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Why MAGA Loves Stephen Miller · The Lucas Bean Show

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've been wondering for years why the MAGA movement keeps putting small,
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: angry men in charge of things.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided to do some research on Stephen Miller to figure out why millions
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: of people follow men whose only skill in life is being cruel to other people.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Stephen Miller wasn't a soldier or a businessman or anyone who ever built anything.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: He was a college debate kid who figured out that cruelty gets you a seat at the table.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: He wrote the Muslim Band Designed the family separation policy and built
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: the most deliberately cruel immigration machine in modern American history.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the MAGA cult worships him for all of it.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not despite the cruelty.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the cruelty.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Here are the five psychological reasons why MAGA is drawn
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  SPEAKER_00: to a little tiny angry man like Stephen Miller. 1.
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  SPEAKER_00: They mistake cruelty for strength.
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  SPEAKER_00: Stephen Miller doesn't lead with ideas.
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  SPEAKER_00: He leads with punishment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Every policy he built was designed to hurt someone.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: The Muslim ban wasn't about national security.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: The family separations weren't about border control.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were about making a group of people suffer on purpose
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  SPEAKER_00: so that the toxic MAGA base could watch it happen and feel powerful.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: In 2013, researcher Joey Chung and Jessica Tracy at the University
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: of British Columbia studied how people gain status inside of groups.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Researchers call it the dominance-prestige model.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: They found that there are two completely different ways to climb to the top of any social group.
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  SPEAKER_00: The first way is prestige.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: You earn respect by being good at something.
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  SPEAKER_00: People follow you because you know what you're doing and they want to learn from you.
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  SPEAKER_00: The second way is dominance.
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  SPEAKER_00: You take power through intimidation, aggression, and fear.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: People don't follow you because they respect you.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: They follow you because they're afraid of what happens if they don't respect you.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Miller never earned prestige in anything he's done.
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  SPEAKER_00: He never built a business, won an election, served in the military,
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  SPEAKER_00: or accomplished anything that would make people respect him.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: He gained every inch of his status through perceived dominance, through cruelty,
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  SPEAKER_00: through making other people afraid.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the MAGA cult looked at cruelty and called it strength,
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: because they are not smart enough to know the difference. 2.
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  SPEAKER_00: The anger is compensation.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's a reason why the angriest voices in MAGA are always the weakest people in the room.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Stephen Miller is not a physically imposing person.
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  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's really short.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's a tiny little guy not intimidating anyone in any natural way.
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  SPEAKER_00: But he performs rage like his life depends on it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Every press conference, every interview,
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  SPEAKER_00: every policy rollout is delivered with the energy of a man trying
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  SPEAKER_00: to prove something he doesn't actually feel.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: In 2013 sociologist Rob Willer at Stanford University,
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  SPEAKER_00: he found that men whose masculinity was threatened became more aggressive,
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: more hostile, more homophobic, and more supportive of war.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: These men reported feeling more ashamed, more guilty, and generally more upset at everything.
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  SPEAKER_00: And they immediately overcompensated with extreme displays of dominance and toughness.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Go figure.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not because they were strong, but because they are weak.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because they were scared.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Psychologists call this masculine overcompensation.
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  SPEAKER_00: The men with the lowest testosterone levels showed the strongest reaction.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't tough to begin with.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: They were massively insecure, and aggression was the mask.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Miller's entire career is masculine overcompensation.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't grow up tough.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Miller grew up writing debate briefs and picking fights in college newspapers.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Before there was even a keyboard to hide behind, he hid behind the newspaper article.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: That cruelty isn't confidence.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's a costume worn by a man who has never once in his life been the toughest person
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  SPEAKER_00: in any room he walked into.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: The MAGA cult doesn't just tolerate Stephen Miller.
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  SPEAKER_00: They needed someone to say the things they were thinking but didn't have the power
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  SPEAKER_00: to say out loud.
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  SPEAKER_00: Someone who would go after immigrants and the free press and anyone
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  SPEAKER_00: the group has been told to hate and do it without flinching or apologizing.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: In 1981, researcher Bob Altmyer at the University of Manitoba published
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: a book called Right-Wing Authoritarianism.
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  SPEAKER_00: He spent over 40 years studying what he called right-wing authoritarianism.
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  SPEAKER_00: Altmaier found that authoritarian followers share three traits.
