Crunchy MAGA: The New Right of the 2020s.

[Anonymous]

This will be a long post, bear with me if you feel like it.

Let me begin by telling you about my high school best friend. (FWIW: We are still best friends)

She lives in an exurban, coastal town in a blue state. She is mostly vegetarian, was a vegan for a time. Buys all her food from a local organic farmers market, gets eggs from her neighbor's free range chickens. Has an organic vegetable garden. She uses a compost bucket, meticulously sorts through what can be composted, recycled, reused, tossed out. Her late father built the house she and her family (husband, elderly mother) live in, and they installed their own solar panels. During her walks on the beach, she always picks up litter, including the tiniest piece of plastic she might come across. She once stopped her walk to attempt to help free an injured dragonfly caught in some seaweed.
She collects cultures for fermented foods like saurkraut, makes her own kombucha. Her mother gathers herbs and such, sourcing the best natural health remedies to their knowledge. As a side gig (she's a high school literature teacher), she does massage therapy. She practices yoga, avoids products with too many artificial ingredients, prefers to cover up in the sun rather than use sunscreen because of its ingredients. Never uses any plastic bottles.

Anyways... 5-10 years ago, you might assume by these left, liberal-coded aesthetics, she would be somewhat of a progressive Democrat.
In fact, she is a Trump supporter, and pretty far right politically.

This decade, I have notice something bizarre that I am only beginning to understand: the connections between the MAGA right and the granola, hippie, back-to-nature cohort. So much of it still doesn't make sense: If you love nature, the environment, health, animals so much, why would you vote for the political party that wants to destroy so much of it?

Some attribute this phenomenon to horseshoe theory... look no farther than a sizeable collection of Bernie supporters that have turned into far-right MAGA influences: Tulsi Gabbard, Jimmy Dore, Jackson Hinkle, the Red Scare podcast to name a few.

My friend has never really fit into that category though. She's been right-leaning apolitical her whole life. The common thread is being anti-government. Think Laura Ingalls Wilder-type libertarian. I can live off the land, I don't need the government to tell me what to do. I can do it myself.
At the same time, people like my high school friend have a similar distaste for the influence of large corporations as they do to Big Government. She would often criticize the omnipresence of marketing, advertising, brand names everywhere, plus technology addiction. But she wouldn't go far as to denounce capitalism - her father was a small business owner. She viewed things from the perspective that small businesses could and should handle things on their own, that large corporations AND government regulation were always getting in the way. Plus, she always had a view that poor people aren't "owed" anything. If you can't afford to live in her upscale beach community, then too bad, don't expect government subsidized housing or any other kind of handout. But voluntary generosity and kindness are virtues.

It's obvious why this aesthetic shift... "crunchy granola hippie Yoga moms" shifted from vagely leftwing to MAGA in 2020: Covid and vaccines. My friend believes in natural remedies first and has never been vaccinated, at least not for covid or the annual flu. And she, like others, have never forgiven Democratic-run governments for what they believe is severe overreach during the early stages of the pandemic. I don't need to explain this further.

2020 was the tipping point for many people like my friend and others, including some that may have been vaguely left-leaning, if not all-out Bernie supporters, to become all in on MAGA, rightwing populism.
Conservative, right, and MAGA are "counterculture."
Democrat, liberal, and especially, Biden are mainstream, corporate, corrupt, and value only obedience and submission. They are now "The Man."

Of course I can poke a bazillion holes in this narrative, but that doesn't matter. This is what they believe. And it's so frustrating, because there are a ton of issues that I would actually agree with them on. Take my friend for instance: we agree that people and corporations pollute too much, that animals should be cared for, that microplastics are a problem, that we fund too much war, that people are too addicted to technology. But the counter-"Narrative" narrative is that the Democrats now represent the toxic, elite marriage of Big Government, Big Tech, Hollywood, the Military-Industrial Complex, and everything that's bad, and that the simple, wholesome people living off the land are what The Left wants to stomp out.

[Anonymous]

Plus, she always had a view that poor people aren't "owed" anything. If you can't afford to live in her upscale beach community, then too bad, don't expect government subsidized housing or any other kind of handout. But voluntary generosity and kindness are virtues.

