I remember the moment in a psychology course when my professor described the Soviet famine of the 1930s with a detail that has never left me. As millions starved and some resorted to cannibalism of family members who had died, the Soviet state launched propaganda campaigns warning citizens not to eat their dead relatives. What stunned me most wasn’t this horror but what came next. See, even under these horrific conditions, a sizeable chunk of Soviet citizens maintained complete faith in Stalin, blaming the United States for causing their suffering rather than acknowledging his policies had failed.
My professor then described how perhaps a quarter of Germans refused to believe what Hitler had done even at war’s end, simply accepting whatever explanations the party provided. I recognized a pattern that history demonstrates repeatedly but that contemporary Americans persistently ignore. We assume Trump supporters will abandon him once conditions deteriorate enough, once policies fail badly enough, once reality becomes undeniable enough. History shows us something quite different about how people behave inside sealed information environments designed to maintain belief through disaster.
The evidence from authoritarian propaganda systems is unambiguous. Once populations become embedded in sealed information environments, the majority maintain faith through famine, economic collapse, and policies that kill millions. The propaganda apparatus attributes disaster to enemies rather than leadership, and most believers accept this framing even as conditions deteriorate catastrophically around them. The majority do not leave. They double down.
My background professionally studying national security, psychology, cult recruitment, terrorist organization dynamics, and the historical development of propaganda systems, taught me to recognize these structural patterns. With this in mind, I’ve spent the last few weeks studiously documenting Fox, Newsmax, and other conservative outlets, to understand the information environment shaping Republican political reality. What I found were the structural features of systems designed to maintain belief through any circumstance.
The content effectively creates a sealed reality where Trump prosecutes his political enemies and this represents justice, where graphic descriptions of dead children justify border policy, where Scripture is quoted to describe Trump as chosen by God.
The mechanism is consistent across cases: the worse conditions become, the more effectively the system attributes problems to enemies and intensifies support for the leader’s protection. Understanding how this works requires examining systems that maintained mass support through disasters far worse than anything Americans have yet experienced.
Soviet propaganda under Stalin created a sealed information environment where the party line defined reality for millions. During the Great Famine of 1932 to 1933, Soviet policies caused approximately 3.9 million deaths in Ukraine alone through forced collectivization and grain requisition. Villages starved while the state exported grain. Children died of hunger while propaganda posters celebrated record harvests. This was policy-induced mass death on a scale nearly incomprehensible.
Soviet media denied the famine was occurring. It attributed food shortages to kulak sabotage and foreign conspiracy. Visitors who reported starvation were dismissed as capitalist propagandists spreading lies to discredit the Soviet experiment. Within the sealed information environment, substantial support for Stalin persisted throughout the famine among those not directly dying. The propaganda apparatus maintained that the party was protecting the people from enemies while building a utopian future. Those who starved were portrayed as victims of kulak resistance and foreign subversion.
The critical finding from studying this case is that most believers in the propaganda system maintained faith. The cognitive framework held through economic disaster that killed millions. For Soviet citizens embedded in the propaganda system, it provided the only available explanation for their suffering. Alternative accounts could not circulate. The information environment was completely sealed. When neighbors starved, the framework attributed this to enemies of the revolution. When the state requisitioned grain from starving villages, the framework portrayed this as necessary defense against sabotage. The worse conditions became, the more the propaganda intensified claims of external threat and the need to support Stalin’s protection.
The Great Purge from 1936 to 1938 resulted in approximately 750,000 executions and more than one million sent to gulags. Stalin’s propaganda framed the purges as necessary defense against traitors and foreign agents. Show trials featured elaborate confessions to impossible conspiracies. Soviet media portrayed Stalin as the protector rooting out hidden enemies who threatened the people. Public support for Stalin remained high among those not directly affected by arrests. The majority of believers interpreted the arrests of neighbors and colleagues through the propaganda framework.
The sealed information environment prevented alternative explanations from taking hold. People who questioned the purges risked becoming suspects themselves. The system reinforced itself through fear and through genuine belief in the narrative structure propaganda had created.
When Khrushchev revealed Stalin’s crimes in 1956, the response among true believers demonstrated how total the propaganda’s hold had been. Many experienced psychological crisis. Some rejected the revelations entirely. The propaganda had been so comprehensive that Stalin’s image as protector had become foundational to how they understood their entire lives. Removing that foundation threatened collapse of the worldview itself. For many, maintaining faith in Stalin despite evidence of his crimes was psychologically easier than admitting the framework had been false.
