There’s something specific happening with MAGA conservatives that makes them nearly impossible to reach: they have lost the ability to imagine they could be wrong. Not just wrong about a policy or a candidate, but wrong about how the world itself works. Their entire worldview, whether rooted in religion, politics, or their understanding of America, tells them the same story. They are right, and everyone else is confused at best and corrupted at worst.  

This isn’t ordinary political disagreement. Most people hold strong beliefs but can at least conceive of being mistaken. To be fair, Americans in general struggle with this, since our culture tends to take everything to the extreme, from sports rivalries to even the branding of sports drinks. We’ll fight, sometimes even kill, rather than admit we’re wrong. But what makes conservatives distinct is the way this extremity fuses with fear of progress. They don’t just resist change; they process it as subtraction, as if every shift makes them less. That fear is tied to their sense of superiority, whether real or assumed. Equality feels like erosion, difference feels like attack, and religion locks the whole structure in place. Faith becomes the anchor that makes self‑doubt feel like betrayal and certainty feel like virtue.

What makes this dangerous is the compulsion that comes with absolute certainty. When you believe you and only those like you possess the truth, then anyone living differently isn’t just making different choices, they’re doing it wrong. And if they’re doing it wrong, you’re not being judgmental by correcting them, you’re being helpful. You’re being responsible. In their minds, they have a duty to fix what’s broken, to guide the lost, to restore what they see as natural order.  

This is why they can’t leave people alone. It’s not enough for them to live according to their values; everyone else must too. A gay couple getting married isn’t just living their own life, it’s an attack on marriage itself. A trans person existing isn’t just someone else’s business, it’s a disorder that threatens children. Immigrants seeking a better life aren’t just people making choices, they’re invaders destroying America. Every difference becomes a threat because choice itself contradicts their certainty.  

The paradox is that they often frame this as defending freedom, but what they’re actually defending is conformity. Freedom, to them, means the freedom to live the one correct way, not the freedom to choose your own path. And because they can’t see this contradiction, they can’t understand why others resist. Resistance looks like chaos, moral decay, persecution of the righteous. It never looks like what it actually is: people asking to be left alone.  

This is why it’s so dangerous. Not just that they’re wrong, but that they’re incapable of recognizing it. They’ve built a worldview where self‑doubt is weakness, where questioning is betrayal, where certainty is virtue. And as long as that remains intact, no amount of evidence, empathy, or argument will break through. You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into, especially when that position has become their entire identity.