Of course someone would ask about this. Lol. Glad you did though. Honestly, our conservation concerned more about religion, me being an atheist and them being conservative Christians, as I once was.
That being said, my buddy has always been a good-natured guy. Doesn't naturally hate anyone. I wouldn't describe him as a bigot, although he certainly grew up in an environment of bigotry and has retained some of that thinking, at least subconsciously. But, for instance, one of our biologically male high school friends eventually came out as a woman. He refers to her as "she/her," despite the fact that individual's own brother (who I randomly met at a brewery in town while back) will not.
I think we need to distinguish two types of MAGA. There are those, like my buddy, who support and love Trump - I think largely because they're conservatives (again, conservatism is merely about hierarchy, not principle) and everyone else around them has always been conservative and everyone around them is "good" so why do something else, sort of thing. (Again, irrational.) And then there is MAGA, as we tend to think of it as just a complete robotic, hate machine that wants to punish all difference. The two converge to an extent. How could they not? But they're not necessarily the same.
Perhaps the best view into the mindset comes from my father, who I had hoped was converted after his criticism of Jan. 6th. But I obviously guessed wrong. It became clear to me while back home that he had voted for Trump in 2024 and was ready for his re-entrance. I'd put WBTV from Charlotte on, mostly because I like the weather reporting and reminded me of my childhood back home for some nostalgia. Every time, it would devolve into the murders from Charlotte recently and the gang shootout that involved a school bus back in late December. That all the perpetrators were black certainly didn't help. This seemed to confirm his suspicion that the world was going to hell and that "people are so mean now" despite my contestation that crime is actually down, whatever the case may be in Charlotte.
This did not matter. Everything is the "worst ever!" Dad will get a good laugh out of videos on social media of cute cats (he's a cat dude), but, like so many others, that's not why he goes there. He goes there and to WBTV, for that matter, to get enraged. They provide him with clear targets, instead of nuance. It makes him and so many others feel significant. Like they know something the rest of us still have yet to figure out. Makes them feel important, especially because their lives are so peaceful, boring, and insignificant.
They don't even realize it. It's just so ingrained in them, they can't be any other way.
Not necessarily hateful people by nature but just small people incapable of dealing with nuance.
This certainly will not explain MAGA to you but hopefully it at least helps. They're not all utter assholes. Many of them just can't process nuance. They need meaning in their lives, because they have things so good. And Trump apparently provides them with that meaning. Even the ones who aren't full cult.
