It's not a cult

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:It’s more of a religious thing. Not in q way, like an evangelical 🤲 way. Like in a mega church, the pastor is talking and they all put up their hands like that.

That’s not to say it isn’t a cult, the opposite actually they are at a politics rally and acting like they are at a religious ceremony which is insane

Trump is taking the voters where he can find them.

Turtleneck wrote:

DWags wrote:Our country really does have mental health issues.

...current state of the republic...



The worst part about watching American democracy slowly unravel is that few people seem to notice or care. I am sure our country's sons and daughters, well at least our sons, will enjoy the coming Christian theocracy.

Let's wait a while before we plant the US 6 feet under.

Keeping your delusions "classy" and believing they are "the truth" ?

They are the type of Christians that I met when I was 6 and invited to a classmate's birthday party where the mother tries to convert every child to her style to Christianity, by taking each one individually into a separate room and explaining in a parent mode how we were sinners and needed to accept her version of JC as our lord. (When my mother heard this, she called the "lady" and gave her what for).  This was in Ishpeming in 1960, this stuff has been around for a long time.

Also, some of my first cousins are members of this cult, though they are smart enough not to pull that sort of stuff at family gatherings, since they are hugely outnumbered, still, for my retirement party one of them gave me as part of their gift to me, a long-handwritten letter as to why I should accept JC as my lord.  Very nice people, except for this obsession, but there is no talking to them about why they are obsessed.  It just turning their pity for you that you are not.

It is mob phycology at work.

sεяεηιτλ wrote:

e hugely outnumbered, still, for my retirement party one of them gave me as part of their gift to me, a long-handwritten letter as to why I should accept JC as my lord. Very nice people, except for this obsession, but their is no talking to them about why they are obsessed. It just turning their pity for you that you are not.

It's fear.  Pure, adulterated fear.  Adulterated by DT and others taking advantage of their fear.

Their fear leads them down a road "if they ain'ts us, theys the enemy". And the GOP thrives on that kind of hate juice. I'm OK with this if that's how they want to live their life but they have gone beyond the singular and are trying to convert the rest of the country - by any means necessary, even violence.

Imagine letting other people be who they want to be?  Sounds like freedom, to me.  The type of freedom they are always going on about.  But it's never actually been about freedom, it's been about fear.  They want what they want and call it freedom, the stuff they fear, well, that ain't freedom.  

I read recently about a republican state (i think idaho?) who implemented book bans on books with pornographic content.  They banned a bunch of books.  Then a clever parent submitted for the bible to be banned and by the letter of their dumb law, it likely qualifies.  Meanwhile it's under review and the state legislatures are trashing on the people who are pushing for the ban and saying that's not what they intended.  They simply want laws against what they hate/fear, it's not about freedom.  Even when they write stupid laws and it has unintended consequences, they don't even care anymore.  It's pure censorship.  This is why it's so important to keep fighting them absolutely everywhere even when it is already exhausting.

Fear might be true for many, however that is not, as far as I can tell, the case for my cousins, who are 50/50 on vaccinations.  My first cousins, once removed, the children of my first cousin are split on these issues.  The oldest and their spouse are in despair  regarding the youngest, and his refusal to be vaccinated for covid.

My point is that it is more complex than just stereotyping these people.

sεяεηιτλ wrote:

Trapper Gus wrote:

Fear might be true for many, however that is not, as far as I can tell, the case for my cousins, who are 50/50 on vaccinations.  My first cousins, once removed, the children of my first cousin are split on these issues.  The oldest and their spouse are in despair  regarding the youngest, and his refusal to be vaccinated for covid.

My point is that it is more complex than just stereotyping these people.

Sure, obviously I am generalizing.  But I would argue that even most reasoning that on the surface don't appear to be fear based is still actually fear based.  Look closely, you are likely to find fear.

I can only speak, from experience, about my cousins, whom I have known all their lives, and who are lifelong Baptists, being introduced into that cult by their parents.  They have college degrees and work in positions which require them, as do their kids.  While I haven't observed any overt racism it is not a topic that has come up in conversations, so I don't know what their awareness of white privilege issues is.  They have said nothing cringeworthily.  The few church gatherings I have attended (weddings, funerals) have been mostly white, however race is not something I notice, so I cannot say 100%.

However, my family has ancestor privilege on its mind, having branches of these which arrived in North American in the 1600's, which isn't an entitlement per say, but might overwhelm any white privilege tendencies.

The attitudes I have seen are the basic "Saved Baptist" ones of pity and concern for those not "Saved", which, as I said, the children mute at family gatherings as did their parents, after my mother and her brother apparently had a discussion once which caused my mother to limit her visits to her brother's family.  It would have been about religious beliefs, not societal justice's ones.

Thus with that background, I can say that before all this malarky about the "wedge issues" we see today, there was a group of people who believed they had the answers to how to live your life and who annoyingly tried to get everyone else to follow their belief, without political persuasion, such as the Christian Nationalists today. As "plank owners of this country" my entire family strongly believes in "freedom of conscious", and that group still exists as part of the evangel christian movement.  It is not a monolith.

edit - I will say that these people are people who probably voted for Trump without seeing what he is, though they may not have, they actually are mostly sane except for being Baptists, is a problem.

Turtleneck wrote:[tw]1639358835302227972?s=46&t=XB9355v50Oo7NvNqeRt4Dg[/tw]

So this lady made it onto the "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" NPR news quiz show this week in the unbelievable section.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/10/the-christian-liberal-arts-school-at-the-heart-of-the-culture-wars

A school that shuts other viewpoints out is not a liberal arts school.

It is a reeducation camp run by conservatives.

DWags wrote:[tw]1766835718314176931?s=46&t=o_-92Ldle66XHQBlJVUMFQ[/tw]

Never let the truth get in the way of a lie that works emotionally.

AvgMSUJoe wrote:So when he dies... Will the cult fall apart or will someone even more evil take over.
Trump's a moron and conman and super self absorbed, someone with half a brain with his power would be even more frightening.

Is there someone else with the popularity Trump has?

I don't know, however these movements with loyalty to a leader tend to lessen when the leader isn't there anymore.

Billy Graham's son doesn't have the following his father did for instance.