The Myth Of The Economically Marginalized MAGAs

[Leo Gura]

Insightful interview about MAGA ideology:

 

[Abdelghafar]

13 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Insightful interview about MAGA ideology:

 

Awesome interview

[NatureB]

I'd assume wealth inequality is a big driver of racism and alt-rightism. Guess the interviewee has not found that to be true. Also interesting to hear that most of the followers of alt-right ideology are actually well educated. It has to be the deeper human need to fit in driving these people into these ideologies.  

[Talinn]

I think this video discounts the MAGA movement in other countries. Online, there are many foreigners who help propagate the MAGA movement online as the next best bet for fascism, and in these cases they are often more economically disenfranchised than the MAGA movement be in America. 

And when you see stuff like the Iranians, Russians and I believe the Chinese, that they are all stirring up the pot , I'm willing to give this argument somewhat less credit in a systemic context. America is watched closely around the world and I've talked to people on Discord who are participating in this general wave of culture. That impacts us here , you might argue spiritually or otherwise, since you can't see all the vast numbers of interactions that are taking place. 

Though point taken, yeah there are rich nerds supporting this movement. 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Talinn

[DocWatts]

Also keep in mind that in America around half of the population is either working class or poor... Including many rural communities. 74 million people voted for Trump, there's no way the majority of them could have been upper middle class. Also factor in that Republican states and rural areas tend to be poorer on average than the rest of the country.

While the most prominent figures of the alt right may come from a relatively privileged background, they absolutely draw upon poor and working class whites for thier base of popular support as a matter of necessity.

Edited January 16, 2021 by DocWatts

[Leo Gura]

@DocWatts It's not about money. It's about ideology and level of cognitive development.

This is a common mistake made by media pundits. They mistakenly attribute cognitive development problems to lower class problems. That's because they have no idea about cognitive development and they need some kind of narrative to explain it.

Progressive populists make a similar mistake. They believe the poor working class will love socialism. And then they are surprised to learn that isn't true because much of the poor working class is uneducated and low in cognitive development so they vote for MAGA and Biden.

Voting progressive requires high cognitive development -- which is why progressives rarely win elections.

This is also the reason why plenty of blacks, asians, and latinos vote MAGA. It's not about race, it's about cognitive development. Many latinos have low cognitive development given the underdeveloped countries they hail from.

Politics is a culture/values war, not a policy debate. Conservatives understand this while progressives do not. Which is why conservatives disproportionately win. Its as if progressives are trying to pick up girls by logically convincing them how good of a mate they would be, while conservatives pick up girls by being funny, exciting, and dramatic. The conservatives will get laid way more.

[Parththakkar12]

18 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

This is also the reason why plenty of blacks, asians, and latinos vote MAGA. It's not about race, it's about cognitive development. Many latinos have low cognitive development given the underdeveloped countries they hail from.

I understand what you're saying. A lot of progressives, though, won't. They will call you a racist or xenophobe for saying this! This is the most anti-PC statement I've heard a progressive say, which will sound like it's against the progressive cause. If you try to mainstream this point, it will definitely stir up controversy.

[Leo Gura]

@Parththakkar12 In general most non-Western countries have lower levels of cognitive development because they are underdeveloped countries.

The difference is that this is not a genetically baked in thing. Development can be changed. So this is not like race-IQ garbage.

Everyone understands that African countries are less developed than European countries. No big surprise here. Same goes for South American countries and Middle Eastern countries.

So in general, immigrants will have lower levels of cognitive development than the place they immigrate to.

[Hello from Russia]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

@Parththakkar12 In general most non-Western countries have lower levels of cognitive development because they are underdeveloped countries.

The difference is that this is not a genetically baked in thing. Development can be changed. So this is not like race-IQ garbage.

Everyone understands that African countries are less developed than European countries. No big surprise here. Same goes for South American countries and Middle Eastern countries.

So in general, immigrants will have lower levels of cognitive development than the place they immigrate to.

I totally agree.

But race-IQ garbage actually makes sense in that paradigm. Less developed countries = Worse Conditions = Worse brain development/Intelligence development/Education. So these guys will score less on IQ. Doesn't mean, though, that they won't score more if guys will have better conditions

Edited January 16, 2021 by Hello from Russia

[Leo Gura]

17 minutes ago, Hello from Russia said:

I totally agree.

But race-IQ garbage actually makes sense in that paradigm. Less developed countries = Worse Conditions = Worse brain development/Intelligence development/Education. So these guys will score less on IQ. Doesn't mean, though, that they won't score more be changed if guys will have better conditions

Race-IQ garbage is making genetic claims, not environmental or developmental ones. That's a key difference.

[Preety_India]

The problem is that IQ is more defined in terms of intelligence like basic intelligence. 

Even highly intelligent people can hold very nasty old archaic mentality for example ethnocentric ideas. They are basically raised in a low consciousness environment even if they score very high on an IQ test. 

So IQ is not a predictor of who will vote for Trump. 

I've seen Indian guys who will probably score extremely high on an IQ test, much higher than the Average American and yet they support Trump and his ideas because they believe in ethnocentrism and nazi idealogy and racist garbage. But they are quite intelligent in many subjects yet their behavior and general attitude is appalling and low conscious. 

So I don't think that the correlation between consciousness and intelligence is relevant. 

 

[Leo Gura]

 

[Leo Gura]

Don't confuse IQ with cognitive and moral development. These are very different things.

[Leo Gura]

 

[mmKay]

15 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

 

These people are too coherent and emotionally stable to represent the average trump voter imo lol

[No Self]

1 hour ago, Preety_India said:

I've seen Indian guys who will probably score extremely high on an IQ test, much higher than the Average American and yet they support Trump and his ideas because they believe in ethnocentrism and nazi idealogy and racist garbage. But they are quite intelligent in many subjects yet their behavior and general attitude is appalling and low conscious. 

I think this is the basis for the alt-right movement in general. It is a modernisation of racist rhetoric that was previously associated with toothless rednecks, now slickly presented with business suits and semi-intellectual discourse. Lipstick on a pig.

[Preety_India]

27 minutes ago, No Self said:

I think this is the basis for the alt-right movement in general. It is a modernisation of racist rhetoric that was previously associated with toothless rednecks, now slickly presented with business suits and semi-intellectual discourse. Lipstick on a pig.

Exactly 

[DocWatts]

30 minutes ago, No Self said:

I think this is the basis for the alt-right movement in general. It is a modernisation of racist rhetoric that was previously associated with toothless rednecks, now slickly presented with business suits and semi-intellectual discourse. Lipstick on a pig.

Or sanitizing racism to make it palatable for a wider audience, as another way of putting it. 

[Value]

@Leo Gura It is a shame that Race-IQ is such a "bastardized" topic / area of research. If honest, open minded, responsible research on the matter would be done - and the results couldn't be used politically/egoically (which they  would and already are) it would be fascinating to see what types of intelligence and brain structures are different between groups of people and how/why those differences have come about and what possible purposes those potential differences would be. 

Edited January 16, 2021 by Value

[Akira]

You posted this as a bit of fun right? You're not trying to make any serious points by posting this are you?