One of my greatest puzzles is about MAGA, who often just rejects facts or ignores them. Generalizing a group and the reasons for their actions and thoughts is tricky because there are so many different life experiences and circumstances., but the Trump hardcore has become a cult that refuses to consider facts that are contrary to their beliefs. One common retort from those of us who use facts to shape beliefs is, "You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your facts." The problem is that there are those who do not believe there are facts, evidence, and data that are contrary to their established belief.
It began with the concept of "alternative facts" and devolved to "no facts", just trust what Trump says as being the truth. What is amazing to me is how the cult was formed with their only control of half of the media...and the way it was done was the denial of facts... the liberal media corrupt all facts.
Maybe the key is education level.It is the education level that could explain part of the puzzle. Trump’s voter demographics show his appeal is for those without college. It worked...and there is a reason that the great divide is not just race and gender but education level. Education has a way of teaching and learning how facts are determined and that there can be various views of the same happening. That process is called critical thinking and more advanced higher levels of education promote that. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/why-does-trump-appeal-to-voters-with.html
Part of the enabling of mind control and rejection of facts is that media has become silos and that it is human to seek that which verifies pre-existing ideas, prejudices, cultural beliefs, fears, and aspirations. People like to think others agree or that what they hear "makes sense" to them. It is easier to rely on media that makes them comfortable within themselves, even for what might be once "politically incorrect." It explains to me why I encounter the attitude that a new idea that challenges some established notion is a lie or attributed to the bad character of the challenger. ..stupidity or "where did you get that idea? Never heard of such a thing," or it comes from the mouth of an evil person or someone who is an extremist who fell off the ideological table end. or "consider the source" as the radical lib media.
One of the great practitioners of the art of using lies as a political tactic is the MAGA guru Steve Bannon, who shaped the strategy of flooding the zone with lies. https://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/juan-williams/4928484-trump-media-strategy-2024
The most obvious example of how repeating lies can shape and rationalize political tactics is to develop a body of support for putting only their partisans in control of the voting process. Why do so many still say the 2020 elections were stolen when, after nearly four years, there has been no evidence found? It is how lies become truth. Attributed to Hitler's chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, is that if you tell a lie frequently enough, it becomes a truth. Those lies have become truth, and it has become a required litmus test of what is a true MAGA to repeat it.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20161026-how-liars-create-the-illusion-of-truth
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/22/politics/changing-electorate-trump-harris-analysis/index.html