Welcome to the Making Sense podcast.

This is Sam Harris.

Okay, well it is the day before the presidential election and I don't know why it's taken me this long to understand this.

But you beat the judge as to whether this should have been at all hard to understand.

As all of you know, I've been struggling for years to understand how it is possible that nearly half of American society

admires or at least supports Donald Trump.

I've spoken with Trump voters in search of illumination, but illumination never came.

For instance, I had Scott Adams on my podcast to explain this to me.

And he described Trump as a master persuader, perhaps the best he's ever seen.

But the problem for me is that I find Trump to be among the least persuasive people I have ever come across.

Whenever I see him speak, I see an obvious con man and ignoramus.

In fact, Trump seems to be so unaware of how people like me judge a person's credibility

that his efforts to appear credible, such as they are, always make him look ridiculous and even deranged.

So the claim that he's a brilliant persuader makes about as much sense to me as the claim that he's a model of physical fitness would.

In my world, the claim can be disproven at a glance.

And yet one thing is undeniable. Right half the country views him very differently.

Now, until a few minutes ago, I had more or less reconciled myself to never understanding this.

But I believe at this late hour on the very eve of the 2020 election, I have discovered a significant part of Trump's appeal.

In particular, I think I finally understand how he has supported because of his flaws rather than in spite of them.

That really is the key.

For all the things I find despicable in him, not merely things that people are willing to overlook, but reasons in and of themselves why people support him.

That's what I didn't understand until this moment.

...