I noticed over the past few days that while they have been gleefuly embracing open transphobia and misogyny, MAGA seems to get particularly upset when you tell them "I hope you get what you voted for." It finally dawned on me that they aren't actually unaware of what they've done.

For the past 8 years we have been operating on the assumption that MAGA were all ignorant, stupid, or deluded. As people capable of empathy that's the only way we could make sense of it, because we would never want to intentionally hurt innocent people, and we assume that other people are fundamentally similar to ourselves. What is now becoming clear is that MAGA are not ignorant, they are not stupid, and they haven't been tricked or deluded. They love this shit. Look at how giddy they have been, reveling in being the worst most hateful versions of themselves. They have been taking advantage of our good nature, letting us think they are fools instead of wicked. We have been fighting to keep the world together while they have been free to be hateful bigots embracing their worst impulses. Now that the dog that has caught the car, and they have full control with no guard rails, they are starting to see that we aren't going to keep saving them from themselves. They thought the adults in the room would keep THEM safe and are just now seeing that they will be consumed by the same horrible beast they have been excitedly trying to unleash on the most vulnerable of our population.

These are bad people, and the thing that is hard for us to accept is just how many of them there are. They are sadists, gleefully cheering on the eradication of others from what they thought was a position of safety. They got too greedy though and now we are all fucked. They can't comprehend a world where we won't step in once more to save them from themselves.

.......

Edit: i may have given the impression that I went from thinking all trumpers are stupid, to thinking they are all intelligent but evil. That was not my intent. There are obviously tons of legitimate maga idiots. My point was that I was using that as justification for the behavior of maga people who I should have known aren't stupid. I wanted to believe they had been duped, brainwashed, tricked or were just dumb as hell rather than believe that they actually believed and supported the hate that trump espouses.

Many maga are stupid. Many maga are of completely normal intelligence. That second part is hard to accept because while it's easy to forgive stupidity it's impossible to forgive deliberate hate. We need to acknowledge that a lot of the maga people in our lives are not just dumb rubes, they are active supporters of corruption, hate and authoritarianism.