• cheese_greater@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    K but all pithyness aside, how do they actually feel about him? It must be super weird to agree with someone who’s parroting your nonsense but also that person’s very existence and social worth is an object of your hatred

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I have two cousins who are half-Thai (their mother was a Thai woman brought to America by my uncle) who are virulent anti-immigrant white supremacists. It’s especially weird because not only have they been the frequent victims of anti-asian discrimination, they also happen to look central american and have been the frequent victims of discrimination against that as well. I think the only thing that explains it is that they are absolutely dirt stupid.

    • WorldFrog@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I suspect that while most conservatives would prefer someone more ‘close to home’, there’s two things that may appeal:

      1. They may reference him to stave off claims of racism. “See? I woulda voted for him if Trump weren’t running, you can’t call me racist!”
      2. He says the right things, and he’s independently wealthy, which gives him that ‘outsider’ status that they also bestow upon Trump. With those two things, he might be deemed ‘one of the good ones’.

      Ultimately, few will opt for him over Trump, and their allegiance to him would likely be far more fickle, as they cannot identify with him as much.

      • cheese_greater@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        What I found most plausible was the notion that he was running to soften Trump’s image or something. Like he seemed even more over the top than even Trump and I don’t know how any serious person pulls that off unless there’s another orthogonal angle