Materially, it makes little sense for blue-collar workers to vote for Modi, Orban, or Trump, a billionaire whose platform is to cut taxes for the rich. Hitler and Mussolini had their share of support from the poor too.
What are some of the theories of why this happens?
I know scapegoating foreigners for poverty is part of it. Wilhelm Reich wrote The Mass Psychology of Fascism but I haven't read it.
There's not a real "left wing" option is one short explanation.
When your only percieved options are "blue or red and you must pick it's your duty to pick" then it's not hard to side with red over blue.
We're going to put kids in cages either way, the only choice is between whether we hide it (blue) or whether we own it (red). It's easier for a poor person to choose the "right wing" option in this scenario because, in reality, they're both right wing options.
Right. It's why Bernie was still pretty popular across the spectrum for quite a while.