from the an-updating dept
With apologies to Dorothy Thompson, whose 1941 essay in Harper’s, “Who Goes Nazi?” remains a worthwhile read on the cultural archetypes of who is drawn to fascism, and who would never go down such a path. It felt like it could use a modern updating, however. Update: Just after I finished writing this, it occurred to me that there was no chance I was the first to think of doing this, so I did a search and sure enough, the writer Talia Lavin had the same idea months ago. Hers is closer stylistically to the original, but for reasons unknown to me, she took it down. Though you can still find it through the Wayback Machine.
It is an interesting and somewhat macabre social media game to play while scrolling through your feeds: to speculate who in your network would go full MAGA. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—watching the 2016 election, the pandemic, January 6th, and now Trump’s return. I have come to know the types: the born MAGAs, the MAGAs whom social media criticism has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would fall for the grift.
It is preposterous to think that they are divided by any obvious characteristics. Rural Americans may be more susceptible to MAGA than most people, but I doubt it. College graduates are supposedly inoculated, but it is an arbitrary assumption. I know lots of PhD holders who are born MAGAs and many others who would don the red hat tomorrow morning in response to some perceived slight. There are people who have repudiated their own principles in order to become “Honorary Patriots”; there are lifelong Democrats who have enthusiastically entered Trump’s orbit. MAGA has nothing inherently to do with geography, education, or even stated political beliefs. It appeals to a certain type of mind.
It is also, to an immense extent, the disease of a generation—the generation that grew up online, that learned to mistake engagement for truth, that confused being heard with being right. This is as true of suburban millennials as it is of rural boomers. It is the disease of the algorithmically poisoned.
Sometimes I think there are direct digital factors at work—a type of media consumption, a pattern of social validation, and a form of tribal identity that has produced a new kind of citizen with an imbalance in their nature. They have been fed rage and filled with grievances that are beyond their capacity to process rationally. They have been subjected to forms of propaganda that have released them from the constraints of empirical reality. Their emotions are vigorous. Their reasoning is childish. Their civic education has been almost completely neglected.
At any rate, let us look through the feeds.
The Contrarian Intellectual
His Substack has 10,000 subscribers and a name like “Uncomfortable Truths” or “Against the Grain.” He has an advanced degree and a career in academia or journalism. He positions himself as a truth-teller willing to say what others won’t.
The clues are there if you know where to look. Watch how he behaves during the latest culture war dust-up—he cannot let any consensus pass without needling it, cannot let any moment of social harmony exist without introducing “complexity.” He calls it intellectual honesty. Others might recognize it as a compulsive need to be the smartest person in the room.
He’s not technically MAGA yet, but he’s on the glide path. He writes long pieces about how “the left has lost its mind” and how “we need to have difficult conversations.” He appears on podcasts to discuss “the excesses of woke culture” and “the importance of free speech.” He’s built his brand on being the reasonable liberal who’s willing to criticize his own side.
But his criticism only flows in one direction. He’s endlessly concerned about cancel culture but never mentions voter suppression. He worries about campus speech codes but not about book bans. He’s created a career out of giving conservatives permission to feel intellectual about their prejudices.
His MAGA turn will come when he finally admits what’s been obvious all along: he’s more comfortable with the right than the left. He’ll frame it as a principled stand against progressive extremism, but really it’s just the natural conclusion of a grift that started with “I’m just asking questions.”
The Wellness Influencer
Her Instagram is a masterpiece of soft-focus selfies and inspirational quotes. She sells courses on “authentic living” and posts about the importance of “doing your own research.” She’s got 50K followers who hang on her every word about manifestation, healing crystals, and toxic relationships.
She already went MAGA during the pandemic, though she’d never admit it. It started with “questioning the narrative” about vaccines and evolved into sharing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. content and ranting about “globalist elites.” She doesn’t post Trump content directly—that would hurt her brand—but she’s constantly sharing adjacent conspiracy theories about child trafficking, fluoride in water, and the “plandemic.”
Her path to MAGA was predictable: someone whose entire identity is built on being special, on having secret knowledge that others lack, was always going to fall for conspiracy theories. The wellness-to-fascism pipeline is real, and she’s already at the destination.
The Centrist Politician
She calls herself a moderate Democrat and appears on cable news to provide “balance.” Her social media carefully calibrates every post to seem reasonable and bipartisan. She writes op-eds about “finding common ground” and “reaching across the aisle.”
