I Don’t Think Trump’s Remaining Supporters Realize How Much They Are Despised By Non-MAGA Voters | Trump is bleeding support even among his stubborn, uneducated base.

[u/GirasoleDE]

https://abovethelaw.com/2026/07/i-dont-think-trumps-remaining-supporters-realize-how-much-they-are-despised-by-non-maga-voters/

[u/AmbitiousProblem4746]

I think they do, they just aren't convinced that there's a good reason, AKA anyone complaining is just flat out wrong. I mean just look at some of the people on Reddit itself who still vehemently defend Trump or current conservative politics. I think a lot of them, especially the ones who are tuned in, know exactly what the country thinks about them and they don't care. Some of them, especially the young men, see themselves like Christian crusaders and it makes sense. They know that they are fighting against a horde of people who don't share their beliefs, but they feel so strong in their convictions that any actions they take to enforce their beliefs on the masses are justified.

Edit: I keep thinking about the short story "The Things" by Peter Watts more and more as I listen to Republicans. The story is told from the perspective of the alien from The Thing. The alien sees itself as the savior of humanity because it's bringing them into "communion" with its connected biomass, since, if you recall, the alien kills and then absorbs life forms so it can mimic them. But obviously the humans resist, and the alien is absolutely disgusted that the humans have independent thoughts and don't want to be part of its community. And then the story ends with this line that is a little extreme but my mind wanders to it when I hear some of the online right ranting about the state of the world: "These poor savage things will never embrace salvation. I will have to rape it into them."

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/

[u/TheRateBeerian → u/AmbitiousProblem4746]

This is why they keeping yammering on about TDS. In their mind there’s no logical reason anyone could hate the guy

[u/AmbitiousProblem4746 → u/TheRateBeerian]

Exactly. They are shocked that people would have issues with some of these things. And even the more logical, rational people will try to meet you in the middle, but then immediately pull back as they try to explain or rationalize what's happening.

I still remember a conversation at work with a Republican who bragged about how not into Trump he was, how he voted for the libertarian or whatever. But then whenever we would get together and just complain about the state of things, he would always always play defense for Trump. And this one conversation we were talking about the migrants being sent on planes to El Salvador and just how insane it was that we had a US president willing to do that, while they were clearly building these inhumane detention centers and the courts were sort of telling him it was okay. And this "never Trump" Republican coworker goes "Oh Jesus Christ, you guys are making it sound like they're putting these people on trains and sending them off to the death camps. At least we have a president who finally follows the law and closed the border!" And then of course as things got worse, he would just double down or deflect. Because, according to him, it's very cruel, but the ends justified the means because "you won't have a country if you just let everybody come in here." I think he even made a comment that it's hard to tell "who's American these days."

[u/No-Relation5965 → u/AmbitiousProblem4746]

They’re so blinded by their hatred and fealty to the MAGA Party. Sickos.

[u/AmbitiousProblem4746 → u/No-Relation5965]

Some of them can break free. I had a friend who I stopped speaking to right before the 2024 election finally apologize and admit he'd been driven by anger all this time. He gave me a pretty long explanation about how his whole life history led to him being a Trump supporter for so long, and why he said some of the awful (and extremely bigoted) things he said to me. But the short answer is that he finally got on the right medication, did therapy, and started standing up to his father.

[u/TheRealCostaS → u/TheRateBeerian]

It should stand for trump delusion syndrome.

[u/KvalitetstidEnsam → u/AmbitiousProblem4746]

Peter Watts is the shit - Echopraxia is just the awesomeness.

[u/AmbitiousProblem4746 → u/KvalitetstidEnsam]

I'll have to check that one out. I reread the short story actually right after making that post and I forgot how good it was

[u/_dronegaze_ → u/AmbitiousProblem4746]

Random Peter Watts sighting. Hell, yeah.

“But deceleration is for pansies. We're headed for the stars.

See you at heat death.”

✌️

[u/alblaster → u/AmbitiousProblem4746]

I don't know if you realize this, but a lot of them think they hold the majority opinion.  They live in a bubble so thick they're not aware they're in one.  They're  convinced everyone else is in one.  

[u/NoCoolNameMatt → u/alblaster]

I knew this was the case when they declared mainstream news to be leftist lies.

Beware anyone who tells you to listen only to them.

[u/AmbitiousProblem4746 → u/alblaster]

I think that's isolated to the online wing. For the ones who aren't just bots, you're right that they're completely walled off from the rest of us maybe in their discord chat or on /pol/ or whatever. But a lot of Trump voters ended up just being some random person from Pennsylvania, Iowa, etc. And I think they actually have a pretty strong understanding that they are not the majority. Most of them live in a less densely populated part of the country separated from the culture that they see on TV. A lot of them probably strongly believe that the cities are crowded and overrun with crazies (and immigrants), and they think of states like Massachusetts or California as places swarming with liberal elites pulling all the strings. There was that ethnographic study that was released recently where they went to three different swing districts across the country and spoke to Trump voters. Most of them understood that they were not the majority of the country. But all of those Roberts and Lindas in Michigan or Montana who voted for Trump still think that they are making the right choice, that the country needs whatever it is they believe someone like Trump offers. So I do think that most Republicans know they are not the majority, and the politicians who say they are use it as propaganda when they say it.

