This past weekend, I almost got involved in a discussion that had the potential to go very bad, very quickly. Luckily, I was in a position to quickly and quietly walk away. The discussion, as you might have guessed, involved politics. One MAGA guy was very loud and a little aggressive and his \u201copponent\u201d was getting a little ticked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just before I made my escape, someone said that MAGA is a cult. Thankfully, I didn\u2019t hear the response\u2026.. but a few days later, I got to thinking about that remark. You don\u2019t hear the term cult too much anymore, but I\u2019m pretty sure cults are just as prevalent as they ever were \u2014 maybe more so.\u00a0
Anyhow, a bit of extensive research on my part uncovered some interesting information.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although I haven\u2019t read it, someone by the name of Steven Hassan wrote a book titled, \u201cThe Cult of Trump\u201d back in 2019. Hassan describes a \u201cBITE\u201d model of cult mind control \u2014b<\/span>ehavior, i<\/span>nformation, t<\/span>hought, and e<\/span>motional control. He says that the MAGA movement checks all the boxes of the model. Hassan argues that Trump restricts the information his followers are allowed to accept. He also demands purity of belief (beliefs that can change from moment to moment, as per his whims and needs.) Additionally, he appeals to his followers through the conjuring of primal emotions \u2014 not just fear, but also joy. I hadn\u2019t thought about it before, but maybe cult isn\u2019t a\u00a0 particularly bad description for that group of followers. Cult members feel empowered and special \u2014 they consider themselves one of the elite and close to the person who has all the answers. Cult members enjoy knowing that they, and their\u00a0 friends, are the ones that are right about everything. A lot of this sounds familiar to me from my younger days when cults like Jonestown were making the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My extensive research found that followers of Trump had one source of information they trusted \u2014 not the (conservative) media, the clergy or family members \u2014 only<\/em> Donald J. Trump. From what I can tell, no-one can be reasoned, or argued out of Trumpism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I found one article that was interesting about cult rules\u2026 It appears that cults today don\u2019t end by everyone drinking the kool-aid \u2014 they probably die out when they can\u2019t continue to recruit members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I ran across an article that listed phrases that cult leaders almost always use. The list is fairly long, but here\u2019s a few examples\u2026 I\u2019ve heard it said\u00a0 that almost any cult will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.\u00a0 This past weekend, I almost got involved in a discussion that had the potential to go very bad, very quickly. Luckily, I was in a position to quickly and quietly walk away. The discussion, as you might have guessed, involved … Continue reading
The first rule of cults is: you\u2019re never in a cult
The second rule of cults is: the cult will forgive any sin, except the sin of leaving
The third rule of cults is: even if he did it, that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s guilty<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDon\u2019t question my authority\u2026\u201d
\u201cThis is okay for me to do because\u2026\u201d
\u201cDon\u2019t talk to those<\/em> people because\u2026
\u201dYou need to give me your money because\u2026\u201d
\u201cOutsiders hate me because\u2026\u201d
\u201cIf you leave, you are turning your back on me and horrible things will happen to you\u2026\u201d
And the list goes on \u2014 I\u2019ll leave it up to you to decide if any of these sound familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I guess there always has been, and always will be, cults. When one dies out, another seems to take its place \u2014 so whatever is next, we might as well get ready for it\u2026..
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"