Ask A Genius 1108: Kind, Empathic, and Not American
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/09/27
Rick Rosner: We’ve discussed this a lot. You’re kind, empathetic, and not American, so you probably don’t subscribe to this view as much as I do. However, I see the 2024 election as one between people with reasonable intelligence—on the liberal side—and people suffering from Dunning-Kruger on the other. It doesn’t mean everyone who votes for Trump is an idiot. I know intelligent people who hold their noses and vote for him because they like the tax breaks he gives to the wealthy. They might be rich or think they will be someday.
You don’t have to be an idiot to vote for Trump, but it helps. Republicans figured out 50 years ago that it’s easier to manipulate idiots. The 2024 election feels like the culmination of 50-plus years of herding dumb people into the GOP.
And it gets worse with every election cycle. The 2024 election stands out because there are so many different flavours of idiots on the Trump side. One demographic is people with mild or early cognitive decline. At least 10 million Americans in their seventies and eighties still have agency, live independently, or are in senior living but aren’t as sharp as they used to be.
These people are particularly vulnerable to scams—charities that prey on them or scammers who call hoping for an older, feebler person to pick up. Carole and I still have a landline because we’re old and too lazy to give it up. Plus, our home alarm system requires a landline. So, we get a lot of trolling calls, fishing for victims.
We all get many hang-ups when we hear someone who doesn’t sound like an easy target for scamming. But if they hear someone who says “hello” with uncertainty, they might think they’ve found someone easier to scam.
And that’s the old strategy. Fox News is set up to appeal to the old and less critical-minded, with bright colours, pretty women, and manly, block-headed men. There are other flavours of this, too.
Crypto Bros seem susceptible, for example. And undereducated groups are often vulnerable. Trump’s most successful demographic is non-college-educated white males.
So, there you go.
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