Are Americans Just Stupid...

[BootinUp]

Or is it something else?
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
Apr 11, 2025

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of folks ask the same question, eyes wide with despair, wine glass in hand like it’s a stress ball:
“How did the United States elect this clown?”

And by this clown, I mean Donald J. Trump—former reality TV personality who “discovered” the word groceries literally a month ago and seems to think it’s new to the rest of us, too. A guy who knows less about global trade economics than my cat James (no offense, James). Serial liar. Six-time bankrupt “businessman” who somehow managed to bankrupt a casino. Rapist (per a judge, not just social media). Draft dodger. Putin pen pal. Man who wants to buy Greenland because he thought it would be “cool.” Creep who thinks it’s “fancy” to gild… toilets.

And yet somehow, this guy—this odiferous, spray-tanned Nazi apologist adult diaper ad steeped in a bowl of word salad—was handed the nuclear codes by the same country that put a man on the moon and invented jazz.

So. What the fuck happened?

The easy (but wrong) answer is: “Americans are stupid.”
And look, I’ve been to a Florida Walmart in August. I get the temptation.

But that’s not quite it.

This isn’t just about bad civics education or Fox News melting brains like microwaved Velveeta.

It’s about early childhood trauma.

Specifically: Authoritarian child abuse—and the way it wires people’s brains, early and permanently, to seek out charismatic narcissistic abusers like heat-seeking missiles launched from the tiny neglected hearts of their own bruised inner children.

Continued
https://open.substack.com/pub/alisav/p/are-americans-just-stupid

[Blues Heron]

1. According to Trump himself he and Elon stole it, like they tried and failed in 2020. it's definitely a coup.

[SheltieLover]

4. This 👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

[samplegirl]

9. Here goes my anxiety

Another day of it!

[SheltieLover]

10. I don't feel they will get away withit again.

Breathe...deeply.

Pls take good care of yourself.

[we can do it]

2. Yes

[legallyblondeNYC]

3. It's the algorithms.

[slightlv]

5. This sounds like a subject I was addressing in another message a few days ago...

we know that oversized amygdala makes people give into the "flight or fight" response. That they are, nearly by definition, MAGAs. They hate and fear anything that isn't like them. They don't want to make decisions... they want to be told what to do by a great "Daddy"... whether that be a skydaddy or someone on earth like trump.

I've wondered if there is a genetic component to enlarging of amygdala... or if it's nurture and environment, alone. But one thing I never thought about was the kid as s/he was growing up. It's not just enough to be told over and over again "x" people are crap, or that certain beliefs are heretical. "My logic" would tell me there might be a genetic component from one or both parents being MAGA, as well as the environment. But my logic goes out the door in specific cases. For example, my grandfather would probably be a maga if he were alive today. My father ALWAYS voted repub, although he was more like the old, old version of republicanism than anything approaching today. If he were still alive, he'd be a dyed-in-the-wool RINO... he basically was, even back then. His whole life was built around the Great Depression. Fear was something that was with him every single day. He lost his twin brother in a house fire, and then was shuffled from one family member to another until he was old enough to join the Army for WWII. Food insecurity was something he lived with every day, and there wasn't a lot of love to go around for him.

My mother was a Democrat, as was my grandmother. My mom never voted for a repub her whole life. And yet she carried more discriminatory notions about her than I would have guessed, just from her voting record.

And here I am... I'm about as far to the left as you can get without being an anarchist. Both genetically and by nurture, one would think my amygdala would be enlarged and I would by experience and life be much more conservative than I am now. Especially since one tends to become conservative as one ages.

"Nature vs Nurture" has always intrigued me in so many situations. "Supid people" are just one more aspect of it, IMO. (LOL)

[surfered]

6. Read John Dean's book Conservatives Without Conscience or a summary.

In it, he explains the right’s attraction to authoritarianism.

[BootinUp]

8. thanks.

[dweller]

7. Microplastics

in the brain … in our bodies , in the water , our foods, the air , in all flora and fauna …
In the far distant future when aliens finally arrive after centuries of no sign of life here on earth , they will find plastic effigies of our species , label us the ‘ BarbiKens ‘
and move onto greener planets

🫤



✌🏻

[bushalert]

11. Yes. Very stupid.

[Sector 001]

12. A large portion of the people on this planet are stupid.

We only have ourselves to blame for that.

[valleyrogue]

13. They are both stupid and authoritarian. They are just like Trump. n/t

[lees1975]

14. Its an interesting article, and I tend to agree.

I don't think it's necessarily stupidity as much as it is ignorance. And the worship of money.

[usonian]

15. Projection: projecting one's weaknesses, fears and failures onto others. The fascist playbook 100% counts on this.

Keeping it simple:

https://postimg.cc/RJqpBt3H

And fascists use it to gain power and rob the gullible fools who use these "big, strong, successful businessmen" as proxies for living and growing on one's own.