#Cult of Trump | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rosielindy · 2 years

Text

After watching Bowers testify Tuesday I’m gobsmacked to hear him say he’d vote for TFG again in 2024 because of all the “good things” he did pre-COVID. Working class and marginalized Americans and Mother Earth would like a word! 🤦‍♀️

“If he is the nominee, if he was up against Biden, I’d vote for him again,” Bowers told The Associated Press. “Simply because what he did the first time, before COVID, was so good for the county. In my view it was great.”

More context, from Robert Hubbell’s newsletter yesterday.

“Bowers is apparently referring to Trump’s signature legislative achievement—reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. That tax cut resulted in a loss of revenue that propelled the budget deficit to near-record levels ($1 trillion) before the Covid stimulus packages. Setting aside the efforts of Bush and Obama to save the economy from collapse in the Great Recession of 2008, Trump owns the largest deficit of any US president.

Other Trump achievements include:

Legislation ending an Obama-era regulation that prevented coal-mining companies from dumping debris and waste into nearby streams;

Legislation ending financial disclosure requirements for energy firms;

Legislation repealing an Obama-era regulation requiring internet service providers to seek customers’ consent before sharing private data;

Legislation prohibiting the Department of Education from adopting the Common Core curriculum (which was created by agreement among the states, not the federal government);

Imposing protectionist tariffs on China that were paid for by US consumers; and

Pardoning Jared Kushner’s father (Charles Kushner), Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

And let’s not forget the ban on travel from Muslim countries, separating children from parents at the border, and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on a “wall to nowhere.”

Ah, yes, Rusty Bowers! Those were the “good old days” when government favored business over the people’s interest in privacy, the environment, education, and financial transparency, and when the president’s “cronies” received a “Get Out of Jail Free” card!”

https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/its-better-that-we-found-out-now?r=1g2iiu&utm_medium=ios

#rusty bowers #january 6 committee #cult of trump #2022 midterms #voter participation #voter turnout #vote in every election #american democracy #save democracy #brad raffensperger #protect future elections #cronyism #good old boys

4 notes · View notes

pargery · 2 months

Text

From "Republicans Have Chosen Nihilism" by Peter Wehner

.. Trump is cruel and remorseless, compulsive and vindictive, an accomplished conspiracy theorist. He delights in inflaming hatreds and shattering moral codes.

No other president has been as disdainful of knowledge or as untroubled by his benightedness. No other has been as intentional not just to lie but to annihilate truth. ...

...In other words, no matter how much wrongdoing Mr. Trump engages in, however outrageous and brutish his conduct, he remains wildly popular. His indecency and sulfuric rhetoric are a plus; his most loyal supporters are galvanized by the criminal charges against him, which they consider political persecution...

The haunting question raised by Mr. Bloom is more relevant now than it was when he first posed it: “When there are no shared goals or a vision of the public good, is the social Contract any longer possible?"

. . .

...spreading lies, inflaming resentments and stoking nihilism were extremely profitable...Initially, the media and politicians cynically exploited these tactics; soon they became dependent on them. “They got high on their own supply and couldn’t stop using without infuriating the base,” as Mr. Rauch put it. ...

It’s too painful for them to acknowledge the destructive movement that they have become part of or to acknowledge that it is no longer by any means clear who is leading whom. So they have persuaded themselves that there is no other option but to support a Trump-led Republican Party, even one that is lawless and depraved, because the Democratic Party is, for them, an unthinkable alternative. The result is that they have been sucked, cognitively and psychologically, into their own alternative reality, a psychedelic collage made up of what Kellyanne Conway, a former counselor to Mr. Trump, famously called “alternative facts.”

...

-- "GUEST ESSAY: Republicans Have Chosen Nihilism" by Peter Wehner, The New York Times, Nov. 6, 2023

#cult of trump #Peter Wehner #Allan Bloom #Jonathan Rauch #“The Constitution of Knowledge”

1 note · View note

krisw1979 · 2 months

Video

youtube

NEW Trump Fragrance Ad (satire)

I laughed so hard.

#youtube #trumpists #cult of trump

1 note · View note

onenakedfarmer · 3 months

Text

THE RADICAL LIBERAL

My reading of the Creation story in Genesis suggests that God never left the Garden that day; he never let the gate open by accident. No, God never left the Garden at all! The evil side of his personality showed up instead.

These poor kids were duped by a mentally-impaired maniac, hell-bent on getting his jollies on their suffering. He told Adam he would forever have to plow the fields to eat, and told Eve she would have great pain in childbirth — and submit to her husband.

