:39AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday December 07 2017, @10:39AM (#606752) Homepage
      However, if every state was like NE, and elected proportionally, then the outcome of the slightly less flawed system would be: (Dem, Rep, Other, Other, Other)
      Total: [269, 265, 2, 1, 1]
      (Source available)

      Also - do you agree or disagree with the statement "Californians are currently under-represented"?
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:17PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:17PM (#606914)

      Meh, just another angry conservative trying to yell "fake news" so they'll feel better. Womp womp :( The EC is bullshit, and I find it MORE offensive to give a VERY small number of people vastly more influence, but hey that is the GOP way. To the top of the pyramid bitches!

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:56AM (6 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:56AM (#606587) Journal

    That "most of us" is merely an interpretation of the numbers that you prefer. Neither candidate won a majority of the vote. The turnout was only about 55% or eligible voters. It's really hard to say that one or the other had a clear "majority" of the vote.

    But, all of that aside, the electoral college is the very same system used to put every president in office. It worked well for your side when Obama was elected, it didn't work so well for your side when Bush was elected, but it worked beautifully for your side when the other Clinton was elected. As you work your way back, chronologically, it goes your way, then it goes against you.

    Your attitude, as posted, is just so much sour grapes. If you really don't like the electoral college, then maybe you should be lobbying that elected officials win a clear majority. That is, to be elected, a minimum of 55% of eligible voters actually vote, and that the "winner" actually wins a majority - minimum 51%, and I would go along with a higher number than that.

    We have had disgraceful elections in the past where total turnout was less than 30% of eligible voters. Should we have discarded those results, and polled voters again? Maybe send armed officers around to chase people out into the streets, and herd them toward the polling places?

    Sour grapes. Your people didn't turn out in enough force to ensure the election - nor did the other side. The majority* have actually been disillussioned, and didn't want anything to do with EITHER candidate.

    *Note that despite 55% of "eligible voters" turning out, far less than 55% of "Americans" voted. There are those who have been disenfranchised, even more who have never registered to vote, all of whom SHOULD have a voice, but don't. We might extrapolate that ~20% of Americans voted for Clinton, and ~20% of Americans voted for Trump. If ALL Americans over the age of 18 had voted, none of us can say who might have won.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Whoever on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:15AM (5 children)

      by Whoever (4524) on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:15AM (#606653) Journal

      But, all of that aside, the electoral college is the very same system used to put every president in office. It worked well for your side when Obama was elected, it didn't work so well for your side when Bush was elected, but it worked beautifully for your side when the other Clinton was elected. As you work your way back, chronologically, it goes your way, then it goes against you.

      That's a load of bullshit and you know it. In recent years, there have only been two occasions when the winner of the popular vote did NOT win the election and in both cases, the Republican candidate won.

      It's ridiculous to claim that "but it worked beautifully for your side when the other Clinton was elected." when Bill Clinton won the popular vote.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:28AM (2 children)

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:28AM (#606658) Journal

        Don't confuse Runaway with facts. His mind, such as it is, is made up. Ironically, he's a perfect example of the very thing TFA is speaking about. Anosognosia with regards to this condition seems to be part and parcel of it, unfortunately.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:34AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:34AM (#606676)

          His mind, such as it is, is made up.

          Spot on. The only mystery that persists around, like a thick, sticky fog: made up of exactly what?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:19PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:19PM (#606917)

            Vodka. Must have an impressive spell checker (Russian's are good coders dah?) to keep him legible with that much potato running through him!

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:33PM (1 child)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:33PM (#606820) Journal

        You're slowly catching on. The popular vote never did guarantee the election. We don't live in a democracy, we live in a republic. The republic has set things up so that it can trump the popular vote if and when it decides to. But, that's all beside the point. Hillary wasn't the popular choice, any more than Trump was. MOST PEOPLE COULDN'T BE BOTHERED TO VOTE!! Only a tiny bit more than half the eligible voters cared enough to vote. Do you call that "popular"?

        Let's try one more approach. Two losers had a race, and you don't like the fact that one loser won over the other loser. WHAT DOES IT MATTER???? IT WAS TWO LOSERS!!! Get a grip.

        When you're ready to express outrage that Bernie was bent over a barrel and raped hard, let me know.

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:39PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:39PM (#606932)

          So your initial point was clearly shot down along with the #fakenews factoids you tried to slip in and what? You move the goal posts and throw in some stupidity? It matters to many people how the country decided to put that idiot in charge. At the very least HRC would have been a politically competent sleaze bag, it is clear at this point that Trump is all about the swamp and in no way desires draining it.

