Not an American but support Trump from afar. Genuine curiosity here—if you were to steelman the rational Trump supporter, what would you say? (happy for pushback in the ensuing discussion).
Sure, I’ll attempt a steelman. I don’t know how well I’ll do, and the purpose of this question is to help me understand so I could do better, but why not have a before/after version. So here’s my initial attempt at a steelman (I guess it ended up being more “honest” than a normal steelman, more like “channeling” a rational Trump supporter.)
Ok, is Trump actually a genius? No. Is he the smartest, most moral, or otherwise flawless candidate? No. But I don’t need a role model to be President, I need someone who will create change, and Trump, more than any politician in my voting lifetime has offered a credible promise of change. Despite all the “Hope and Change” every politician promises, they only ever got to their current position by conforming to the current system and not rocking the boat. Trump is the first politician who got there by being independently wealthy and popular in the real world, outside of the political machine. And yeah, I’d support Musk or someone else who ran for office like that. I even liked Yang, though he had some ideas that were kind of out there for me. Trump doesn’t just promise change—he is a change from the norm.
Why do I want change? I don’t know—call me an optimist, but I gotta think we can do better than this. Maybe I’ve just bought the propaganda, but I believe that there was a time when hard work paid off, and people valued family more than appearances, and I feel like we’ve lost that. It feels like people who didn’t work hard are getting ahead while people who are working are falling behind, and I keep hearing more virtue signalling and people obsessed with social media. I’m willing to roll the dice on seeing what someone from outside the system can do.
So yeah, I can give you tons of reasons why Trump is a better vote, and I believe them too, but the real reason I support him is because he has shown that he is willing to take real action, even if people don’t like it. As self-aggrandizing as he can be, he’s not spending his career virtue signalling, he is willing to step on toes, and he will actually put America first.
Abortion If you believe abortion is immoral, then Trump’s greatest accomplishment during his last term was to appoint conservative supreme court judges which gave the ability to ban abortion to the states. This lead to several states placing heavy restrictions on abortions. If Trump wins again, abortion might even be restricted nationally, as Trump has declined to say whether he’ll veto such a bill.
Immigration The US has seen an increase in illegal immigration during Biden’s presidential term. There are many factors that influenced this, but if Trump was President then it would probably be lower. For example, he wants to use the military to deport people, something I don’t believe a democratic candidate would do.
Israel/Palestine A war is happening in the middle east, and though the US is supporting Israel, their support is partial, and they express support for Palestinians too. They are sanctioning settlers and being affected by democratic voters who don’t support Israel. Trump would be more pro-Israel and would not cave in to pressure; he would even jail protesters who burn flags.
Winning The democratic party cares about laws and democratic norms. Trump cares about winning. Sometimes you have to have a guy that tries to win, no matter what. If cartels are affecting the US, bomb Mexico. If there’s a war in Europe, force a peace deal. If bad people win the election, use fake electors. If you break the law, become immune. Elect a leader who does whatever it takes to win, and then the US will win too.
“Winning The democratic party cares about laws and democratic norms. Trump cares about winning.”
I doubt that you passed the IIT. I presume MAGA republicans would say that they’re the ones that care about Freedom and Democracy while the democrats are the two-faced cronies of the Deep State.
Yeah maybe. I tried to write what I think is true, but from the perspective of someone with different values. If I included things I didn’t think were true then that feels like I’m mocking Trump supporters and I don’t want to do that. For example: “The democrats are letting in immigrants who are eating cats and dogs, people’s pets. Trump would stop this”. Obviously it’s a belief held by MAGAs, and if it was true then it’s a good argument to vote for Trump. But I don’t think it’s true, and therefore it’s a very bad argument.
I highly doubt anywhere near the majority of Trump supporters (or even Trump himself) give any credence to the literal truth of those claims. It’s much more likely that they simply don’t care whether it’s literally true or not, because they feel that the “underlying” is true or something of the kind. When it comes to hearsay, people are much more forgiving of literal falsehoods, especially when they acknowledge there is a kind of “metatruth” to it. To give an easy analogue, of all the criticism I’ve heard of Christianity, not once have I heard anyone complain that the parables told by Jesus weren’t literally true, for example. (I do believe my account here passes the IIT for both groups, btw.)
A steelman is not necessarily an ITT, but whenever you find yourself having “0% support” for a position ~half the population supports, it’s almost guaranteed that the ITT will be a steelman of your current understanding of the position.
This is a pretty good example of the dangers of steel-manning I think. The disagreement, on the face of it, seems to revolve around both values and truth claims.
It seems there is a pretty substantial disagreement between you and MAGA republicans on which of the two parties are most subverting due process and democracy. [ see the rethoric around ‘the swamp’, ‘deep state’ , ‘lawfare’ and the Trump assasination attempts etc]
I would guess that this is plausibly the largest crux between you and MAGA republicans. I would be skeptical you can have a real dialogue with a MAGA republican if you deny this part of the disagreement.
Not an American but support Trump from afar. Genuine curiosity here—if you were to steelman the rational Trump supporter, what would you say? (happy for pushback in the ensuing discussion).