Reading the Bible takes not only a lot of coffee (with a spoonful of pessimism), but it also requires a good sense of humor: the stories are simply outrageous nonsense. It is clear these stories were written by men who wanted to control others, including their wives, and they used these tall tales to try to explain the unexplainable.

In sum, the Bible might have been written by a couple of dudes sitting around smoking doobies all day. The story of the “Fall” was no doubt written by some dude whose wife didn’t want to put up the new bathroom tile the way he wanted, and so they had a fight, and she moved back in with her mother, and now he’s got to do his own damned laundry, and he hates her.

Ok, ok: the Bible is a diary for madmen. It’s called the Bible because it’s the handbook for how lunatics try to exert their crazy-assed way of life on others.

It the Cadillac of cult books.

Being in a cult, like any organized religion, requires:

The Leader to tell the followers who and what to fear

The Leader to tell the followers that he alone can save them, that he alone will fight for them, and that he alone can be trusted to protect them

The Leader closes off and shuts out any and all voices of dissent by telling followers “they lie to hurt you”

Those who have spent their lives following a religious Leader like God give their minds over to fear, false hope, and the believing of lies.

There’s another cult that has become popular with naïve followers, and they too are being told who to fear, who to trust, and that what others say is “fake news.”

The Cult of Trump.

#Genesis #creation myth #cults #cult manuals #Fuckstick von Clownface #MAGA #MAGAts #white christian nationalists #christians #christian beliefs #Garden of Eden #psychopaths #Cult of Trump #where's Lilith?#Donnie D-Cups

0 notes

howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 3 months

Text

#Cult Hackers #Daniel Shaw #sun myung moon #unification church #Cult of Trump #Donald Trump

0 notes

ausetkmt · 1 year

Text

Diane Benscoter, former member of the Unification Church cult and founder of Antidote.ngo, joins Reliable Sources to explain the similarities between cult leaders and former President Donald Trump.

_________________________________

Comments:

Shawn The Great:

It is a cult when your leaders says “Don’t believe what you are hearing or seeing” I [have] never been in a cult but that seems like a cult to me.

teeohpee:

The only thing I remember from high school, beside the bullying, was a 2 hour special assembly about how not to get trapped in a cult. I’m so happy I paid attention that day. I actually used the tactics I learned at the don’t-get-trapped-in-a-cult assembly a few years later when the Moonies tried to get me while I was sitting by myself in Washington Square Park. Every school in the nation should be holding Don’t Get Trapped In A Cult assemblies.

B Bodziak:

[Trump’s] first wife wrote in her book that came out around 2001 said Trump only had 2 hobbies: Golfing and repeatedly watching Hitler’s speeches for hours and hours. She wrote this long before he decided to run for office. So, the similarities between the two wasn’t necessarily coincidental.

Comment: Sun Myung Moon also studied Hitler and other dictators. Moon repeatedly watched the Nazi propaganda film, “Triumph of the Will” and it showed in his mannerism at his September 1974 Madison Square Garden speech.

▲ Sun Myung Moon in 1974

AllyC890:

[Trump] also must have studied some about Mussolini because he copies his facial expressions–specifically jutting his jaw out and raising his face up, just as Mussolini did.

Anthony Lagunas:

Don’t forget Donnie himself has said “ If you tell a lie enough times people will believe it”.

Golgotha_Mythos69:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”

~Hannah Arendt

TheBioExplorer:

I’ve been saying this ever since he kept doing the rallies even after winning his first term. Presidents have done speeches and stuff but these rallies were different. I watched some of his closer. From the choices of music that target his demographic to the carnival like atmosphere and repeated phrases to get repeated responses. It’s purely psychological manipulation. This is why even after being sworn in he immediately started scheduling more even though he should have been figuring out how to govern. He put off appointing people and other critical things…. but he kept up the rallies. Presidents don’t need to do rallies within a month of taking office and keep them up all through their term. They might go back on the campaign trail at some point in the 2nd half of their term but not like him.

Comment: Sun Myung Moon kept doing rallies, which the members had to support, even flying from country to country to fill the halls. Moon was so unpopular in Korea that his first rallies were held in the US. Only then did he return to Korea, claiming he was loved in the US. He did have photos of himself with Richard Nixon, and others, to wave around. The UC was always prepared for every photo-op and used the images for maximum leverage.

▲ Sun Myung Moon at his September 18, 1974, Madison Square Gardens rally. He used to practice in front of a mirror.

Joni Beehive:

I’ve lost dear old close friends of 30-40 years in the past 6 years over political beliefs. The current state of affairs in the United States is so heartbreaking and terrifying.

andan04:

An obvious trait of a cult is the pressure to conform to the leader and group. This is accomplished by suppressing independent thought with the threat of ostracization. Ask Liz Cheney if she knows anything about that.