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  SPEAKER_00: They submit to authority figures they see as legitimate,
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  SPEAKER_00: they are aggressive on behalf of the authority,
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  SPEAKER_00: and they stick rigidly to the group's rules and conventions.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the most important part of his research was this.
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  SPEAKER_00: Authoritarian followers don't just accept aggressive leaders—they actually seek them
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  SPEAKER_00: out. They want someone who will attack people they've been told to fear.
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  SPEAKER_00: And they'll forgive the leader for almost anything as long as attacks keep coming.
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  SPEAKER_00: Miller is the tiny attack dog MAGA was looking for.
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  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't build anything.
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  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't solve any problems.
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  SPEAKER_00: He just hurts the right people.
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  SPEAKER_00: And for an authoritarian follower, that's enough.
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  SPEAKER_00: Four, watching cruelty feels good to them.
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  SPEAKER_00: For a large percentage of the MAGA base,
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  SPEAKER_00: watching Miller hurt people isn't something they tolerate.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's something they enjoy.
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  SPEAKER_00: The family separations, the Muslim ban, the mass deportation rhetoric,
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  SPEAKER_00: federal agents executing two American citizens in the streets in Minneapolis.
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  SPEAKER_00: None of these are policies to the MAGA cult.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're entertainment.
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  SPEAKER_00: In 2013, researcher Erin Buckles at the University
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  SPEAKER_00: of British Columbia studied why some people genuinely enjoy causing pain to others
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  SPEAKER_00: in their everyday lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: She called it everyday sadism.
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  SPEAKER_00: Buckles found that everyday sadists don't look like criminals or predators.
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  SPEAKER_00: They look like regular people.
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  SPEAKER_00: But when given the opportunity to hurt someone, they take it.
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  SPEAKER_00: And they even go out of their way to make it happen.
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  SPEAKER_00: In one experiment, they chose to blast innocent people with painful noise even
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  SPEAKER_00: when the person wasn't fighting back.
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  SPEAKER_00: The more sadistic the person, the harder they blasted the sound.
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  SPEAKER_00: The MAGA base that cheers when families are torn apart at the border isn't cheering
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  SPEAKER_00: because they think the policy is smart.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're cheering because watching someone else suffer feels good to them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Especially when that someone has been labeled the enemy.
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  SPEAKER_00: Miller gives them that show every single day.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: The deepest reason MAGA follows men like Stephen Miller isn't
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  SPEAKER_00: about cruelty or anger
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  SPEAKER_00: or sadism, although most of these people are cruel, angry, and sadistic.
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  SPEAKER_00: The main reason is about fear.
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  SPEAKER_00: The people who worship Miller are afraid.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're afraid the world is changing too fast, that they're being left behind,
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  SPEAKER_00: that the country they thought was theirs doesn't feel like theirs anymore.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when people are afraid, they don't look for someone who is calm or careful
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  SPEAKER_00: or thoughtful.
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  SPEAKER_00: They look for someone who never hesitates, never doubts and never backs down.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: In 1941 psychoanalyst Eric Fromm Published a book called Escape from Freedom.
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  SPEAKER_00: Fromm fled fascist Germany.
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  SPEAKER_00: He watched firsthand as millions of ordinary people handed their freedom to a dictator.
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  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to understand why.
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  SPEAKER_00: Fromm called it the Escape from Freedom.
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  SPEAKER_00: He found that freedom creates anxiety.
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  SPEAKER_00: When people feel powerless and alone,
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  SPEAKER_00: the weight of having to make their own choices becomes unbearable.
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  SPEAKER_00: So they escape that weight by attaching themselves to someone
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  SPEAKER_00: who projects absolute certainty and total control.
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  SPEAKER_00: They trade their freedom for the feeling of being protected.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: The authoritarian leader doesn't have to be smart or a good person.
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  SPEAKER_00: He just has to seem sure of himself while everyone else seems lost. That's Miller.
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  SPEAKER_00: He never hesitates.
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  SPEAKER_00: He never questions himself.
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  SPEAKER_00: He never shows a single crack in his cruelty.
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  SPEAKER_00: And for people who are drowning in uncertainty about their own lives,
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  SPEAKER_00: that fake certainty feels like the only solid ground they have.
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  SPEAKER_00: Stephen Miller didn't rise to power because he was brilliant
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  SPEAKER_00: or capable Stephen Miller is a nobody who found out he could become a somebody
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  SPEAKER_00: by making other people suffer.
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  SPEAKER_00: And if you cheered for his cruelty, we know who you are.