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Understanding Why Change Doesn’t Occur

Johanna Baynard
6 min readApr 26, 2024

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I’m working on a document that would help me understand why people will become Trump supporters and then stop thinking about any other possibilities at all. Full stop to critical thinking. I started doing some research into the brain’s different processes for decision making and thought I was making some progress.

Illustration with Change

Yesterday, my husband and I were at a party and an acquaintance of ours (someone that we keep running into) was there. We can’t get close with him and his wife because he is a full blown MAGA supporter and there are some other issues as well. Some other issues made themselves known yesterday in a way that we just hadn’t recognized previously!

He made a beeline for us when he saw us and started telling us about how he and his wife bought his new home. He had to show us pictures of it and wanted us to know that it was 1000 square feet larger than their last home with 2 more acres of land. Now hubby and I are newly retired, and they are less than ten years behind us and often talk about downsizing. They are DINKs (double income, no kid) actually have one child who is grown and out of the house and a high earner, so…

In any case, these two live in a 3,600 square feet house and mow 2 acres of ground every two weeks, own a boat and motor home and are living the dream. He explained to us in detail how much money he spent on each and everything and how great each and every thing is, to include that riding lawn mower.

What just happened?

Besides the remarkable consumption of goods and services, is that this man did not shut up as his wife stood quietly by nodding and agreeing with all that he had to say. The house is so big, she can’t clean it, so someone comes to help her, is the only little bit that she added to the conversation, but that was It, it was all him. Can you say selfish? Can you say “me-focused”? He couldn’t stop talking about himself. And everything was about how much he had consumed. The very definition of narcissist behavior. Everything in the world is about him. He is vain, selfish and self-centered. He deserves his treats because by God, he works for them. His attitude is very entitled.

He also missed experiencing anyone else at this party. Anyone there at the party would have loved being listened to. Anyone. He…

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Johanna Baynard
Johanna Baynard

Written by Johanna Baynard

Dedicated activist for economic equality. Baby Boomer. Wife, mother and blogger: Life According to Johanna, johannayorksr.com and themammablog.com

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