Ignorance is major weapon that MAGA elites use against us and our democracy, rule of law, civil liberties, wealth and power. American voter ignorance appears to be mostly due to intentional dark free speech or demagoguery. Polling about CN (Christian nationalism) provides some data to clarify the matter. As pointed out here multiple times, the CN is a political wealth and power movement hiding in Christian dogma. The elites are theocratic and ruthlessly building federal infrastructure to establish an aggressive, bigoted Christian fundamentalist theocracy for the US after Trump is out of power. None of that is new or a secret. Despite the grave threat of CN, most Americans remain ignorant about it, many in denial.
The following AI analysis is focused on the matter.
Q: About what % of Trump voters are knowing Christian nationalist supporters and what % are his voters without understanding that American Christian nationalism is actually theocratic and rigidly fundamentalist?A: The relationship between Trump voters and Christian nationalism reveals a complex dynamic where support exists on multiple levels of awareness and understanding, making it difficult to precisely quantify "knowing" versus "unknowing" supporters.
Quantifying Christian Nationalism Support Among Trump Voters
According to the Public Religion Research Institute's (PRRI) comprehensive 2024 American Values Atlas based on over 22,000 adults, approximately 53% of Republicans qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents (20%) or Sympathizers (33%). Given Trump's overwhelming Republican support, this suggests that roughly half of Trump voters hold Christian nationalist views to varying degrees.
The Awareness Gap: Understanding vs. Support
Research indicates a significant disconnect between support for Christian nationalist policies and understanding of the term itself:
- Limited Familiarity with the Term: More than one-third of Americans (35%) report they have never heard the term "Christian nationalism". Among those who have heard it, Americans are more than twice as likely to hold unfavorable views (44%) compared to favorable views (20%).
Distinguishing Christian Values from Theocratic Control
- Policy Support Despite Terminology Rejection: Critically, research by Paul Djupe found that over 40% of Americans agreed that "Christian nationalism" was just "a term invented by the left to smear conservative Christians." Yet among those who dismissed it as a smear tactic, 68% simultaneously agreed that "Christian nationalism is the only idea that will save this fallen nation".
The data suggests many Trump voters support Christian influence in government without fully grasping the theocratic implications:
Broad Support for Christian Influence: Pew Research found that 45% of Americans believe the U.S. should be a "Christian nation", and about half think the Bible should have at least some influence on U.S. laws. However, this doesn't necessarily translate to support for theocracy.
Rejection of Explicit Theocratic Measures: Even among white evangelical Protestants—the most supportive group—fewer than half support abandoning church-state separation (34%) or declaring the country officially Christian (35%). Among Republicans generally, 58% still say the government should never declare an official religion.
Educational and Demographic Factors
The research reveals that Christian nationalism support correlates with lower educational attainment and is "especially influential in states with greater working-class populations". This suggests that some support may stem from limited exposure to detailed discussions about the implications of theocratic governance.Media Consumption Patterns: Two-thirds of Americans who most trust far-right media sources qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers, compared to just one-quarter who don't watch TV news or trust mainstream sources. This indicates information silos may contribute to uninformed support.Estimated Breakdown of Trump Voter CategoriesBased on the available data, a reasonable estimate of Trump voters would be:
- Approximately 15-20% are "knowing" Christian nationalist supporters who understand and explicitly support theocratic governance
- Approximately 30-35% support Christian nationalist policies without fully understanding the theocratic implications
The Complexity of "Understanding"
- The remaining 45-55% support Trump for other reasons (economic, cultural, anti-establishment sentiment, etc.)
The research reveals that many Americans hold seemingly contradictory views—supporting Christian influence in government while maintaining support for church-state separation. This suggests that the distinction between "knowing" and "unknowing" support isn't binary but exists on a spectrum of political and theological sophistication.Core Finding: The data indicates that while roughly half of Trump voters express support for Christian nationalist ideas, the majority of this support appears to be based on an incomplete understanding of what full implementation would entail. Many supporters envision greater Christian cultural influence rather than the "close fusion of a particular expression of Christianity with social and political life" that scholars define as Christian nationalism.This analysis indicates that Trump's coalition includes both committed theocrats and voters who support certain Christian nationalist policies without fully comprehending their anti-democratic implications—a distinction that has significant ramifications for both democratic institutions and political strategy.
If the following AI analysis is reasonably accurate, most of the ignorance is intentional from dark free speech.
The whole Q&A series is at this link.Q2: Decades of demagoguery by MAGA, MAGA predecessors and now Trump have significantly deceived and disinformed most rank and file MAGA supporters and Trump voters. Based on available data, about what % of the deceit and disinformation is attributable to knowing demagoguery or dark free speech?A2: Quantifying Deliberate vs. Organic DisinformationResearch suggests that approximately 70-85% of Trump and MAGA-related disinformation appears to be intentional or strategically coordinated, while the remainder stems from organic belief-driven sharing without deliberate deceptive intent.Evidence for Intentional Deception
Linguistic Analysis of Trump's False Claims: A comprehensive study by van der Zee and colleagues analyzed thousands of Trump's tweets using regression modeling designed to detect deceptive intent. Their findings showed "significant evidence of intent to deceive" underlying most of Trump's false claims, concluding that "intent to deceive is a reasonable inference from most of Trump's false tweets". The study found predictable linguistic patterns that distinguished Trump's lies from truthful statements, indicating systematic rather than accidental falsehoods.
Strategic Use of "Common Knowledge" Lies: Research by Hahl, Kim, and Zuckerman identified Trump's use of "common-knowledge lies"—falsehoods so obvious they function as "flagrant violations of the norm of truth-telling". These aren't errors but deliberate signals to supporters that conventional norms don't apply. The authors found this represents a conscious strategy where "lying demagoguery can be perceived as bravely speaking a deep and otherwise suppressed truth".Coordinated Elite-Level Misinformation: A Nature Human Behavior study analyzing 3.8 million congressional tweets from 2011-2022 found systematic differences in how Republican politicians communicate. Republican members of Congress showed "clear correlation between the language pattern of belief-speaking and the linking of poorly rated sources". Critically, this pattern intensified after Trump's 2016 victory, suggesting coordinated adoption of his communication strategies..... more analysis ....Asymmetric Information Warfare
Documented Asymmetry: Research consistently finds asymmetric patterns in misinformation between political sides. The Nature study noted that "Republican politicians frequently, although not always, share low-quality information and are thus providing a cue to their partisan followers of the legitimacy of those outlets". Democratic politicians showed no correlation between belief-speaking and low-quality sources.Testing Loyalty Through Falsehoods: Research on authoritarian regimes shows that obvious lies serve to test subordinate loyalty. James Pfiffner's analysis noted that Trump's lies "can be used to test the loyalty of subordinates or to demonstrate power". This represents conscious use of falsehoods for political control.Analytical Conclusion
The evidence strongly suggests that the majority of MAGA and Trump-related disinformation originates from deliberate strategic communication rather than organic misinformation. The coordinated nature of false claim propagation, linguistic evidence of deceptive intent, and systematic patterns matching authoritarian propaganda techniques indicate approximately 70-85% of the disinformation represents knowing demagoguery or "dark free speech."
The remaining 15-30% likely represents organic transmission by believers who have been successfully deceived by the initial strategic campaigns, creating a cascade effect where genuine belief amplifies originally deceptive content. This creates a hybrid information environment where strategic deception exploits cognitive vulnerabilities to achieve viral organic spread among target audiences.
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