Opinion | Trump Is Staking Out His Own Universe of ‘Alternative Facts’ - The New York Times

In less than a year... weekly church-attending white Protestants convinced that Donald Trump was anointed by God to be president grew from 29.6 percent to 49.5 percent... Capitalizing on that devotion is integral to Trump’s re-election ...

all-enveloping digital campaign website... campaign app... a self-contained, self-reinforcing arena where Trump reigns supreme, and the campaign gets detailed marketing information ... designed on the Vegas principle, “purposefully built to keep gamblers inside and at the table.”... inside an ecosystem of dangerous misinformation, conspiracy theories, and grievance politics... while making the experience fun and exciting ... millions of voters willingly enter this arena....

gamification to drive voter outreach and valuable data collection... Share the campaign app with a friend, win 100 points... Earn 100,000 points, and you can get a picture with President Donald Trump... watch live ‘shows’ hosted by senior campaign aides ... who explains how to become a “digital activist” on social media and host a “MAGA meet up.” ... freed of the constraints of television or campaign rallies ... an echo chamber for true believers ...

reasons for the appeal of the demagogue; the role of anger .... the political dark triad of psychopathy, Machiavellianism and narcissism ... one side of a social divide regards the political system as flawed or illegitimate... that “publicly-endorsed norms are imposed rather than freely chosen... lying demagogue claims to be an authentic champion ... The more Trump ... antagonize the establishment ... the more credible is his claim ... because he is angry at the ‘right’ people...

Anxiety ... causes them to re-evaluate their beliefs... When people are angry they tend to mentally retreat and dig in ... ideal candidates to enter Trump’s digital universe, the realm of suspended belief ... insulated from mounting claims of administration failures ...

people hate ambiguity... Trump’s ability to convey conviction, even when saying things that are demonstrably false, is critically important... research shows “political conservatism being negatively correlated with tolerance to uncertainty... conservative voters enjoy Trump’s simple and ‘certain’ declarations...

How can Trump maintain this certitude ... Narcissism predicts lower levels of knowledge but higher levels of engagement... overestimate their own abilities in politics ...

a vast extended network of digital and other media ... strengthen the collective identity of the right ... generate internally consistent narratives ... deflect criticism... strengthen political and social divisions, undermine opponents, and provide people with identity and ideational resources to refute counter-narratives ...

pandemic has created an aura of chaos... fear is pervasive... hunger for safety and shelter... Trump’s self-referential, illusory, confected, digital-marketing universe offer a solution