But I stuck with MAGA. The fear of losing my community terrified me. For the better part of a year, I spent myriad sleepless nights wrestling with my conscience.
The final straw came for me on May 24, 2022, when a gunman massacred 19 kids and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. MAGA’s response was that we needed more guns. My research had shown me that was egregiously mistaken. Overwhelmed by guilt for having contributed to this madness, I quit MAGA.
Three months later, I published a mea culpa, in which I renounced my support for Trump and apologized for my hurtful deeds and rhetoric. I never imagined that anyone would care. But the opposite was true: I was deluged with requests for help from people hoping to save their relationships with their friends and loved ones in MAGA.
I’m sorry, but there is no plausible deniability anymore. What we knew going into the last election cycle is that Trump is:
Supporting this monster isn’t a brief lapse in judgment, it is predicated on ignoring history or embracing his particular brand of sexual assault, racism, and stupidity.
Brown people are literally dying in concentration camps right now.
Those are all obvious things to people outside the cult, but you massively misunderstand how information is distributed and controlled in these conservative communities. When everyone around you, including people you like/respect, are just regurgitating Fox News talking points and shutting down any critical thinking, a lot of people just kinda shrink back and ignore those edges.
This doesn’t excuse their ignorance, but ignorance (either willful or not) and fear of losing their community is a much larger explanation for their behavior than them all fully endorsing everything Trump is and does.