I presume my Friday post was put behind the wall of protection because it contained a naughty word, but I must say I've used naughty words before without that happening. This seems to be a sign of the times.
Previously I had mused about the cult of Trumpism, and I got a comment to the effect that people turned to Trump because they had lost faith in government after being lied to repeatedly over the years. Since Trump never says a single word that isn't a lie, that seemed like a strange argument so I asked for examples and the ones I got were so ridiculous I couldn't publish them. They even included examples of people supposedly lying about Trump which in fact were entirely specious, and no that doesn't make any sense because it's out of chronological order. Hunter has it right. It's a cult of personality that isn't actually about anything else:
There's been another uptick in stories about the Republican base and their deep-seated political beliefs that turn on a dime whenever you bring up the surnames Trump or Biden. The funniest is probably the hapless Iowa business owner now famous for a CNN interview in which he praised the government's new grants that have really boosted his business, only to also oppose them because President Joe Biden did them. He simultaneously dumped on Donald Trump for being a terrible person while hoping the seditionist crime boss wins reelection.
But the same dynamic can also be found in angry mob form. It was The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey who pointed us to a glorious tidbit in the recent New Yorker pre-obituary of the Ron DeSantis campaign: Hunting for anti-Trump messaging they might use, the campaign found that 70% of polled Republicans agreed the pandemic lockdowns during the Trump presidency were bad. If they switched the language to a direct attack on Trump, calling them "Trump's COVID lockdowns," though, the numbers flipped completely. Seventy percent of Republicans wouldn't agree that those were bad. . . .
We have long known that reality can't hold a candle to what members of the Republican base want to believe inside their own noggins, but the Trump era has solidified that dichotomy. It now seems almost a point of pride for Republican politicians and voters alike to switch out their political beliefs not just by the day, but by the question. Almost the entirety of the party changes their positions to match whatever position Trump has last stated. It’s to the point where Republican Party officials didn't even try to draft up a new party platform for Trump's 2020 election, they just slapped together a We Support Whatever Dear Leader Thinks statement and called it done.
Of course this is entirely typical of authoritarian personality cults. Hitler and Stalin were both malignant narcissists and shameless liars. Whenever they changed their story, reality changed for their sheeplike followers. Orwell depicted this in 1984 with the device of the memory hole. I've seen various explanations for the psychology behind this, but basically, thinking for yourself is work. That's also why these fascists consistently use the device of demonization to rally their followers. There is always an "other" to be scorned and even exterminated. The Jews, the kulaks, gay and transgender people. Now Democrats are all "communists" and "marxists" and "elitists" who are laughing at you. (No, I'm not laughing.) Who is more elite than a man who inherited a fortune and got an Ivy League degree, and shits on a gold plated toilet? (Uh oh, Blogger is going to censor me for that.) Let me clue you in: he's the guy who's laughing at you, as he cashes the checks you send him. It's time for you to get woke.
4 comments:
Just stunningly, nauseatingly revolting.
The bigger the shit, the more people worship the shit that comes out of his mouth.
Shocking ... the degree to which so many people want to be debased by a Strong Daddy.
This is proof of how much trauma and abuse there is in the world, and in the not-so-good-ol' U S of A.
It all feels like home to these people.
I live across from an alcoholic family. The son is on his third felony, and the parents refuse to take any responsibility for his problems or getting him any help. They keep him at home and "dis-able" him. The daughter is dating another drunk, and they all hang out together. They live on a street filled with great neighbors, and they ignore them all, except for the son vandalizing their homes and harassing them. Fortunately, it's illegal for him to drive now so he can't keep using his car as a weapon, stalking people and beeping his horn ... but before, the drunk father kept buying the son a new car every time he cracked one up.
The irony here is that this family is politically Democrat! (Last I heard; they don't talk to neighbors. They live in their "enmeshed" pseudo-reality.) But you get the idea. Sexual and physical and emotional abuse feels like "home" to 30% of the American public. One in every three of four kids are sexually abused, physical and emotional abuse are rampant, and this is what becomes "normal" for people.
Here is what Trump followers believe, but best articulated by Vivek Ramaswamy.
You may not agree with any of it, but these are some of the core beliefs of Trump supporters.
All of this is antithetical to Progressive Democrats. To them, it's a "cult". Good luck with that.
"God is real. There are two genders. Human flourishing requires fossil fuels. Reverse racism is racism. An open border is no border. Parents determine the education of their children. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty. There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history."
That has got to be the biggest spew of bullshit I have ever encountered. In the first place, whether God is real or not is no concern of the president of the United States. (Actually Vivek Ramaswamy believes in multiple Gods, so that would be a strange reason to vote for him.) The scientific truth is that there are not two genders, which I may decide to go into here at some point, but again, what that has to do with the presidency? Human flourishing most definitely does not require fossil fuels, on the contrary, they're going to kill us all. The nuclear family is not a form of governance, it's a form of social organization, and not everyone is lucky enough to live in a nurturing nuclear family. If capitalism lifts people up from poverty, why are there so many poor people in capitalist countries? And what the fuck is that comment about a fourth branch of government? (I suppose it's the "deep state" or "administrative state" bullshit. Again, maybe I'll discuss that at some point.) Finally, I haven't heard that anybody wants to repeal the constitution, although certainly it could be improved, as it has been many times already.
Anyway, that's nothing but a torrent of idiocy. I don't know if being idiotic makes it a cult, but it's for damn sure really, really stupid.
I didn't say you had to agree with any of that. I'm just helping you understand what these voters are thinking.
If you have doubts, all you have to do is ask 'em.
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