          It is really weird seeing supposedly intelligent people suck their own thumbs when their ideologies are impacted. So many of the prolific conservative posters here have repeatedly been shown to be intellectually bankrupt, thanks for the reminder that your opinions should be handled with a hazmat suit.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:46AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @03:46AM (#606624)

    It is proven that illegal aliens are voting. Take out California alone, which grants driver licenses to illegal aliens and automatically registers them to vote, and Trump wins the popular vote.

    There is no "incredible mess he's made". Aside from maybe the net neutrality issue, which Obama originally didn't support, Trump has done nothing wrong. He's doing an amazing job, far exceeding expectations. We could whine about minor things: our country still has non-zero illegal immigrants and there is non-zero Muslim immigration and we still haven't locked her up. Overall though, Trump is doing a fantastic job for our nation. He certainly beats every president in the prior 40 years.

    Maybe you don't want Trump. If so, shame on you. It's time for you to rethink your belief system, especially if you voted for her.

    • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @07:34AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @07:34AM (#606698)

      It is proven that illegal aliens are voting. Take out California alone, which grants driver licenses to illegal aliens and automatically registers them to vote, and Trump wins the popular vote.

      There is no "incredible mess he's made". Aside from maybe the net neutrality issue, which Obama originally didn't support, Trump has done nothing wrong. He's doing an amazing job, far exceeding expectations. We could whine about minor things: our country still has non-zero illegal immigrants and there is non-zero Muslim immigration and we still haven't locked her up. Overall though, Trump is doing a fantastic job for our nation. He certainly beats every president in the prior 40 years.

      Maybe you don't want Trump. If so, shame on you. It's time for you to rethink your belief system, especially if you voted for her.

      Oh, man! I could sure use some of whatever drugs you're on. Didn't your mother tell you if you're going to bring treats you should bring enough for everyone?

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:10AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @05:10AM (#606651)

    To be clear: You're talking about a plurality of those who cast a ballot.

    Among those USAians registered to vote:
    ~29 percent - Clinton
    ~28 percent - Trump
      ~1 percent - a 3rd-party candidate
    ~42 percent - None of the above (Didn't cast a ballot)

    Reasons:
    1) The Big 2 offered the worst nominees from among their party's members.

    2) Lamestream Media focused on everything that was NOT important to Joe Average--meaningless crap and not the issues (the horse race and not the track conditions).

    They completely aced-out anyone but the Big 2's nominees.
    N.B. A reminder here that the people of the USA own the broadcast spectrum.

    Corporate media didn't analyze every lie from every candidate as those occurred.
    (Comedians was where to find that analysis.)

    In particular, they didn't mention Trump's bizarre personality and mention that the president has access to launch codes for nuclear weapons.

    CBS's CEO even said out loud that Trump was crap for the nation but good for his company's profits.

    The Media was also monstrously inaccurate with their polling.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday December 07 2017, @11:58AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday December 07 2017, @11:58AM (#606771) Homepage
      I am a firm believer that every election which intends to call itself democratic should (after doing its utmost to ensure everyone who may vote can vote) treat, *and announce*, every non-cast vote (and every deliberately spoilt paper) as "None of the above".

      Of course, in order to get anything done, they'd have to be awarding control to a lot of 2nd place candidates, it's just the pretence of majority representation I want them to drop.

      Thanks for posting the real US2016 figures (though an extra decimal place would have been nice ;-) )
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:38AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:38AM (#606678)

    No, the plurality of California voters. The rest of the country was overwhelmingly in the belief that Trump was the less bad option. By your reasoning we should just allow California to be the only place voting and let the remainder of the country live by their decision.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:26PM (4 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday December 07 2017, @02:26PM (#606794) Journal

    That was how the game was played, and we got Trump because of it – now we have to dig out of the incredible mess he's made, and we will, when we're rid of him.

    What actual terrible mess has he made? The guy hasn't even gotten a single piece of legislation passed yet, because he's at war with the Republican establishment as much as he is with the Democratic establishment. If he gets this tax bill done and dusted, then that's something, but let's cut the crap and acknowledge that Hillary would have slit everyone's throats with this same damn package months earlier because she is the Establishment's creature.

    And look at the positive things that have happened with Trump's presence in the office. He did actually kill the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the horrendous trade agreement that would have put the last nail in the coffin of the American middle class, the agreement that Hillary and Obama cheerleaded for for years. His mere presence in the Oval Office has catalyzed this current wave of catharsis over institutionalized sexual abuse that has been a fact of life in America for decades. His prevarications against globalism have at least given pause to the Establishment which has been selling out Americans for decades. Thanks to Trump's victory, we now know exactly how utterly corrupt the opposition party the Democrats are and how rigged that institution is against real progressives and progressive policies.

