Why do some people cling to a single, rigid worldview while others adapt and innovate? Why do political ideologies reflect not only our values but also the ways we create our realities?
The MAGA Mind represents an extreme perspective: people with this mindset explain every social problem as the work of hostile forces that block personal freedom and prosperity. Remove those forces, the argument goes, and life will return to a promised land.
Who can defeat the dark enemies lurking about in MAGA land? According to this mindset, only an all-powerful strongman—emphatically a man—can “fix” everything that holds us back.
Unpuzzling the MAGA Mind is a series of posts that will investigate how conservative and liberal worldviews form. Instead of simply replaying today’s loudest culture-war clashes, it asks a deeper question:
When people see the world so differently, the real question isn’t what they think, but how they think.
Through a series of posts, I will trace the roots of conservative vs. liberal mindsets—genes, brain, family upbringing, social networks, and wider culture—to show how thinking patterns become beliefs – and why these thinking mindsets are so difficult to change.
By comparing the MAGA mindset with alternative ways of seeing the world, the series aims to equip you to engage more constructively with people whose convictions seem worlds apart from your own.