Interesting narrative - thanks for sharing. Totally agree with above view.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This will be a long post, bear with me if you feel like it.

Let me begin by telling you about my high school best friend. (FWIW: We are still best friends)

She lives in an exurban, coastal town in a blue state. She is mostly vegetarian, was a vegan for a time. Buys all her food from a local organic farmers market, gets eggs from her neighbor's free range chickens. Has an organic vegetable garden. She uses a compost bucket, meticulously sorts through what can be composted, recycled, reused, tossed out. Her late father built the house she and her family (husband, elderly mother) live in, and they installed their own solar panels. During her walks on the beach, she always picks up litter, including the tiniest piece of plastic she might come across. She once stopped her walk to attempt to help free an injured dragonfly caught in some seaweed.
She collects cultures for fermented foods like saurkraut, makes her own kombucha. Her mother gathers herbs and such, sourcing the best natural health remedies to their knowledge. As a side gig (she's a high school literature teacher), she does massage therapy. She practices yoga, avoids products with too many artificial ingredients, prefers to cover up in the sun rather than use sunscreen because of its ingredients. Never uses any plastic bottles.

Anyways... 5-10 years ago, you might assume by these left, liberal-coded aesthetics, she would be somewhat of a progressive Democrat.
In fact, she is a Trump supporter, and pretty far right politically.

This decade, I have notice something bizarre that I am only beginning to understand: the connections between the MAGA right and the granola, hippie, back-to-nature cohort. So much of it still doesn't make sense: If you love nature, the environment, health, animals so much, why would you vote for the political party that wants to destroy so much of it?

Some attribute this phenomenon to horseshoe theory... look no farther than a sizeable collection of Bernie supporters that have turned into far-right MAGA influences: Tulsi Gabbard, Jimmy Dore, Jackson Hinkle, the Red Scare podcast to name a few.

My friend has never really fit into that category though. She's been right-leaning apolitical her whole life. The common thread is being anti-government. Think Laura Ingalls Wilder-type libertarian. I can live off the land, I don't need the government to tell me what to do. I can do it myself.
At the same time, people like my high school friend have a similar distaste for the influence of large corporations as they do to Big Government. She would often criticize the omnipresence of marketing, advertising, brand names everywhere, plus technology addiction. But she wouldn't go far as to denounce capitalism - her father was a small business owner. She viewed things from the perspective that small businesses could and should handle things on their own, that large corporations AND government regulation were always getting in the way. Plus, she always had a view that poor people aren't "owed" anything. If you can't afford to live in her upscale beach community, then too bad, don't expect government subsidized housing or any other kind of handout. But voluntary generosity and kindness are virtues.

It's obvious why this aesthetic shift... "crunchy granola hippie Yoga moms" shifted from vagely leftwing to MAGA in 2020: Covid and vaccines. My friend believes in natural remedies first and has never been vaccinated, at least not for covid or the annual flu. And she, like others, have never forgiven Democratic-run governments for what they believe is severe overreach during the early stages of the pandemic. I don't need to explain this further.

2020 was the tipping point for many people like my friend and others, including some that may have been vaguely left-leaning, if not all-out Bernie supporters, to become all in on MAGA, rightwing populism.
Conservative, right, and MAGA are "counterculture."
Democrat, liberal, and especially, Biden are mainstream, corporate, corrupt, and value only obedience and submission. They are now "The Man."

Of course I can poke a bazillion holes in this narrative, but that doesn't matter. This is what they believe. And it's so frustrating, because there are a ton of issues that I would actually agree with them on. Take my friend for instance: we agree that people and corporations pollute too much, that animals should be cared for, that microplastics are a problem, that we fund too much war, that people are too addicted to technology. But the counter-"Narrative" narrative is that the Democrats now represent the toxic, elite marriage of Big Government, Big Tech, Hollywood, the Military-Industrial Complex, and everything that's bad, and that the simple, wholesome people living off the land are what The Left wants to stomp out.

You friend sounds like she's a critical think that deals in logic, not sure the same can be said about you.

"Democrat, liberal, and especially, Biden are mainstream, corporate, corrupt, and value only obedience and submission. They are now "The Man."