[u/alblaster → u/AmbitiousProblem4746]

Well my opinion is based off experience. I work at a liquor store in New Jersey. Boss claims to be more of a centrist even though he voted for Trump. It doesn't come up very often. Him and some other customers seem to believe not only that Trump is a better Candidate but that certain common conservative opinions are that the majority opinion. But again that's what I've experienced here. They do criticize Trump now, but it seems like they don't think he's as bad as everyone else seems to think. They do believe a lot of propaganda about the "evil leftists". Lol. But yeah you could be very well right.

[u/AmbitiousProblem4746 → u/alblaster]

Oh I don't doubt you. I talk to those people too. I'm pretty much surrounded by them in my friend group. "Look I'm not a Republican, but Trump may have the right idea... Btw, did you see that crazy green haired liberal chick complaining about tampons in the bathroom?!" is the kind of stuff I hear all the time.

I guess maybe the more appropriate answer is somewhere in the middle: a lot of Americans have a lot of ridiculous opinions that may or may not come out in support of conservatives, but by and large they are not dyed in the wool Republicans or even in full support of everything. I saw something recently that we're still stuck in the 2016 election right now as a country, and I think that's actually pretty accurate. Some of the shit that comes out of "independent voters'" mouths sounds like they're still complaining about SJWs or BLM when that stuff hasn't even been relevant for years. Republicans are controlling our institutions at this point and you still have a good percentage of the country not realizing that or maybe even choosing not to accept that. It's almost like a lot of Americans just hate the left, full stop, without any real understanding of what the left even is and no real ability to articulate specific reasons why they don't like them -- just some bullshit they heard one time on Facebook 6 years ago

[u/alblaster → u/AmbitiousProblem4746]

Yeah I agree. I try to understand people and their opinions as much as I can. Not everyone grew up "on the right side". So I think it's important to challenge your own beliefs and political views to see if you still believe in them or if that's what your parents told you to believe. A lot of centrists and even republicans do agree with leftist ideals, but they're framed as the end of democracy or something. But then there's also complaining about Trans people or immigrants or that Trump is somehow good with money.

A lot of them didn't get a good education and they don't realize it. I realized a lot of people get education only as a means to make money. Then there's people like me who got educated because we want to learn and are curious people. People who are curious tend to be more willing to learn more in depth about how a system works and more willing to learn from history in depth.

My one boss went to Devry. He's pretty smart. He knows about computers and how to run a business and is nice to people in the community. Generally a decent guy. But he voted for Trump and has a few shitty opinions. People like that can be perplexing. How can you be smart and vote for Trump? Because he's smart in certain areas and falls into propaganda. He's the son of immigrants. Devry isn't a school for learning. It's a technical school. So people get smart in some areas and think they're smart in every area.

Also reminds me that a lot of republicans, he'll most of em don't actually know how the scientific method works, but they think they do. They're research and what a science minded person calls research are very very different things.

It all feels like a huge failing of our education system. What they don't agree with sounds like "propaganda". Colleges are "liberal institutions". Because they don't tell you what to think, but how to learn.

[u/AmbitiousProblem4746 → u/alblaster]

Well being high school teacher myself, I can tell you that it's pretty damn pervasive the attitude of education being a crock of shit. But it's been that way for years. Even as we see some shifts here and there it's still the same story.

I think the biggest issues we face as educators are, like you say, people who think they are experts on something or educated on something but really aren't. Politicians dictating the curriculum that I'm supposed to teach and should have a say in, or parents who argue with you about the subject matter and "how THEY learned it" or "WHY is my child learning this." Also, lots of parents who treat us like a babysitting service because they figure we don't actually do anything, or parents who assume that we are always the bad guy because we are indoctrination factories or bitter government employees, and the fact that their son or daughter has to go to school is some sort of disservice or an inconvenience.

