this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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I mean lots of old people go quietly insane… the world moves on and doesn’t want their “wisdom.” MAGA feels like a club or a religion, it’s accepting as long as you want to own the libs or whatever.
It’s a simple version of America that feels like the good old 50/60’s… family values, beating the communists.
To answer your question, I tell myself they will be dead soon. We need to focus on saving the country, not our folks. Let them go.
I had a friend who said there's good in the natural order of people getting old and dying so that their bad ideologies can die with them. I've always appreciated that viewpoint. Unfortunately, I have a brother who still lives at home...and he gets that shit ideology from our parents and shit ideology from Stephen Crowder (and even Alex Jones!) and the like online.
And now, he just models my parents where, even when I try to approach him with understanding and empathy, he refuses to even discuss why we should give a shit about immigrants or anyone else. To mash together two of your points, it's like religion in the 50s...there's entire swaths of the US where it can be dangerous to even believe otherwise because everyone around you has their beliefs so intertwined with beating their enemy (communists/the left/atheism, etc.) that at best, you will lose your family, your friends, all your support networks, and at worst, you'll have the devil beaten out of you if you even entertain leaving.
If there's something that religion has refined more than anything else, it's giving people a 'group' to belong to that very easily erects a wall against anyone who isn't in the belief system. The mormons weaponize it, jehovah's witnesses use it as a ball-and-chain, the muslims use weapons (and honor killings) to enforce it, christians (in america) have the social groups that are only loosely tied to the church and should be completely independent wrapped in the silk of a few powerful members of both and use the soft power of withholding charity to keep people in, (zionist) jews have israel... it's all sickening.
Yeah, can’t say I’ve ever seen the sense in it.
That sucks… but you hit the nail on the head at the end. He doesn’t have much choice, he’s surrounded by it, marinated in it… it will always be easier to choose hate and ignorance. Understanding and compromising take work, MAGA lets you hate almost anything and still be welcomed.