As you all would know I have a curiosity more than a vested interested over US electoral outcomes. As noted previously many people fall victim to conspiracy theories and madness of the crowd. But this still feels a bit shallow when watching Fox News, majority of GOP and MAGA who still wilfully avoid the facts and subvert via false messaging.
I recently came across what I think best explains the MAGA phenomena - Winthrop Kellogg's Ape Experiment
In the early 1930s, comparative psychologist Winthrop Kellogg and his wife welcomed a healthy baby boy they named Donald. The psychologist had grown interested in those stories of children who were raised feral—but he didn’t send Donald to be raised by wolves. He did the opposite: He managed to get his hands on a similar-aged baby chimp named Gua and raised her alongside Donald.
Gua initially did better than Donald in tests that included things like memory, scribbling, strength, dexterity, reflexes, problem-solving, climbing, language comprehension, and more. But she eventually plateaued, and it became evident that no amount of equal treatment was going to make her behave more like a human (for example, she was never going to be able to speak English).
But when the Kelloggs ended the experiment, they did so abruptly and without much explanation, which is contrary to the meticulous records they otherwise took throughout the course of the study.
While Gua wasn’t showing any signs of picking up English, Donald had started to imitate the vocalizations of his sister from another species—so it’s not hard to speculate why the Kelloggs called it quits.