    To me, the reality of Trump's coarse persona, his moronic incompetence, has spurred a quite long overdue and incredibly necessary cut-the-crap moment across the board that is shaking up the entrenched corruption of the status quo light years more than Obama's "Hope and Change" BS ever did (and I voted for that guy, hoping for that change). I couldn't be happier. Trump is the molotov cocktail so many have been dying to hurl at the masters of the universe in Washington and Wall Street for untold years, and is the last hope to forestall actual molotov cocktails being hurled at DC and Wall Street.

    Trump is an asshole. Totally unfit to be president. Delusional. He is a trainwreck of epoch proportions. But consider that that was still considered preferable to the best the Establishment had to offer.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:33PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @09:33PM (#607004)

      Most folks say "epic proportions".
      I think I like yours better.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Thursday December 07 2017, @11:16PM (2 children)

      by fyngyrz (6567) on Thursday December 07 2017, @11:16PM (#607035) Journal

      I voted for [Obama], hoping for that change

      As did I. I saw some of it happen, too. Some of it didn't, but that's presidential politics – particularly when the president is facing an effective opposing power bloc in congress. I saw medical care made available to many who previously had no notable access. I saw the LGBT community move forward a little bit. I saw credit providers restricted from some of their more egregious behaviors. I saw the economy recover somewhat from that idiot Bush's blundering. I saw the war in Iraq finally brought to (mostly) an end. I saw over a thousand unjust drug sentences commuted. I saw relations normalized with Cuba. I saw embryonic stem cell research supported. I saw a sober, compassionate president come forward in times of national grief.

      Sure, I saw lots I didn't like too – but that's inevitable, because I think our government has the wrong idea about a lot of things, particularly with regard to constitutional law. But I was still very glad to see some notable progress in the above areas, I can tell you that.

      What actual terrible mess has [Trump] made?

      He's undermined relations with the UK. He's doing his level best to screw up our just-somewhat-repaired relations with Cuba. He's interfered with the ACA. He's engaged in a hugely dangerous war of (clueless) words with nuclear-weapon-armed North Korea, basically a contest between two head-of-state morons vying tirelessly for who can say the most stupid/inflammatory thing. He's spawned quite a few idiotic executive orders, from increasing pollution to amplifying the drug war. He's interfered, cluelessly and idiotically, with immigration into the USA and travel in general, taking the "war on travel" (AKA the "war on terror") to new lows. He enabled the pollution pipeline (AKA Keystone Pipeline.) He has attacked the FBI and the CIA, not for their actual failings, of which there are plenty, but because they were doing their actual jobs. He lies, obviously and continuously and naively, thereby undermining the office of the presidency far more than any one of his predecessors in living memory. Whatever credibility it previously had is long gone. He's severely injured the state department. And then there's salting the supreme court and the attorney general's office and many other posts with pure idiots. That's just off the top of my head. There's plenty more harm already done where that came from, and I doubt he's done, either.

      Trump is an asshole. Totally unfit to be president. Delusional. He is a trainwreck of epoch[sic] proportions. But consider that that was still considered preferable to the best the Establishment had to offer.

      ...by the Electoral College, and the smaller number of those who voted, yes. It was outright stunning to me at the time – it was truly obvious that Clinton, while a typical politician, would have been orders of magnitude better than Trump ever had a hope of being, but looking back at the propaganda that was being fielded, and now aware of how hard the deluded are trying to keep themselves convinced of those very delusions, it's a lot more obvious how it came about today than it was at the time.

      I am looking forward to seeing the man go, either by natural causes, forced out whenever, voted out / quitting in four years, or at the end of a long and probably just as embarrassing eight years. Whatever day it happens, I expect it will be a truly great day for this country.

      Trump is very much the low-water mark in American presidential officeholders. Could we do worse? I suppose. I find it difficult to imagine, but then, I never, ever thought Trump could get enough votes to even be nominated, much less push the Electoral College over such a dangerous cliff. I definitely learned something this time around: the Gaussian doesn't even do justice to the level of cluelessness in the general population.

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @11:47PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @11:47PM (#607046)

        The two options are a second civil war and kill enough of the idiots, on both sides, to being making the changes necessary to have an educated populace.

        Or emigrate. Or become stateless, whether to found a new state (the only way left today), or consider yourself a sovereign citizen and work outside of national boundaries as a loosely knit organization devoted to true liberty. America as that bastion of freedom never existed, and the winds globally, as well as within NATO, the EU, and the United Nations are all blowing against it, even if individual programs seem to care about it at some level.

        Do your part today, before it is too late. The end of freedom is approaching and if you don't take the reins of your fate now, you will yourself and your descendants in shackles forever more.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday December 08 2017, @09:28AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday December 08 2017, @09:28AM (#607140) Journal

        As did I. I saw some of it happen, too. Some of it didn't,

        Politics is the art of the possible
        (said a German who made a lot of what he intended possible)

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford