They're not being conned, they're in on the con. Notice how there is nothing consistently rational about the messaging. The issues they're concerned about and what they say they want done about them all change daily. But they all point in one direction.
They've identified themselves as the in-group, they've identified the out-groups, and they want to stomp all over those out-groups and take everything they've got. Their money, their dignity, their lives. Whatever proves that they're on top.
Remember the second part of that LBJ quote:
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
They know the consequences and they're willing to risk it. Calling them idiots does not prepare us to deal with the situation in which we find ourselves now.
I made a shit comment, I'll admit. It's just frustrating to see multiple top-level comments in meme, 196, and shit post threads shitting all over a clever joke because of a technicality. It's a fucking giraffe, this is not a PSA.
That's essentially what practice is. We're all pretending to be something we're not until we become that thing. Anything you can practice, you can do. Keep at it.
Ah, yes! Another joke solved by Lemmy! Thank God nobody has to laugh at this amusing thought anymore. What an upsetting situation that would have been.
I think we're just kind of bad at evaluating risks of a relatively low order. In the US, E coli kills some 3000 people a year, and most of us have exposure to that risk. It might just be that people don't see much of a difference between chances in the range of, say, 0.1% and 0.00001% of serious illness.
You might as well just use sandpaper.