This statement is absolutely true and the dims have been exposed, you not believing it is telling. You are a lefty sycophant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will be a long post, bear with me if you feel like it.

Let me begin by telling you about my high school best friend. (FWIW: We are still best friends)

She lives in an exurban, coastal town in a blue state. She is mostly vegetarian, was a vegan for a time. Buys all her food from a local organic farmers market, gets eggs from her neighbor's free range chickens. Has an organic vegetable garden. She uses a compost bucket, meticulously sorts through what can be composted, recycled, reused, tossed out. Her late father built the house she and her family (husband, elderly mother) live in, and they installed their own solar panels. During her walks on the beach, she always picks up litter, including the tiniest piece of plastic she might come across. She once stopped her walk to attempt to help free an injured dragonfly caught in some seaweed.
She collects cultures for fermented foods like saurkraut, makes her own kombucha. Her mother gathers herbs and such, sourcing the best natural health remedies to their knowledge. As a side gig (she's a high school literature teacher), she does massage therapy. She practices yoga, avoids products with too many artificial ingredients, prefers to cover up in the sun rather than use sunscreen because of its ingredients. Never uses any plastic bottles.

Anyways... 5-10 years ago, you might assume by these left, liberal-coded aesthetics, she would be somewhat of a progressive Democrat.
In fact, she is a Trump supporter, and pretty far right politically.

This decade, I have notice something bizarre that I am only beginning to understand: the connections between the MAGA right and the granola, hippie, back-to-nature cohort. So much of it still doesn't make sense: If you love nature, the environment, health, animals so much, why would you vote for the political party that wants to destroy so much of it?

Some attribute this phenomenon to horseshoe theory... look no farther than a sizeable collection of Bernie supporters that have turned into far-right MAGA influences: Tulsi Gabbard, Jimmy Dore, Jackson Hinkle, the Red Scare podcast to name a few.

My friend has never really fit into that category though. She's been right-leaning apolitical her whole life. The common thread is being anti-government. Think Laura Ingalls Wilder-type libertarian. I can live off the land, I don't need the government to tell me what to do. I can do it myself.
At the same time, people like my high school friend have a similar distaste for the influence of large corporations as they do to Big Government. She would often criticize the omnipresence of marketing, advertising, brand names everywhere, plus technology addiction. But she wouldn't go far as to denounce capitalism - her father was a small business owner. She viewed things from the perspective that small businesses could and should handle things on their own, that large corporations AND government regulation were always getting in the way. Plus, she always had a view that poor people aren't "owed" anything. If you can't afford to live in her upscale beach community, then too bad, don't expect government subsidized housing or any other kind of handout. But voluntary generosity and kindness are virtues.

It's obvious why this aesthetic shift... "crunchy granola hippie Yoga moms" shifted from vagely leftwing to MAGA in 2020: Covid and vaccines. My friend believes in natural remedies first and has never been vaccinated, at least not for covid or the annual flu. And she, like others, have never forgiven Democratic-run governments for what they believe is severe overreach during the early stages of the pandemic. I don't need to explain this further.

2020 was the tipping point for many people like my friend and others, including some that may have been vaguely left-leaning, if not all-out Bernie supporters, to become all in on MAGA, rightwing populism.
Conservative, right, and MAGA are "counterculture."
Democrat, liberal, and especially, Biden are mainstream, corporate, corrupt, and value only obedience and submission. They are now "The Man."

Of course I can poke a bazillion holes in this narrative, but that doesn't matter. This is what they believe. And it's so frustrating, because there are a ton of issues that I would actually agree with them on. Take my friend for instance: we agree that people and corporations pollute too much, that animals should be cared for, that microplastics are a problem, that we fund too much war, that people are too addicted to technology. But the counter-"Narrative" narrative is that the Democrats now represent the toxic, elite marriage of Big Government, Big Tech, Hollywood, the Military-Industrial Complex, and everything that's bad, and that the simple, wholesome people living off the land are what The Left wants to stomp out.

You friend sounds like she's a critical think that deals in logic, not sure the same can be said about you.