But check her voting record: she confirms every Trump judicial nominee, opposes every progressive priority, and finds reasons to side with Republicans on every issue that matters. She claims to support democracy while enabling the people trying to destroy it.
Her MAGA evolution is already complete—she just hasn’t changed her party registration yet. She’s more concerned with maintaining her brand as the “reasonable Democrat” than with actually defending democratic values. She’ll keep providing cover for fascists as long as it keeps her on TV.
The LinkedIn Thought Leader
Here’s someone whose profile shows all the markers of success: MBA from a decent school, senior VP at a Fortune 500 company, ghost-written posts about “leadership” and “mindset” three times a week. He shares motivational quotes over sunset photos and humble-brags about his “journey.” His feed is a carefully curated performance of professional achievement.
But scroll deeper and you’ll find the tells. He reposts articles about “woke capitalism” destroying America. He quotes Jordan Peterson approvingly. He’s constantly posting about how “nobody wants to work anymore” and how “participation trophies ruined a generation.” His comments on political posts always start with “I’m not political, but…”
This guy will go MAGA the moment it becomes professionally advantageous. He’s already mostly there ideologically, but he’s waiting for the moment when his company needs MAGA cred the most. The day his company starts rewarding MAGA loyalty over quarterly earnings—or the day he gets passed over for a promotion he thinks he deserves—he’ll be posting about “taking our country back” with the same enthusiasm he currently reserves for synergy and disruption.
The Crypto Enthusiast
His Twitter bio lists his pronouns as “rich/richer” and includes at least three flag emojis. His feed is 60% cryptocurrency technical analysis, 30% complaints about government regulation, and 10% photos of his Tesla. He calls himself a “free speech absolutist” and thinks Elon Musk is a visionary.
He’s always been MAGA, even if he didn’t quite realize it. He rails against “establishment media” and gets his news from podcasts. He believes utterly in meritocracy while having inherited his initial bankroll from his parents. He thinks poor people are just lazy and rich people are naturally superior. He’s easily seduced by nonsense claims about race and IQ because they appeal to his long-standing belief that he’s an objectively special genius.
His MAGA evolution is complete except for the explicit political allegiance. He’s already anti-government, anti-regulation, anti-tax, and anti-anybody-who-questions-his-success. As crypto becomes even more explicitly partisan, he’ll be posting Pepe memes and talking about “making America great again.”
The Facebook Mom
She posts pictures of her kids constantly, shares recipes, and belongs to seventeen different local community groups. She seems harmless enough—lots of heart emojis, inspirational quotes about motherhood, and complaints about school board meetings.
But she’s already gone MAGA, and it happened faster than anyone expected. It started with concerns about “what they’re teaching our kids” and evolved into full-blown culture war participation. She shares PragerU videos, complains about “woke Disney,” and posts about “parental rights” with the fervor of a religious convert. She is absolutely convinced that there are human trafficking gangs from central America looking to kidnap her kids in the Target parking lot.
Her MAGA journey was enabled by Facebook community, which fed her increasingly extreme content disguised as “parenting advice” and “educational resources.” She genuinely believes she’s protecting her children from a coordinated attack on American values. She’ll vote for any candidate who promises to “protect our kids” from teachers, librarians, and anyone else trying to “indoctrinate” them.
The Venture Capitalist
His Twitter is a constant stream of complaints about “woke employees” destroying productivity and liberal professors poisoning young minds. He’s worth $500 million because of a few home run investments that he lucked into thanks to his Stanford network, but talks like he’s the victim of a vast conspiracy. His feed alternates between humble-brags about his latest investment and rants about how universities are churning out unemployable graduates who expect “participation trophies.”
He’s already MAGA, though he’d never admit it publicly—bad for fundraising. He privately complains that diversity hiring is destroying meritocracy while his portfolio companies are run entirely by Stanford MBAs who look exactly like him. He thinks workers asking for fair wages are “entitled” and students protesting genocide are “indoctrinated.”
His MAGA allegiance is wrapped up in his belief that he earned everything through pure merit, despite raising his first investment fund from family connections. He’ll vote for anyone who promises to cut his taxes and eliminate the regulations that might force him to treat workers like human beings.
The Legacy Media Reporter
His bio says “Covering politics for [Major News Outlet]” and he takes pride in his “objectivity.” He writes careful both-sides pieces about every issue and treats Trump’s fascist rhetoric as just another political strategy worth analyzing.