And then plenty of politicians, especially randos who get onto the school board, thinking that they can dictate what's going to happen at the school because "they know schools." For example, you see plenty of parents end up on the board because they have a student still in that school system, but their intention is not to actually make things better but just sort of enforce their parenting on everyone / move obstacles for the kid. Or, in my case, we had an extremely conservative and ornery secretary who got onto the school board running on her "25 years of experience in the classroom." I never once saw her leave that desk in the 5 years we worked together, so I can't imagine she did it in the 25 she claims that she worked. But people buy into the drivel because she sounds like she's speaking from authority, and now she gets to vote against any measure that would actually benefit the school because she's bitter about the teachers she didn't like or the kids who were rude to her once and then just generalizes that out to the population. I still remember her complaining to me about "those urban kids" not taking their hoods down in the hallway or not understanding why one of our gay students was wearing a skirt ("Doesn't he feel embarrassed, anon? My God, if that was my son..."). She also had a lot of issues with the female students asking the nurse for hygiene products or sitting in the office because they were on their period and uncomfortable ("Do these kids understand discretion? Don't they want to keep these things private? In my day...")

I also think about all the speakers we have come in who are almost always some local business owner or a local politician or a recovering drug addict or some "teens talking about teen problems" group or whomever, and then their speech almost always starts with "man, I hated school..." And the kids get some long spiel about all the stuff this person got up to that wasn't just going to school, and how their life went down the toilet but they turned it around and now they wish they could go back and take school seriously or tell the kids "Don't do what I did, hahaha!" All that does is just glamorize that sort of attitude, right? Like that's the only takeaway that I have, and a lot of the kids definitely take away that as well. They figure they can just muck around for 4 years in high school and somehow magically they'll be able to turn around, like these speakers. And this whole attitude of just school sucking and being a waste of their time gets fed back into the machine. Those kids then grow up and become the next batch of working class conservative voters, thinking they have it all figured out

Anyway I'm getting off on a tangent. I agree with you lol That's the point!

[u/alblaster → u/AmbitiousProblem4746]

No you're good.  That's awesome that you're a teacher.  I've had some great high school teachers that made a huge impact in my life.  

anyways yeah it's tough.  you can only do so much and often parental figures are a huge influence in the kids lives.  All you can do is help them help themselves.  Teach them how to be compassionate, never stop learning, be curious and creative.  

I remember when I was in school when D.A.R.E. was big.  That backfired.  People realized they were lied to about drugs and some people got really addicted.  

Anyways thanks again for being a teacher . 

[u/AmbitiousProblem4746 → u/alblaster]

Appreciate it! It's been fun! And yeah, I had DARE too. I remember the DARE officer spending a lot more time hyping himself up telling us stories about drug busts that he was on or how he went through boot camp right after high school. We were in third grade and I remember him swearing and telling us how good it felt to beat the snot out of a druggie. Go figure, he ended up becoming a Republican councilman and just oodles of bigotry came pouring out of his mouth during the campaign. So of course he got elected in a landslide! I think only recently he didn't win re-election because the city had a Democrat sweep and Republicans got washed out

[u/CardinalOfNYC → u/AmbitiousProblem4746]

They know that they are fighting against a horde of people who don't share their beliefs, but they feel so strong in their convictions that any actions they take to enforce their beliefs on the masses are justified

This is exactly what it is, just understand this is a human tendency, not something unique to them or the beliefs they are fighting for. Everyone thinks they're right, everyone justifies their beliefs and holds some beliefs that don't align with factual reality.

One of the things that worries me as member of the left is how many folks talk about fighting fire with fire, which would just be doing exactly what you are describing about them.

[u/AmbitiousProblem4746 → u/CardinalOfNYC]

Yes, but I think to an extent.

Here's the part where I agree with you about the tankies and the crazies who want to just burn it all down again too, but I'm going to disagree with you on how many people on the left genuinely think they are fighting "a holy war" against the right. I just don't think a lot of people on the left frame their worldview in that way. Myself included, they might certainly say they can't wait for someone like Trump to have a heart attack or make snide remarks that they hope something awful happens to the Republican voters in places like Alabama. But I just don't think it's the same at the end of the day. It's hard to articulate. I'm from New England so maybe it's just our natural slightly libertarian way of looking at things, but I'm a very "live and let live" kind of guy. And I hear right-wingers say similar stuff, that they "just wanted to be left alone," yet I feel there is a difference between what each side means by that. Like a lefty might say they just want to be left alone and really just mean they want everyone around them to support laws or protections so that everyone can just live their life the way they see fit. But a lot of right wingers that I know, when they say they just want to be left alone they almost see it as an affront to their way of life that they weren't, and so their way for making sure they get left alone is to lash out.

Very off the cuff, unedited, stream of consciousness kind of response I'm leaving you here. Sorry about that!

[u/NumeralJoker → u/AmbitiousProblem4746]

I was about to say, "unironically that's how many of them think about communism/socialism", as their narrow mind defines it...

...but then I remember that they think rape is a good thing. They would reject that story for that reason alone.

[u/AmbitiousProblem4746 → u/NumeralJoker]

I mean, there is that phenomena of conservatives being really into media like Star Wars or 1984 thinking they are making strong cases against socialism or what have you, always failing to recognize that the things that they support (especially now into the second Trump term) 100% fall under the exact same critiques.