"Democrat, liberal, and especially, Biden are mainstream, corporate, corrupt, and value only obedience and submission. They are now "The Man."

This statement is absolutely true and the dims have been exposed, you not believing it is telling. You are a lefty sycophant.

Hit the nail on the head. I’m also a former Bernie fan and I’ll be enthusiastically voting for Trump in November.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like your friend has lots in common with disillusioned Democrats like myself. We are far left progressive but are tired of the failures and empty promises of the Dem Party .

Much like the Reagan Democrats, the Trump Democrats are real. We are here and we are anti war and pro American labor not for cheap illegal migrant exploitation/labor or outsourcing . Donald Trump is a one man walking and talking labor Union and anti war activist for America and that’s just enough for some of us progressives to make him better than Biden or Hillary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will be a long post, bear with me if you feel like it.

Let me begin by telling you about my high school best friend. (FWIW: We are still best friends)

She lives in an exurban, coastal town in a blue state. She is mostly vegetarian, was a vegan for a time. Buys all her food from a local organic farmers market, gets eggs from her neighbor's free range chickens. Has an organic vegetable garden. She uses a compost bucket, meticulously sorts through what can be composted, recycled, reused, tossed out. Her late father built the house she and her family (husband, elderly mother) live in, and they installed their own solar panels. During her walks on the beach, she always picks up litter, including the tiniest piece of plastic she might come across. She once stopped her walk to attempt to help free an injured dragonfly caught in some seaweed.
She collects cultures for fermented foods like saurkraut, makes her own kombucha. Her mother gathers herbs and such, sourcing the best natural health remedies to their knowledge. As a side gig (she's a high school literature teacher), she does massage therapy. She practices yoga, avoids products with too many artificial ingredients, prefers to cover up in the sun rather than use sunscreen because of its ingredients. Never uses any plastic bottles.

Anyways... 5-10 years ago, you might assume by these left, liberal-coded aesthetics, she would be somewhat of a progressive Democrat.
In fact, she is a Trump supporter, and pretty far right politically.

This decade, I have notice something bizarre that I am only beginning to understand: the connections between the MAGA right and the granola, hippie, back-to-nature cohort. So much of it still doesn't make sense: If you love nature, the environment, health, animals so much, why would you vote for the political party that wants to destroy so much of it?

Some attribute this phenomenon to horseshoe theory... look no farther than a sizeable collection of Bernie supporters that have turned into far-right MAGA influences: Tulsi Gabbard, Jimmy Dore, Jackson Hinkle, the Red Scare podcast to name a few.

My friend has never really fit into that category though. She's been right-leaning apolitical her whole life. The common thread is being anti-government. Think Laura Ingalls Wilder-type libertarian. I can live off the land, I don't need the government to tell me what to do. I can do it myself.
At the same time, people like my high school friend have a similar distaste for the influence of large corporations as they do to Big Government. She would often criticize the omnipresence of marketing, advertising, brand names everywhere, plus technology addiction. But she wouldn't go far as to denounce capitalism - her father was a small business owner. She viewed things from the perspective that small businesses could and should handle things on their own, that large corporations AND government regulation were always getting in the way. Plus, she always had a view that poor people aren't "owed" anything. If you can't afford to live in her upscale beach community, then too bad, don't expect government subsidized housing or any other kind of handout. But voluntary generosity and kindness are virtues.

It's obvious why this aesthetic shift... "crunchy granola hippie Yoga moms" shifted from vagely leftwing to MAGA in 2020: Covid and vaccines. My friend believes in natural remedies first and has never been vaccinated, at least not for covid or the annual flu. And she, like others, have never forgiven Democratic-run governments for what they believe is severe overreach during the early stages of the pandemic. I don't need to explain this further.

2020 was the tipping point for many people like my friend and others, including some that may have been vaguely left-leaning, if not all-out Bernie supporters, to become all in on MAGA, rightwing populism.
Conservative, right, and MAGA are "counterculture."
Democrat, liberal, and especially, Biden are mainstream, corporate, corrupt, and value only obedience and submission. They are now "The Man."