He’s not quite MAGA yet, but he’s already doing their work for them. He frames voter suppression as “election integrity measures” and describes anti-trans legislation as “parental rights bills.” He gives equal weight to climate scientists and oil industry propagandists because “balance” is more important than truth.
His MAGA turn will come gradually, as he realizes that treating fascism as normal politics is more profitable than actual journalism. He’ll keep providing legitimacy to authoritarianism while telling himself he’s just doing his job. By the time democracy collapses, he’ll still be writing headlines about how “both sides share blame.”
The Business Owner
She runs a small business—maybe a restaurant, maybe a retail store. She posts about “entrepreneurship” and “the American dream.” She works seventy hours a week and takes pride in “building something from nothing.”
She’s prime MAGA material because she’s been trained to see her success as purely individual and her struggles as evidence of government overreach. When COVID restrictions hurt her business, she blamed “bureaucrats” rather than the virus. When she can’t find workers, she blames unemployment benefits rather than wages.
Her MAGA turn will be complete when she decides that her business problems are caused by taxes, regulations, and lazy workers rather than market forces and systemic issues. She’ll vote for anyone who promises to “get government out of the way” and let “job creators” like her prosper.
The Normie
He doesn’t post about politics much. His feed is mostly sports, vacation photos, and memes. He seems reasonable, moderate, unengaged with the culture wars. He’s the kind of person who says “I don’t really follow politics” and means it.
But he’s susceptible to MAGA because he’s politically lazy. He gets his information from headlines and assumes that “both sides” are equally bad. He’s annoyed by political discussions and just wants everyone to “get along.”
His MAGA evolution will happen gradually, through exposure to right-wing content disguised as non-political entertainment. He’ll start sharing “funny” memes that happen to have political undertones. He’ll begin to believe that liberals are “too sensitive” and conservatives are “more reasonable.” By the time he realizes he’s been radicalized, it’ll be too late.
The Ones Who Won’t
Take the small-town Republican from Ohio who should be MAGA by every demographic marker—pickup truck, church every Sunday, straight GOP for twenty years. But her childhood best friend came out as trans, and suddenly the culture war had a face she loved. Now she’s at city council meetings defending the very people she once thoughtlessly condemned. The MAGA crowd calls her a traitor. She calls it friendship.
There are others in the feeds who will never go MAGA, no matter what. They’re not necessarily the most educated or the most politically engaged. They’re not defined by their demographics or their stated beliefs.
They’re the ones who have something the MAGA-susceptible lack: a genuine comfort with complexity and nuance, an ability to tolerate uncertainty, and a fundamental respect for other people’s humanity. They don’t need to believe they’re special or superior. They have the same insecurities others have, but they don’t blame others for them. They don’t need enemies to blame for their problems. They don’t need simple answers to complicated questions.
They’re the teacher who posts about her students’ achievements without making it about herself. They’re the small business owner who pays his workers well because he knows it’s right and actually better for business, not because he has to. They’re the veteran who talks about service without wrapping it in nationalism. They’re the parent who worries about their kids without blaming teachers for everything.
They’re the people who can say “I don’t know” without feeling diminished. They’re the ones who can admit they were wrong without feeling attacked. They’re the ones who can see others succeed without feeling threatened.
The Pattern
The pattern is clear once you know what to look for. MAGA appeals to people who need to feel special, who need enemies to blame, who need simple answers to complex problems. It attracts those who mistake confidence for competence, who confuse being loud with being right, who think that admitting uncertainty is weakness.
It’s not about education or geography or even politics. It’s about character. It’s about whether you can tolerate complexity, whether you can admit mistakes, whether you can see other people as fully human.
The scary thing about MAGA isn’t that it’s obviously evil—it’s that it’s appealing to people who think they’re good. It offers them a way to feel righteous about their resentments, patriotic about their prejudices, and principled about their selfishness.
But the good news is that character isn’t fixed. People can change. They can learn to tolerate uncertainty, to admit mistakes, to see others as human. They can develop the emotional and intellectual tools to resist fascist appeals.
The question is whether they will—and whether the rest of us will help them, or just watch them scroll deeper into the darkness.
The game continues. The stakes keep rising. And the feeds keep feeding us exactly what we want to hear.
Filed Under: dorothy thompson, fascism, maga, who goes maga, who goes nazi