Sure, I’ll attempt a steelman. I don’t know how well I’ll do, and the purpose of this question is to help me understand so I could do better, but why not have a before/after version. So here’s my initial attempt at a steelman (I guess it ended up being more “honest” than a normal steelman, more like “channeling” a rational Trump supporter.)
Ok, is Trump actually a genius? No. Is he the smartest, most moral, or otherwise flawless candidate? No. But I don’t need a role model to be President, I need someone who will create change, and Trump, more than any politician in my voting lifetime has offered a credible promise of change. Despite all the “Hope and Change” every politician promises, they only ever got to their current position by conforming to the current system and not rocking the boat. Trump is the first politician who got there by being independently wealthy and popular in the real world, outside of the political machine. And yeah, I’d support Musk or someone else who ran for office like that. I even liked Yang, though he had some ideas that were kind of out there for me. Trump doesn’t just promise change—he is a change from the norm.
Why do I want change? I don’t know—call me an optimist, but I gotta think we can do better than this. Maybe I’ve just bought the propaganda, but I believe that there was a time when hard work paid off, and people valued family more than appearances, and I feel like we’ve lost that. It feels like people who didn’t work hard are getting ahead while people who are working are falling behind, and I keep hearing more virtue signalling and people obsessed with social media. I’m willing to roll the dice on seeing what someone from outside the system can do.
So yeah, I can give you tons of reasons why Trump is a better vote, and I believe them too, but the real reason I support him is because he has shown that he is willing to take real action, even if people don’t like it. As self-aggrandizing as he can be, he’s not spending his career virtue signalling, he is willing to step on toes, and he will actually put America first.
Here’s a steelman:
Abortion If you believe abortion is immoral, then Trump’s greatest accomplishment during his last term was to appoint conservative supreme court judges which gave the ability to ban abortion to the states. This lead to several states placing heavy restrictions on abortions. If Trump wins again, abortion might even be restricted nationally, as Trump has declined to say whether he’ll veto such a bill.
Immigration The US has seen an increase in illegal immigration during Biden’s presidential term. There are many factors that influenced this, but if Trump was President then it would probably be lower. For example, he wants to use the military to deport people, something I don’t believe a democratic candidate would do.
Israel/Palestine A war is happening in the middle east, and though the US is supporting Israel, their support is partial, and they express support for Palestinians too. They are sanctioning settlers and being affected by democratic voters who don’t support Israel. Trump would be more pro-Israel and would not cave in to pressure; he would even jail protesters who burn flags.
Winning The democratic party cares about laws and democratic norms. Trump cares about winning. Sometimes you have to have a guy that tries to win, no matter what. If cartels are affecting the US, bomb Mexico. If there’s a war in Europe, force a peace deal. If bad people win the election, use fake electors. If you break the law, become immune. Elect a leader who does whatever it takes to win, and then the US will win too.
“Winning The democratic party cares about laws and democratic norms. Trump cares about winning.”
I doubt that you passed the IIT. I presume MAGA republicans would say that they’re the ones that care about Freedom and Democracy while the democrats are the two-faced cronies of the Deep State.
Yeah maybe. I tried to write what I think is true, but from the perspective of someone with different values. If I included things I didn’t think were true then that feels like I’m mocking Trump supporters and I don’t want to do that. For example: “The democrats are letting in immigrants who are eating cats and dogs, people’s pets. Trump would stop this”. Obviously it’s a belief held by MAGAs, and if it was true then it’s a good argument to vote for Trump. But I don’t think it’s true, and therefore it’s a very bad argument.
I highly doubt anywhere near the majority of Trump supporters (or even Trump himself) give any credence to the literal truth of those claims. It’s much more likely that they simply don’t care whether it’s literally true or not, because they feel that the “underlying” is true or something of the kind. When it comes to hearsay, people are much more forgiving of literal falsehoods, especially when they acknowledge there is a kind of “metatruth” to it. To give an easy analogue, of all the criticism I’ve heard of Christianity, not once have I heard anyone complain that the parables told by Jesus weren’t literally true, for example. (I do believe my account here passes the IIT for both groups, btw.)
A steelman is not necessarily an ITT. The ITT for any “average X supporter” is always going to be very underwhelming.
A steelman is not necessarily an ITT, but whenever you find yourself having “0% support” for a position ~half the population supports, it’s almost guaranteed that the ITT will be a steelman of your current understanding of the position.
This is a pretty good example of the dangers of steel-manning I think. The disagreement, on the face of it, seems to revolve around both values and truth claims.
It seems there is a pretty substantial disagreement between you and MAGA republicans on which of the two parties are most subverting due process and democracy. [ see the rethoric around ‘the swamp’, ‘deep state’ , ‘lawfare’ and the Trump assasination attempts etc]
I would guess that this is plausibly the largest crux between you and MAGA republicans. I would be skeptical you can have a real dialogue with a MAGA republican if you deny this part of the disagreement.
@Pazzaz That’s the Ideological Turing Test. I agree that really ought have been written out in full.