in order to cause hurt on others

Actually that’s not my experience. This might be a really simplistic view but in Australia it seems the left supports the working class, and the right favors the corporate class.

My parents, now in their 80s, have been firmly “working class” their whole lives, and are now retired and living on a government pension.

They’ve voted for the conservatives their entire lives simply because of conservative values around social issues. They don’t seem to realise that their preferred party is also reducing social benefits like their pensions.

I see this exact dynamic a lot. As in… “my life is so hard because there are no social services or financial support, it must be the fault of immigrants, so I’ll vote for conservatives who will be mean to immigrants and poor people, and make me feel better about my hard working self”.

Which leads me to the next category… a lot of Asian migrants are deeply conservative, and the conservative party is constantly seeking to make migration from non european countries more and more difficult. My partner is a first generation migrant from Asia, so this is something I see a lot from her and her compatriots.

That said, I guess there’s a strong undercurrent of, as you say, people just being so miserable and beat down they feel like someone must be to blame, and if a conservative govt is going to put some minority under the thumb then that might feel pretty good.

IDK. Shit is fucked.