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Originally Posted by Itse
There's no spell. There is also no such thing as "voting against ones interest". It's just that people's interests quite often are not what you think they "should be".
Personal financial interests just aren't a top voting priority for most people.
For example, let's look at that abortion vs. minimum wage thing.
That's a "do I want money for myself, if the price for it is countless babies dying" question. (Assuming you have a pro-life beliefs that is.) You have to be borderline sociopath to choose your own finances in that situation.
It's also just flat out wrong to say that this is specifically some working class thing.
Voting against a "higher minimum wage" candidate because of abortion is the exact same thing as when white upper middle-class people absolutely refuse to vote for tax-cutting candidate because they think he's a horrible racist, even when that would clearly be in their personal financial interest.
In fact it's the same thing than when any white person votes against a racist candidate. It would clearly be, on average, very much in the personal interest of white people to vote for white supremacy.
Yet pretty much nobody thinks like that. Personal benefit isn't even the reason white supremacists support white supremacy. They tend to quite genuinely believe they are doing it for the benefit of their children, and women, and the country in general.
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I’d disagree with you that pro lifers choose the anti-abortion candidate instead of a minimum wage candidate. They choose the anti abortion candidate AND the anti minimum wage candidate.
I would bet if you asked most Republican leaning low income voters if minimum wage should be raised you would get a no. One because it would kill jobs but secondly people earning between minimum wage and the proposed $15 wouldn’t want to be making minimum wage like those “others”. They are better than those minimum wage earners. That and team sports. My team holds these dogmatic beliefs therefore I hold these dogmatic beliefs.
I know that I have to really think about why I hold certain views. Some of that thinking is likely just rationalizing an emotional response. In general people vote with emotion rather than practicality. Blame the other vote for my team.
Even people voting against Trump likely voted against him because they hate him then rationally evaluating foreign policy on if giving up being the worlds police is a positive or negative outcome or if Stella and aluminum tarries and the Chinese trade war have a beneficial or negative affect on them or the United States personally. Even with Covid you likely split based on being afraid of Covid vs denying Covid rather than a rational analysis of Trumps failed Covid policy.
The emotional choice I think comes first followed by rationalization.