Maoist China provides even more striking documentation of how sealed propaganda systems maintain majority support through catastrophic failure. The Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1962 caused between 15 and 55 million deaths, primarily through starvation resulting from disastrous agricultural policies. The regime maintained that production was increasing dramatically. Local officials reported false statistics to avoid punishment. Central propaganda celebrated record harvests while villages starved and people resorted to eating bark, grass, and in some cases engaging in cannibalism to survive.
The information environment was completely sealed. Foreign reports of famine were dismissed as imperialist lies designed to undermine the revolution. Journalists who documented the disaster faced persecution. Within China, the deaths were attributed to natural disasters, sabotage by class enemies, and insufficient revolutionary fervor. The propaganda framework provided explanations that preserved faith in Mao and the party even as tens of millions died.
Mao’s cult of personality remained intact through this catastrophe among the majority of believers. Support for Mao among party loyalists and urban populations continued even as rural populations died in massive numbers. The propaganda framework made abandoning faith in Mao equivalent to abandoning the meaning structure through which people understood their sacrifice and suffering. If Mao was wrong, then the suffering had been meaningless. The psychological investment made questioning the framework nearly impossible for most believers.
The Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 brought violent chaos as Mao mobilized youth to attack perceived enemies. Between 1.5 and 2 million people died. Intellectuals were persecuted, party officials were purged, the economy suffered severe damage, schools and universities closed for years. Throughout this period, Mao remained a quasi-religious figure for millions.
Red Guards carried his Little Red Book as scripture. They believed they were purifying the revolution and defending against those who would restore capitalism. The violence was framed as necessary struggle against enemies. The propaganda system maintained faith among the majority of believers through catastrophic policy failure because it controlled information and provided a total explanatory framework that attributed all problems to enemies.
These systems persist through three reinforcing mechanisms. The sealed information environment provides no credible alternative explanations. The psychological cost of abandoning the framework means admitting suffering was meaningless and sacrifice was for nothing. The social cost means losing community, family, and identity. For most believers, maintaining faith despite evidence becomes easier than reconstructing their entire political understanding.
A critical question demands examination: how can we distinguish between genuine belief in Stalin and Mao versus terrorized compliance? If everyone secretly knew the propaganda was false but feared execution for dissent, the comparison to Trump supporters collapses since MAGA adherents face no comparable threat. The historical evidence demonstrates that substantial genuine belief existed alongside fear.
Private diaries and letters from Soviet citizens who were not under surveillance show authentic faith in Stalin and the party line. When Khrushchev revealed Stalin’s crimes in 1956, the response among party members who faced no personal danger was not relief but psychological crisis. People who could have simply adjusted to the new party line instead experienced breakdowns because their entire framework for understanding their lives had been shattered. Believers often went beyond what fear alone would compel, enthusiastically denouncing neighbors and volunteering for party activities that exceeded requirements for mere survival.
Scholars studying these systems distinguish between passive compliance born of terror and active belief demonstrated through voluntary behavior. Both existed, but the propaganda systems generated substantial genuine belief, particularly among urban populations and party members not directly targeted by purges. For the historical comparison to hold, we need not claim everyone believed, only that propaganda systems maintain majority or substantial minority genuine support even through catastrophic failure. The evidence supports this conclusion across multiple authoritarian cases.
The contemporary American conservative media ecosystem displays the same structural features. Fox News reaches 38% of Americans as a regular news source according to a March 2025 Pew Research Center survey. When combined with Newsmax, talk radio, podcasts, and social media, millions of Americans receive this content as their primary understanding of political reality, and the information environment is sealed against external correction through systematic delegitimization.
The content I documented over the last few weeks shows the system in operation. The Justice Department prosecuted James Comey and Letitia James. On Fox News, Congressman Jim Jordan described this as “our Justice Department under the leadership of the attorney general applying the facts to the law, like you are supposed to. It is not the weaponization of government like we saw under Biden.” Roger Stone appeared on Newsmax arguing his treatment under Biden was worse than how Trump treats his enemies. The constitutional implications of a president prosecuting those who prosecuted him received no mention. The framing was complete: this was justice, finally functioning as designed.
Tom Homan, Trump’s Border Czar, appeared on Newsmax and delivered graphic testimony describing dead and traumatized children he claimed to have encountered at the border. He framed Trump’s restrictive policies as saving lives by preventing migration entirely. This appeared on primetime television without pushback or questions about humanitarian costs. The graphic descriptions served to justify policy outcomes. Border crossings declined from over 7,000 per day under Biden to 7,181 total apprehensions in March 2025. Fox News called this a “border miracle.” The ACLU’s characterization of policies as “inhumane, draconian and illegal” received no coverage.
