Why are MAGAs and Trump so cruel, mean and hateful?

[douglas9]

It’s an honest question. What brings about the direct cruelty that we see in the MAGA movement? Why are they so gleeful to slash heathcare for 17 million Americans? Why does it give them a chuckle to throw people into Alligator Auschwitz? The idea of a detained person — who could very well be citizens and innocent people — being killed and devoured by pythons and crocodiles practically makes them giddy.

What’s going on?

Psychiatrist Dr. Russel Razzaque attempts to explain.


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/8/2332353/-Why-are-MAGAs-and-Trump-so-cruel-mean-and-hateful?pm_campaign=trending&pm_source=sidebar&pm_medium=web

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. That essay is useless and explains nothing

It states they lack compassion but not why.

Lacking compassion is a tautology with "cruel, mean, and hateful".

[douglas9]

5. Psychiatrist Dr. Russel Razzaque attempts to explain.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Now that has some teeth. Their fears have been stoked bc they resent women & non-whites encroaching on their privilege.

I've seen a couple of his before but this one actually explains something. His other videos have been a lot of words that say little. In this one he gets right into it and his points do explain things.

Authoritarians use fear as a technique. maga fears are stoked by resentment at having to compete with women and non-whites.

I would go further and say maga women resent competing with non-whites. The very few non-white maga fear being replaced by immigrants. It's of course all bogus. maga does not have extra rights. They fear DEI, but that is not about raising up incompetence, it is about giving competent capable people a chance to play on a level playing field.

They are led by rich people who have no fear of replacement but do have racism and most especially have a desire to use people for their own personal gain.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Are you posting sarcasm?

You seem to be saying they are cruel, mean, and hateful because some deity ordains it.

[ms liberty]

15. Welcome to DU. Enjoy your stay. Do you like pizza?

[Henry203]

3. This movement comes from the south

Remember they embraced slavery and Jim Crow. These are cruel people.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. That doesn't help. It simply defers the explanation. You say they are "cruel, mean, & hateful" because they are cruel.nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. That's what I like about certain DUers from the north: their endless moral superiority. NT

[Henry203]

12. I have been in Atlanta

Since my parents moved here in 1973. I lived in Colorado from 1977-1982. I tried to move my family back in 2013. I do have some experience living down here. Both of my girlfriends and eventually my wife were from the Midwest. It was very difficult to date down here.
My dad was from St. Louis which is in reality pretty southern. He was denied the ability to swim in the public pools. They left in 1939 and he never went back.
The Chinese as a group were treated worse than any ethnic group with the exception of black people.
It is not moral superiority but experience that has made me come to that conclusion.
How about those pictures of people celebrating lynching and treating that like a Sunday picnic. I don’t see that behavior anywhere else in the country. The cruelty is in the culture.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. Thanks for the family history. Point taken.

My observation is that it happens much too often on DU that people will say “It’s what those people deserve for living in {some state}.”

You will not not find the sprawling Trump plantation on a map of Mississippi. Chinese railroad workers got treated poorly all across the western US. Those weren’t rose petals being tossed at MLK in the suburbs of Chicago. Stephen Miller grew up in the environs of LA.

You can find cruel people from sea to shining sea in the US of A.

And good morning.

PS In support of your point, the best book I read in the last 20 years was “Slavery By Another Name,” by ex-The Wall Street Journal. Atlanta bureau chief Douglas A. Blackmon. Just outstanding. He’s back teaching in Georgia.

[Henry203]

18. My grandfather was deported

In California in 1896 even though he had birthright citizenship and my German grandmother was arrested in 1910 for being with my other Chinese grandfather in Illinois. I do have some history here.
My dad moved to NYC in 1939 with his mom following his sister. Obviously all in all they were treated better up north. None ever went back to St. Louis even for a visit.
I was talking to my brother just yesterday. He lives in KC. He offered to drive my dad to visit St. Louis. My dad said “ Why would I want to go there”? Too much pain.
Even Atlanta was segregated until 1963.

Yes other parts of the country were racist but none ever celebrated lynching like the south.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

20. Yeah, that fruit tree did thrive in the southern parts of the country.

Illinois had sundown towns, and there were lynchings in the northern states, but for extent it’s hard to beat the South.

There’s a book out about sundown towns, but I can’t recall the name.

Take a look at Blackmon’s book. It was an eye-opener for me.

[Henry203]

22. We just don't see that level of cruelty

And I believe it has spread to the entire country at this point.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

21. Lester Maddox made ax handles the centerpiece of his campaign.

Great website: Atlanta Time Machine

[Henry203]

23. I visited his store

In underground Atlanta in 1973. My Jewish friend couldn’t take it and walked right back out.

[creon]

4. Fear and anger

Those are two factors driving them.
One factor that they do not have:
the principle of calculated risk.

[BadgerKid]

6. You could have authority without cruelty or abuse.

But abusers get some sort of pleasure or maybe relief by carrying out the act.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Authoritarianism depends on a lack of empathy. tRump doesn't merely have a deficit: he has zero. . . . nt

[vanlassie]

11. The title of John Dean's book was similar to an important book

that was released eight years earlier, titled “Children Without a Concience” by Dr. Ken Magid. This book explained how Empathy can fail to develop when early needs of a baby and child are not met. In a nutshell, he said the first three years of life are critical, and if needs are neglected, empathy does not form and it is not reversible. After the first three years, a child’s unmet needs are more likely to result in neuroticism.
I don’t recall if I ever read John Dean’s book, but at the time I assumed Dean had read Magid’s book.

[Alice B.]

19. How many people, out of the whole of the population, do you think...

… are like this?

The depth of irrational hatred for others feels insurmountable. I’m seeing it more clearly in people I’ve known, or thought I’ve known, for years. The only heartening thing is they’re not 100% comfortable being fully out about it. It’s like “why don’t you just say it out loud and with your privacy settings on ‘public,’ a******. And let me tag your employer while we’re at it.”

[cachukis]

24. One generally learns 50% of what they will ever learn

by age 4. 70 to 80% by age 8.
You are mostly living the language skills you get before pubescence for the rest of your life.
Low and middle brow tools cannot compete in high brow competition.
The excuses and blame have become endemic in much of our society.
Now they (the powers that be), want to guarantee low and middle brow thinking reliance on AI.
Some of us will miss the transition, but it is in full gear right now.

[edhopper]

14. To paraphrase Michael Caine

On The Dark Knight

Some people just want to see the World burn.