Many voters are willing to accept misinformation from political leaders – even when they know it’s factually inaccurate. According to our research, voters often recognize when their parties’ claims are not based on objective evidence. Yet they still respond positively, if they believe these inaccurate statements evoke a deeper, more important “truth.”
Tribalism is humanity’s default. Reasoned argument is a learned behavior.
This is the core of conservatism, globally. It’s why everyone else keeps asking what the fuck these people really believe. But they do not believe things - they believe people. Their entire worldview is defined by interpersonal trust. A person can’t just be wrong, they have to be the wrong person. A wrong person can say the exact same thing as a right person and still be wrong.
This is all they think there is. This is all they think you’re doing.
And no it’s not totally one-sided, oh you think you’re immune to blah blah blah. Every human brain does this. But for some people there is nothing else. They don’t know it’s a bad thing their brain does, if that kneejerk loyalty endangers millions. That behavior correlates alarmingly closely with generic right-wing politics - which unsurprisingly tend toward strict hierarchy of power and the exclusion of outgroups. It’s plain ugga-dugga caveman shit. And it’s why fascists don’t care that their ideology is fractally wrong.