You make a good point.

One thought is that the major psychological element in play is not barbaric ideals, or ideology - it's numbskullery. Most of the younger generation, and probable the middle aged folks, too, don't have much lived knowledge/experience of the historical blatant bigotry and prejudice and the changes that have happened over the last century. In general, life is pretty easy, even if you are relatively poor, and I think that there is minimal thinking going on besides does my phone have good service, and is McDonald's open, and I want a new car.

Trump, the King of the Kon Men, is riding on a wave of disinformation and lying that has been building since Reagan, and people are numb and gullible. He said, "Inflation is killing you and it's the Democrats' fault, and I'll fix it", and he was believed. He said, "I'm the victim of lawfare, the court system is rigged! And you're next!", and the numbskulls believed it. It's cult behavior - and you can't reason with cult followers.

I don't have a solution, my sense is that it's going to have to blow itself out. Unless a counter-balancing charismatic Good Witch cult leader emerges, as Trump's house of cards caves in on him, we are probably going have to weather some hard times. The only words of encouragement that come to mind are, always do your best, and be responsible.

And I'm glad I learned how to make whiskey and gin!

You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.
R. Buckminster Fuller