The religious framing intensified to explicit messianic language. Senator Steve Daines told Newsmax: “President Trump is the President of Peace. Blessed are the peacemakers, those are words spoken by Christ, and President Trump has blessed the world with his peace-making ability.” When Trump addressed the Israeli Knesset about the Gaza ceasefire, he declared this “the end of an age of terror and death, and the beginning of the age of faith and hope.” Richard Grenell told Newsmax: “Donald Trump is the only person in the world that could have done this. This will solidify him in history as the greatest president of modern times.” Trump becomes divinely chosen, speaking in biblical cadences about ages ending and ages beginning.
The mechanism maintaining this reality operates through systematic delegitimization of external sources. Academic research becomes liberal bias. Government statistics become bureaucratic manipulation. International organizations become globalist propaganda. When TIME Magazine featured Trump positively, this confirmed truth. When the same publication criticized Trump, this confirmed bias. The system inoculates itself against correction by discrediting all potential sources of correction.
Problems are attributed to Democratic obstruction, deep state resistance, or liberal media lies. Project 2025, which Trump denied knowing about during the campaign, operated as acknowledged policy with Fox News celebrating federal workforce reductions. The government shutdown became Democrats “throwing temper tantrums” despite Republican control of government. Economic coverage emphasized selective positive indicators while ignoring IMF warnings. The system delegitimizes alternative information sources systematically and completely.
The psychological and social costs of leaving the system exceed the costs of staying for most believers. Abandoning the framework means admitting that political understanding was wrong, that community consensus was false, that investment of time and identity was misplaced. It means potentially losing family relationships and social networks. It means reconstructing one’s entire worldview. For most believers, maintaining faith and explaining away problems as enemy action is psychologically and socially easier than undergoing this reconstruction.
Many Soviet citizens did not abandon Stalin when millions starved. The evidence shows the same for many Chinese citizens who did not abandon Mao when tens of millions died.
The mechanisms visible in October 2025 conservative media match the historical pattern exactly. Trump prosecutes enemies and this is justice. Trump’s policies cause a 96% decline in border crossings and dead children justify the means. Trump achieves a Middle East peace deal and God has blessed him. When the media reports problems, this confirms bias. When international organizations raise concerns, this confirms globalist conspiracy. The explanatory framework is complete and sealed against external correction.
The fact is, millions are embedded in a sealed information environment that delegitimizes external sources, attributes all problems to enemies, describes the leader in messianic terms, and provides a complete explanatory framework immune to correction. History demonstrates that such systems maintain majority support through disasters that kill millions. The evidence suggests that a sizable portion of MAGA supporters will not leave Trump or the Republican Party regardless of policy outcomes, so long as they remain in their sealed information and propaganda bubble. Perhaps the first step to breaking the spell then comes from ending state sponsored Republican propaganda and returning to some sort of requirement that the media actually report true and factual information.
If you found this article useful, check out my book “Conservatism: America’s Empathy Disorder,” which explores the psychological and neurological roots of how a political movement can abandon democratic principles in favor of power.
https://a.co/d/0TQ8o1w
References
American Civil Liberties Union. (2025). Immigrants’ rights advocates sue Trump administration over fast-track deportation policy [Press release]. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/immigrants-rights-advocates-sue-trump-administration-over-fast-track-deportation-policy
Applebaum, A. (2017). Red famine: Stalin’s war on Ukraine. Doubleday.
CNN. (2025, October 14). DOJ investigation of John Bolton focuses on diary-like notes in AOL email account. https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/14/politics/bolton-investigation-centers-diary-notes-aol-email
Conquest, R. (1990). The great terror: A reassessment (40th anniversary ed.). Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1968)
Daines, S. (2025, October 9). Daines on Newsmax: President Trump is the Peace President. U.S. Senate Office of Senator Steve Daines. https://www.daines.senate.gov/2025/10/09/daines-on-newsmax-president-trump-is-the-peace-president/
Davies, R. W., & Wheatcroft, S. G. (2004). The years of hunger: Soviet agriculture, 1931-1933 (The industrialisation of Soviet Russia, Vol. 5). Palgrave Macmillan.
