The Trump cult

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I do watch some of these and find it amazing how stupid the people are. But then I remember it's television, so I'm sure this is the bottom of the barrel of those interviewed.

I honestly wish they would show some of the interviews with intelligent people as I wonder how they were bamboozled.
 


I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is.
I don’t wonder anymore. I think he won for that exact reason. Because he carried at least one broken shard to reflect the broken shards in millions of others.
If you’re a racist, you found your guy. If you’re a misogynist, you found your guy. If money is your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart is armored shut, you found your guy. If you mock the disabled, you found your guy. If intelligence makes you insecure, you found your guy. If you’re a sexual predator, you found your guy. If you trade in humiliation and conspiracy and filth, you found your guy.
If you’ve never done a single hour of emotional inventory, you found your guy. If you cheat, stiff contractors, bankrupt your obligations, and call it savvy, you found your guy. If you lie as easily as you breathe, you found your guy. If cruelty feels like strength, you found your guy. If white grievance is your comfort food, you found your guy. If your ego is a black hole no title can fill, you found your guy. If warmongering fuels your ego, you found your guy, If empathy feels like weakness and dominance feels like oxygen, you found your guy.
If he’d only carried one or two of these pathologies, he might have been dismissed as just another loud, damaged man. But he carried a buffet of them. That was the appeal. Millions could locate themselves somewhere in the wreckage. They didn’t have to agree with all of it. They just had to recognize a piece of themselves in it.
It was never really about him. It was about the validation. The absolution. The permission. He didn’t invent the resentment; he amplified it. He didn’t create the cruelty; he normalized it. He gave millions the intoxicating relief of hearing their ugliest impulses echoed back at rally volume.
Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”
And that’s the part that should chill us.
Because what does it say about us that so many were thinking those things? That tens of millions of Americans harbored resentments so deep, so seething, that they were simply waiting for a demagogue to baptize them as virtue? That after decades of supposed progress on race, gender, and equality, so many white men felt so threatened, so displaced, so furious, that cruelty became a political platform?
Maybe we were living in a fool’s paradise, mistaking silence for healing, politeness for progress.
Now the mask is off. Now we know.
And knowing is a far more dangerous place to stand.
– Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.
 
dukeman92 said:


I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is.
I don’t wonder anymore. I think he won for that exact reason. Because he carried at least one broken shard to reflect the broken shards in millions of others.
If you’re a racist, you found your guy. If you’re a misogynist, you found your guy. If money is your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart is armored shut, you found your guy. If you mock the disabled, you found your guy. If intelligence makes you insecure, you found your guy. If you’re a sexual predator, you found your guy. If you trade in humiliation and conspiracy and filth, you found your guy.
If you’ve never done a single hour of emotional inventory, you found your guy. If you cheat, stiff contractors, bankrupt your obligations, and call it savvy, you found your guy. If you lie as easily as you breathe, you found your guy. If cruelty feels like strength, you found your guy. If white grievance is your comfort food, you found your guy. If your ego is a black hole no title can fill, you found your guy. If warmongering fuels your ego, you found your guy, If empathy feels like weakness and dominance feels like oxygen, you found your guy.
If he’d only carried one or two of these pathologies, he might have been dismissed as just another loud, damaged man. But he carried a buffet of them. That was the appeal. Millions could locate themselves somewhere in the wreckage. They didn’t have to agree with all of it. They just had to recognize a piece of themselves in it.
It was never really about him. It was about the validation. The absolution. The permission. He didn’t invent the resentment; he amplified it. He didn’t create the cruelty; he normalized it. He gave millions the intoxicating relief of hearing their ugliest impulses echoed back at rally volume.
Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”
And that’s the part that should chill us.
Because what does it say about us that so many were thinking those things? That tens of millions of Americans harbored resentments so deep, so seething, that they were simply waiting for a demagogue to baptize them as virtue? That after decades of supposed progress on race, gender, and equality, so many white men felt so threatened, so displaced, so furious, that cruelty became a political platform?
Maybe we were living in a fool’s paradise, mistaking silence for healing, politeness for progress.
Now the mask is off. Now we know.
And knowing is a far more dangerous place to stand.
– Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.
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These kinds of people have always been in America, and for generations they did dominate large sections of the country, especially the South. Blacks in the South (and some other parts of the country) lived in fear and terror of these kinds of people well into at least the 1960s, as they controlled the government and law enforcement from the state to local level. Now these people see things slipping away from them and for brief while they didn't feel "free" to express their bigotries in the way they and their parents and grandparents had always been able to, and they resented and hated it. And then Trump came along and "freed" them to be their ugliest and worst selves. That's what MAGA is really all about. And so here we are.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
These kinds of people have always been in America, and for generations they did dominate large sections of the country, especially the South. Blacks in the South (and some other parts of the country) lived in fear and terror of these kinds of people well into at least the 1960s, as they controlled the government and law enforcement from the state to local level. Now these people see things slipping away from them and for brief while they didn't feel "free" to express their bigotries in the way they and their parents and grandparents had always been able to, and they resented and hated it. And then Trump came along and "freed" them to be their ugliest and worst selves. That's what MAGA is really all about. And so here we are.
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💯 and that is what's so troubling about the young GOP group chat full of hatred and racism. These young people will grow up and be lawyers and judges and politicians. They will shape laws and policy and the direction of our country. What's left of it anyway. We're going backwards at a rapid rate of speed.
 