Of course I can poke a bazillion holes in this narrative, but that doesn't matter. This is what they believe. And it's so frustrating, because there are a ton of issues that I would actually agree with them on. Take my friend for instance: we agree that people and corporations pollute too much, that animals should be cared for, that microplastics are a problem, that we fund too much war, that people are too addicted to technology. But the counter-"Narrative" narrative is that the Democrats now represent the toxic, elite marriage of Big Government, Big Tech, Hollywood, the Military-Industrial Complex, and everything that's bad, and that the simple, wholesome people living off the land are what The Left wants to stomp out.

You friend sounds like she's a critical think that deals in logic, not sure the same can be said about you.

"Democrat, liberal, and especially, Biden are mainstream, corporate, corrupt, and value only obedience and submission. They are now "The Man."

This statement is absolutely true and the dims have been exposed, you not believing it is telling. You are a lefty sycophant.

Yep.

[Anonymous]

I have a friend sort of along that vein, obsessed with organic food (that they can’t afford) for their five kids, only one vaccine per child at a time (because otherwise it’s too much; I think it’s moronic that they think they know vaccines better than people who spend ten years in grad and post grad work but at least they get vaccinated), etc.

I asked her once why if she was so concerned about pollutants in her food she supported the party that likes to put them there and she just said “because I can’t control them!”

Any granola person who votes for the GOP hasn’t any sense at all.

[Anonymous]

As for the vaccine, you’re darn right that was a tipping point. Some of us don’t want government telling us what to do with our bodies. It’s weird how that’s completely understood when it comes to abortion but not when it comes to vaccines. Biden lied to us and said the vaccines were necessary to reduce deadliness of COVID and its spread and more people caught COVID and died of COVID during his administration than during the Trump administration

[Anonymous]

The democrats misread the tea leaves in 2016. They pushed Bernie out because “it was Hilary’s turn”, but they didn’t understand the restlessness that existed and that the country was itching for a populist candidate.

Biden was the calm after the chaos after the Trump presidency, but no one expected him to have a second term. He screwed up by picking Harris as VP because she’s a weak lead at the top of the ticket. He shouldn’t be running this year, but there’s no suitable replacement that’s ready.

The general public is being fleeced by corporate interests. They want someone outside the mainstream. I wish it had been Bernie, but it’s not, it’s Trump. We’re living in Idiocracy in real life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This will be a long post, bear with me if you feel like it.

Let me begin by telling you about my high school best friend. (FWIW: We are still best friends)

She lives in an exurban, coastal town in a blue state. She is mostly vegetarian, was a vegan for a time. Buys all her food from a local organic farmers market, gets eggs from her neighbor's free range chickens. Has an organic vegetable garden. She uses a compost bucket, meticulously sorts through what can be composted, recycled, reused, tossed out. Her late father built the house she and her family (husband, elderly mother) live in, and they installed their own solar panels. During her walks on the beach, she always picks up litter, including the tiniest piece of plastic she might come across. She once stopped her walk to attempt to help free an injured dragonfly caught in some seaweed.
She collects cultures for fermented foods like saurkraut, makes her own kombucha. Her mother gathers herbs and such, sourcing the best natural health remedies to their knowledge. As a side gig (she's a high school literature teacher), she does massage therapy. She practices yoga, avoids products with too many artificial ingredients, prefers to cover up in the sun rather than use sunscreen because of its ingredients. Never uses any plastic bottles.

Anyways... 5-10 years ago, you might assume by these left, liberal-coded aesthetics, she would be somewhat of a progressive Democrat.
In fact, she is a Trump supporter, and pretty far right politically.

This decade, I have notice something bizarre that I am only beginning to understand: the connections between the MAGA right and the granola, hippie, back-to-nature cohort. So much of it still doesn't make sense: If you love nature, the environment, health, animals so much, why would you vote for the political party that wants to destroy so much of it?

Some attribute this phenomenon to horseshoe theory... look no farther than a sizeable collection of Bernie supporters that have turned into far-right MAGA influences: Tulsi Gabbard, Jimmy Dore, Jackson Hinkle, the Red Scare podcast to name a few.