Dikötter, F. (2010). Mao’s great famine: The history of China’s most devastating catastrophe, 1958-1962. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Fox News. (2025a, March). Border crossings hit record low in March thanks to ‘vigilant’ work of agents: Report. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/border-crossings-hit-record-low-in-march-thanks-to-vigilant-work-of-agents-report
Fox News. (2025b, October 8). Former FBI Director James Comey pleads not guilty in arraignment. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/comey-arraigned-federal-court-after-being-indicted-alleged-false-statements-obstruction
Fox News. (2025c, October 13). Defiant Letitia James rallies with far-left ally Mamdani after indictment, vows to keep fighting Trump. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/defiant-letitia-james-rallies-far-left-ally-mamdani-after-indictment-vows-keep-fighting-trump
Fox News. (2025d, October 13). Trump heralds ‘golden age of the Middle East’ in address to Israeli Knesset. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-heralds-golden-age-middle-east-address-israeli-knesset-hours-after-hostages-come-home
Getty, J. A., & Naumov, O. V. (1999). The road to terror: Stalin and the self-destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939. Yale University Press.
Jordan, J. (2025, October 14). Interview by D. Bash. State of the Union [Television broadcast]. CNN. As reported in American Greatness. https://amgreatness.com/2025/10/14/jim-jordan-on-accusations-of-weaponization-of-govt-justice-dept-is-applying-facts-to-law/
Montoya-Galvez, C. (2025, October). Illegal crossings along U.S.-Mexico border plummet to lowest annual level since 1970. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/illegal-crossings-immigration-us-mexico-southern-border-lowest-level-1970-trump-dhs/
Newsmax. (2025a, October 11). Homan offers sobering details on why he fights for border. https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/homan-ice-border/2025/10/11/id/1229940/
Newsmax. (2025b, October 13). Richard Grenell: Trump to go down as greatest president of modern times. https://www.newsmax.com/politics/richard-grenell-donald-trump-israel/2025/10/13/id/1230198/
Newsmax. (2025c, October 13). Roger Stone: DOJ charged Comey and me with exact same crime. https://www.newsmax.com/politics/roger-stone-doj-james-comey/2025/10/13/id/1230205/
NPR. (2025, October 10). Trump administration says about 4,200 federal employees face layoffs. https://www.npr.org/2025/10/10/nx-s1-5570933/shutdown-federal-workers-rifs-layoffs-vought
Pew Research Center. (2025, July 17). 6 facts about Fox News. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/17/6-facts-about-fox-news/
Roll Call Factbase. (2025, October 13). Donald Trump speech to the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel [Transcript]. https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-speech-knesset-jerusalem-israel-october-13-2025/
Rudnytskyi, O. P., Levchuk, N. M., Wolowyna, O., Shevchuk, P. Ye., & Kovbasiuk, A. B. (2015). Demography of a man-made human catastrophe: The case of massive famine in Ukraine 1932-1933. Canadian Studies in Population, 42(1-2), 53-80. https://doi.org/10.15407/dse2015.02.011
Taubman, W. (2003). Khrushchev: The man and his era. W.W. Norton.
Thompson, S. A. (2024, December 13). I traded my news apps for Rumble, the right-wing YouTube. Here’s what I saw. The New York Times.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (2025, March). CBP releases March 2025 monthly update [Press release]. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-march-2025-monthly-update
U.S. Department of Justice. (2025, October 9). New York State Attorney General indicted [Press release]. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/new-york-state-attorney-general-indicted
U.S. Government. (1956, June 4). Text of Khrushchev’s speech at 20th party congress. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 84th Congress, 2nd Session, 102(7), 9389-9403.
Walder, A. G. (2014). Rebellion and repression in China, 1966-1971. Social Science History, 38(3-4), 513-539.
Yang, J. (2012). Tombstone: The great Chinese famine, 1958-1962 (E. Friedman, J. Mosher, & S. Guo, Trans.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
There are true believers on both sides, IMO. While MAGA is completely brainwashed by the propaganda they consume ad nauseum, the Democrats are still holding fast to a legal system, election system, and bi-partisan lawmaking that no longer exists. At least on a federal level. They refuse to operate outside of lines of what is both codified and traditional, as if the blatant corruption of SCOTUS, our Congress, and the President does not exist. It’s time for Democratic national leadership to assume we are at war and do what is necessary. But I fear it will fall on the shoulders of Democratic governors to invoke states’ rights, because our federal leaders are fully in denial.
I’d like to further suggest we stop calling them MAGA/GOP and start calling them the American Nazi Party. If the swastika hanging in that GOP staffer’s office is any indication, they are one and the same.
I found this fascinating, even though hugely depressing. I completely get the psychology of holding on to what you have supported because the reverse is so humiliating and challenging.
But..... what now?