trump supporters don't see it.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

One of the strange things about being human is we can't see our own bullshit. We can see bullshit in others just fine, thank you very much, but within ourselves... not so much.
I say this as a recovering alcoholic who was SHOCKED to learn I was alcoholic. Didn't see it. Everyone close to me did and they saw and experienced my chaos just fine.
When I became a social worker working with substance dependent clients, it was my job to lay the tools of recovery at the feet of the afflicted and hope they'd pick them up. The majority did not. They would not, could not, see the absurdity of their warped thinking and behavior. But everyone else could see it. Everyone else was shouting, "Hey! You're about to drive your proverbial truck into a wall!" No rational response.
Why couldn't they see it? In my case the answer was fear. Fear of change, fear of looking bad, fear of being wrong, etc., etc., etc.... Fear kept me emotionally ill and I used fear-driven rationalization, delusion, denial, justification, etc., in copious quantities to keep doing what I was doing so I wouldn't have to do the uncharted, terrifying task of changing my behavior. Try to reach out to me? In a nutshell, my response was, "F**k you, who are you to tell me anything. I'll keep doing what I'm doing."
It was only in an instance of great chaos and tragedy - my "bottom" - that I was forced to confront my fears (with the guidance of understanding others) and admit/address the problem. Only when life itself was on the line would there be an attempt to address my thinking/behavior.
And this leads me to my point: most trump supporters, in my opinion, are for the most part fear-driven and emotionally ill... more so than most. In their minds they honestly do not see the obvious hypocrisy, compartmentalized thinking, moral incongruity, anger, fear, etc. that you and I see in them blazing like a thousand suns. In fact, rationalization, delusion, denial, pride, ego, etc. prohibit them from doing so.
It is said people have to "hit bottom" to change. It was true for me. Let us hope that when these people hit bottom (unfortunately a bottom they will bring upon us, too) they might admit there is a problem. And let us hope the bottom has a soft landing.

[world wide wally]

1. Yeah, in other words...

They're assholes

[babylonsister]

3. ...

[marked50]

2. Good analysis of the barriers that may exist-thanks-n/t

[Permanut]

4. 27 year member of AA here..

You've described some of the pieces of the puzzle very nicely. Also, extra points for your hilarious screen name.

[defacto7]

5. I appreciate your post. There's a lot of useful truth in it.

Hitting the bottom definitely has it's way of getting your attention and changing one's perspective. Politically and ideologically speaking there is one fly in the ointment. If a person's belief system includes an afterlife and a directive to reject altering their position lest they reap the consequences then there is no bottom to hit, no wakeup call. It's the age old mechanism where an ideology makes a lower level of pain and fear than you can possibly reach in life. It's quite effective in keeping people from changing no matter how bad it gets. Humanity has been dogged with that progress killing meme since the beginning of civilization.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

6. Well said.

Very much appreciate the input.

Question is then how to address changing absurd thinking where there is no "bottom."

[defacto7]

7. It's a conundrum...

Promote education. Create interest and excitement in what's real. I don’t know anything else. "Stupid" is a memetic disease that needs to be cured or it will destroy our species.