yeah would be willing to believe people are more tolerant of e.g. jumping spiders than other kinds

I think our society is ducked up enough that economically it makes better sense to have a loyal audience of easy marks than a wide audience of fickle donors. Donald Trump figures this out years ago and has been cultivating/brainwashing that audience since.

Idk how to counter it except that maybe if we gave people cheaper/free essential goods (housing, school lunches etc) they’d be less inclined to go insane and support scammers like trump or the modern democratic party.