M L.:

When lies have no consequences a democracy cannot exist.

David J.:

Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, who taught at Harvard Medical School, wrote a paper titled Cult Formation in the early 1980s. He delineated primary characteristics, which are the most common features shared by destructive cults like Trumpism.

1. A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power. That is a living leader, who has no meaningful accountability and becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of power and authority.

2. A process of indoctrination or education is in use that can be seen as coercive persuasion or thought reform commonly called “brainwashing”.

The culmination of this process can be seen by members of the group often doing things that are not in their own best interest, but consistently in the best interest of its leader.

3. The exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling members.

Here are some warning signs of a potentially unsafe group or leader.

• Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.

• No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.

• No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget or expenses, such as an independently audited financial statement.

• Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.

• Former followers are always wrong for leaving, negative or even evil.

• The group/leader is always right.

• The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing “truth” or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is acceptable or credible.

“This man is a genius at every level! Why can’t we all be like him? He must be something special, and we are clearly not. Ergo, let’s listen to him since he knows best.” — Trump supporters

Mark Green:

Attempting to use empathetic discussion with those who have fallen into a cult is perhaps the only way to slowly help them extract themselves from their delusion. This is not an easy process and it is especially difficult when they also keep getting cult supporting messages every day from other cult members as well as media sources such as Fox, OAN, Newsmax, etc. There is a small part of them, however, that knows they have accepted lies as truth and it is important to try to reach that part of themselves so they can work on themselves when they’re alone.

QueenFae21:

As a former cult member myself, i agree the first place you gotta get to is empathy for the people in there. Understand that they aren’t idiots or evil they were simply misled into a really deep hole and now they can’t even see daylight anymore, yet they think they are being bathed in the sunlight of truth. It’s unproductive to argue with them since they won’t accept anything that doesn’t align with dear leader’s word.

Nancy Chace:

Good interview. More like this is needed in the national discussion. What are the “tools of communication” she mentioned that can help diffuse this? She is a good example of the young people that were recruited by the “Unification church” back in the 70s. Apparently this happened all over the country shortly after the Vietnam war. There was a lot of it on the west coast. Glad she was one of the ones who got out if it. Thanks for your report.

David J:

“I have a chapter in the book on malignant narcissism as a characteristic of destructive cult leaders. These are people who have a deep need for grandiosity, to be the center of attention, who need to control others, and who lack empathy and lie without hesitation. These are psychological traits perfectly attuned to manipulation and projection.

But the malignant part is about sociopathic tendencies. Almost every cult leader thinks he’s above the law, which is why he’s allowed to persecute and harass or harm anyone he wants. When someone really believes this, they can rationalize all kinds of destructive behavior.” — Steven Hassan, The Cult of Trump

Narcissistic cult leaders like Trump thrive on chaos. They’ll create crisis situations. When they walk in the room, you never know if they’re going to be good and kind-hearted or be mean and call someone out or create some kind of dangerous situation.

A cult leader is also a master of manipulating information, so that his followers will only trust details that come from him. This is what Trump accomplishes every time he cries “fake news” or discredits a reporter as “terrible” or “nasty.” He knows that Americans have access to all sorts of information, so he has to make his followers distrust other sources.

A cult environment like “Q” and Trumpism discourages critical thinking, making it hard to voice doubts, when everyone around you is displaying dogmatic faith and obedience to their leader. A process of indoctrination is in use that can be seen as coercive persuasion, or thought reform, commonly called “brainwashing”. The resulting internal conflict, known as cognitive dissonance, keeps them trapped, as each compromise makes it more painful to admit that you’ve been deceived..

Steven Hassan, is an expert in cults and an ex-Moonie cult member (as in the Unification Church, founded by a Korean businessman, Sun Myung Moon), published “The Cult of Trump” last spring. When polled, Trump cultists come across as having abandoned their commitment to libertarianism, family values or simple logic in favor of Trump worship. They’re lost to paranoia and farcical talking points, just the way Hassan was lost to Sun Myung Moon..

Hassan remembers, during his Moonie days, shouting, “I don’t care if Moon is like Adolf-H. I’ve chosen to follow him, and I’ll follow him to the end.“ Hassan finally broke free, and became an expert on cults and how to leave them. He has spent his career proving it’s possible.

#cults #lies #brain manipulation #trump #trump cult #qanon #q #cult of trump #brain washing #white supremacy #white lies #religious games #religion

0 notes