My friend has never really fit into that category though. She's been right-leaning apolitical her whole life. The common thread is being anti-government. Think Laura Ingalls Wilder-type libertarian. I can live off the land, I don't need the government to tell me what to do. I can do it myself.
At the same time, people like my high school friend have a similar distaste for the influence of large corporations as they do to Big Government. She would often criticize the omnipresence of marketing, advertising, brand names everywhere, plus technology addiction. But she wouldn't go far as to denounce capitalism - her father was a small business owner. She viewed things from the perspective that small businesses could and should handle things on their own, that large corporations AND government regulation were always getting in the way. Plus, she always had a view that poor people aren't "owed" anything. If you can't afford to live in her upscale beach community, then too bad, don't expect government subsidized housing or any other kind of handout. But voluntary generosity and kindness are virtues.

It's obvious why this aesthetic shift... "crunchy granola hippie Yoga moms" shifted from vagely leftwing to MAGA in 2020: Covid and vaccines. My friend believes in natural remedies first and has never been vaccinated, at least not for covid or the annual flu. And she, like others, have never forgiven Democratic-run governments for what they believe is severe overreach during the early stages of the pandemic. I don't need to explain this further.

2020 was the tipping point for many people like my friend and others, including some that may have been vaguely left-leaning, if not all-out Bernie supporters, to become all in on MAGA, rightwing populism.
Conservative, right, and MAGA are "counterculture."
Democrat, liberal, and especially, Biden are mainstream, corporate, corrupt, and value only obedience and submission. They are now "The Man."

Of course I can poke a bazillion holes in this narrative, but that doesn't matter. This is what they believe. And it's so frustrating, because there are a ton of issues that I would actually agree with them on. Take my friend for instance: we agree that people and corporations pollute too much, that animals should be cared for, that microplastics are a problem, that we fund too much war, that people are too addicted to technology. But the counter-"Narrative" narrative is that the Democrats now represent the toxic, elite marriage of Big Government, Big Tech, Hollywood, the Military-Industrial Complex, and everything that's bad, and that the simple, wholesome people living off the land are what The Left wants to stomp out.

I live in a wealthy rural area that is adjacent to exurban area. I know tons of people like this. They present as DEI/liberal hippies but are foaming at the mouth anti-government MAGA.

Covid didn’t change them - Covid radicalized them and made it ok for them to be more visible and outspoken. They’re mostly “RFK curious” but go with MAGA because it is what their dad, husband, church people are doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend sort of along that vein, obsessed with organic food (that they can’t afford) for their five kids, only one vaccine per child at a time (because otherwise it’s too much; I think it’s moronic that they think they know vaccines better than people who spend ten years in grad and post grad work but at least they get vaccinated), etc.

I asked her once why if she was so concerned about pollutants in her food she supported the party that likes to put them there and she just said “because I can’t control them!”

Any granola person who votes for the GOP hasn’t any sense at all.

These attitudes push people to be anti Vax. Who cares how they arrange their vaccine schedule? Their choice. This was like people screaming that vaccinated people who opposed mandates were evil anti vaxxes because apparently you not only had to have the vaccine but love it, or it didn't count.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The democrats misread the tea leaves in 2016. They pushed Bernie out because “it was Hilary’s turn”, but they didn’t understand the restlessness that existed and that the country was itching for a populist candidate.

Biden was the calm after the chaos after the Trump presidency, but no one expected him to have a second term. He screwed up by picking Harris as VP because she’s a weak lead at the top of the ticket. He shouldn’t be running this year, but there’s no suitable replacement that’s ready.

The general public is being fleeced by corporate interests. They want someone outside the mainstream. I wish it had been Bernie, but it’s not, it’s Trump. We’re living in Idiocracy in real life.

Shut up Bernie bro. The transformation to Idiocracy is evident in the popularity of Trump and Bernie, not when people want to maintain the rules based status quo.

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah Crunchy to Alt Right pipeline is definitely a thing.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/12/fringe-left-alt-right-share-beliefs-white-power-movement/672454/

[Anonymous]

She sounds very much like some of my Calif. and Illinois friends.

What they all see is that globalization under Clinton/Obama has hurt our working class which includes themselves. One is a black truck driver, some are into reiki, crystals, etc.

