And of course Trump brought out the worst tendencies in his followers. They had suppressed all their prejudices for decades only to feel liberated in expressing them again with Trump’s ascendance. Another guy I knew stopped being best friends with a liberal friend of mine because he wanted to openly express his racism without being criticized for it. There’s a reason all the white supremacists like to swing on Trump’s nutsack: He’s one of them and they love him for it.

The term “con game” or “con man” comes from “Confidence Trick.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick

Get your marks to believe they are smart and they will give you money. All of their money. Pat Robertson was a master at this. I used to watch his show back in the day like I would a horror movie. The way he would pray like he was passing a kidney stone was hysterical.

But it was also scary. He’d peddle these insane theories based upon the bible and bullshit and people sent him money. Lots of money. Because he projected this confidence that he was right, and by extension, if you believed him, you were right. Through the dopamine rush of constant indignation his viewers were smarter, more confident in their anger and hate – even though they were Christians. (Disclosure: I knew someone who was in the same college fraternity as Robertson. They thought he was a jerk.)

It’s brilliant, actually. Requires an understanding of how humans think, what they believe, how to get them to just give you money. I could do this. You could too. It’s honestly not that hard. But it ain’t honest.

People are still giving the former guy money. But he’s a billionaire, right? Why give money to a billionaire then complain about gasoline prices? Why give money to a preacher who says if you give them money, God will reward you with more money, that you can then send them?

But here is the trick: a confidence game works best on people that don’t have confidence.

The conservatives fled here not because of our railing against them, they fled because they knew the game was over when they fell in line behind Trump- they no longer could pretend to be patriots, they no longer needed to pretend to be decent human beings… whats more, they had no desire to keep pretending what they weren’t…Trump gave them permission to freely be the amoral monsters they always were… that is why they loved him, that is why there was no line he could cross that would be too far for them.

Jody liked to giggle and brag she was a “deplorable” on other forums… Others went on to join online white nationalist groups openly advocating for genocide… They dabbled in Propertarianism (A ‘philosophy’ akin to Ayn Randian ‘philosophy’ if it smoked Meth- and very popular among the white nationalist ‘sovereign citizen’ nutcases). Propertarianism had a surge in popularity during the pandemic.

They always were vicious trash, they just tried to hide it- poorly- so they could participate in forums like ours in hopes they could convert others. Then when Trump took power and promised to inflict harm and punishment on the liberals and minorities they felt they had won, they no longer had to keep up the act… they could revel in the evil they saw being done in their name. They could cackle over ‘liberal tears’, the cruelty against minorities…

That is the freedom Trump gave them, and they LOVED him for it… the harm he inflicted on the country, even the harm he inflicted on them as well, was a small price to pay for the freedom to be the monsters they always were.