dukeman92 said:
💯 and that is what's so troubling about the young GOP group chat full of hatred and racism. These young people will grow up and be lawyers and judges and politicians. They will shape laws and policy and the direction of our country. What's left of it anyway. We're going backwards at a rapid rate of speed.
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We're not going backwards. They are just comfortable revealing themselves again. Many of these Republicans come from the madrasas of the Christian academies established in the 60s and 70s after the Civil Rights Act.
 
dukeman92 said:
💯 and that is what's so troubling about the young GOP group chat full of hatred and racism. These young people will grow up and be lawyers and judges and politicians. They will shape laws and policy and the direction of our country. What's left of it anyway. We're going backwards at a rapid rate of speed.
Click to expand...
After seemingly making forward progress with Obama. I think the fact Obama was black and such a great POTUS really pissed a lot of white people off. They didn’t like the direction our country was going in and you are now seeing the results of that hatred and animosity.
 
Everyone thought the maga cult was bad prior to this war, but you're about to see some extreme pretzeling into why paying this much more for gas and everyday goods is worth it and they voted for it.
 
lightbluenc said:
Everyone thought the maga cult was bad prior to this war, but you're about to see some extreme pretzeling into why paying this much more for gas and everyday goods is worth it and they voted for it.
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They don’t care. I am already hearing the excuses from them. They always redirect and make up an excuse as to why this is not Trumps fault. It’s pathetic
 
theel4life said:
They don’t care. I am already hearing the excuses from them. They always redirect and make up an excuse as to why this is not Trumps fault. It’s pathetic
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Oh, yeah. I'm sure they (via Fox News and other right-wing outlets) will be arguing that this is all somehow Biden or Obama or the Democrat's fault in no time. It's what they do.
 
tarheelbillie said:
Considering the evolution of the modern GOP, the eventuality of a “Trump-like” hijacking the party was foreseeable. Even inevitable.
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Yep. Basically the Kevin McCarthys and Cheneys and Lindsey Grahams and Karl Roves - the wealthy GOP business elite and their lackeys - thought they could gain and maintain power by appealing to the bigotries and sexism and homophobia and class and social resentments of white working-class people. In effect they'd wage an all-out culture war so they could gain power and implement what they really cared about, which were massive tax cuts and deregulation and the gutting of government programs created as far back as the Progressive Era and New Deal, all to enrich themselves beyond belief. And in their arrogance they thought they could just throw a few culture war bones and some red meat at their base to keep them voting Republican and that they could maintain control of the party and that all would be well.

And they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, but they gradually lost control of the monster they created and now it's been steadily turning on them, one by one. Some, like Cheney and McCarthy (and Thom Tillis for that matter), have already been driven from power (if not wealth), while others like Graham are reduced to being suck ups and toadies to a guy like Trump to stay in office. They created a Frankenstein monster that they no longer fully control, although certainly they've achieved most of their initial goals, so I doubt many of them care, although my guess is that people like McCarthy and Lynne Cheney (and Elise Stefanik and others) are bitter about how things ended for them. I don't believe that any of these people (most of the GOP elite) are sincere culture warriors. and they've always known their culture-war bullshit was a lie, which in some ways makes their actions even more despicable than the true believers in the party.
 
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