They also don’t like the far left demented ideology that there is no such thing as gender, among many things.

I dislike the far left disrespect of conservatives who make up half of the US, and disrespect of traditional families including parents who choose to stay at home to raise their own kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This will be a long post, bear with me if you feel like it.

Let me begin by telling you about my high school best friend. (FWIW: We are still best friends)

She lives in an exurban, coastal town in a blue state. She is mostly vegetarian, was a vegan for a time. Buys all her food from a local organic farmers market, gets eggs from her neighbor's free range chickens. Has an organic vegetable garden. She uses a compost bucket, meticulously sorts through what can be composted, recycled, reused, tossed out. Her late father built the house she and her family (husband, elderly mother) live in, and they installed their own solar panels. During her walks on the beach, she always picks up litter, including the tiniest piece of plastic she might come across. She once stopped her walk to attempt to help free an injured dragonfly caught in some seaweed.
She collects cultures for fermented foods like saurkraut, makes her own kombucha. Her mother gathers herbs and such, sourcing the best natural health remedies to their knowledge. As a side gig (she's a high school literature teacher), she does massage therapy. She practices yoga, avoids products with too many artificial ingredients, prefers to cover up in the sun rather than use sunscreen because of its ingredients. Never uses any plastic bottles.

Anyways... 5-10 years ago, you might assume by these left, liberal-coded aesthetics, she would be somewhat of a progressive Democrat.
In fact, she is a Trump supporter, and pretty far right politically.

This decade, I have notice something bizarre that I am only beginning to understand: the connections between the MAGA right and the granola, hippie, back-to-nature cohort. So much of it still doesn't make sense: If you love nature, the environment, health, animals so much, why would you vote for the political party that wants to destroy so much of it?

Some attribute this phenomenon to horseshoe theory... look no farther than a sizeable collection of Bernie supporters that have turned into far-right MAGA influences: Tulsi Gabbard, Jimmy Dore, Jackson Hinkle, the Red Scare podcast to name a few.

My friend has never really fit into that category though. She's been right-leaning apolitical her whole life. The common thread is being anti-government. Think Laura Ingalls Wilder-type libertarian. I can live off the land, I don't need the government to tell me what to do. I can do it myself.
At the same time, people like my high school friend have a similar distaste for the influence of large corporations as they do to Big Government. She would often criticize the omnipresence of marketing, advertising, brand names everywhere, plus technology addiction. But she wouldn't go far as to denounce capitalism - her father was a small business owner. She viewed things from the perspective that small businesses could and should handle things on their own, that large corporations AND government regulation were always getting in the way. Plus, she always had a view that poor people aren't "owed" anything. If you can't afford to live in her upscale beach community, then too bad, don't expect government subsidized housing or any other kind of handout. But voluntary generosity and kindness are virtues.

It's obvious why this aesthetic shift... "crunchy granola hippie Yoga moms" shifted from vagely leftwing to MAGA in 2020: Covid and vaccines. My friend believes in natural remedies first and has never been vaccinated, at least not for covid or the annual flu. And she, like others, have never forgiven Democratic-run governments for what they believe is severe overreach during the early stages of the pandemic. I don't need to explain this further.

2020 was the tipping point for many people like my friend and others, including some that may have been vaguely left-leaning, if not all-out Bernie supporters, to become all in on MAGA, rightwing populism.
Conservative, right, and MAGA are "counterculture."
Democrat, liberal, and especially, Biden are mainstream, corporate, corrupt, and value only obedience and submission. They are now "The Man."

Of course I can poke a bazillion holes in this narrative, but that doesn't matter. This is what they believe. And it's so frustrating, because there are a ton of issues that I would actually agree with them on. Take my friend for instance: we agree that people and corporations pollute too much, that animals should be cared for, that microplastics are a problem, that we fund too much war, that people are too addicted to technology. But the counter-"Narrative" narrative is that the Democrats now represent the toxic, elite marriage of Big Government, Big Tech, Hollywood, the Military-Industrial Complex, and everything that's bad, and that the simple, wholesome people living off the land are what The Left wants to stomp out.

Yes this describes my MAGA family members so much I am wondering if we know the same people.