It's a Cult

[superpatriotman]

A massive, brainwashed cult.

Years of brainwashing have created this monster. It may take more than nice words, flattering stories and massive blue waves to de program our fellow populace.

On a personal note, I nearly came to blows yesterday with a long term business acquaintance who had an answer to every truth I threw at him. His thoughts and beliefs were ridiculous, but seemed true to him.

Scary stuff indeed if you've not engaged one of these cult members.

[get the red out]

1. Decades

By the RW radio hate-mongers and then Fox News. They primed the cult for their great leader to appear, they will still be around after he's gone from the world stage.

Edit to add, I have also experienced engaging with one of the "cult members", and it is just like if you told someone their religion was BS.

[skypilot]

7. I think it goes way beyond Fox and RW radio.

I posted about this a while back. I think that things like Amway, RW think tanks, Christian colleges, and prosperity gospel have been turning out brainwashed cult members for quite some time now. With things like Amway it's probably been for at least a couple generations.

[get the red out]

15. Very good point

There are MANY entities on the "right" who are driving this cult conversion, and have been for a very long time.

[gopiscrap]

22. totally agree

[LisaM]

40. Trace it back to at least 1979

This is worldwide, and two of the charismatic (to some, anyway) figures that the market capitalists used to advance their agenda were the Ayatollah and Margaret Thatcher (Reagan did their bidding, but was far less significant). They yoked it to the forces of right-wing religion. That combination has been lethal.

[The_jackalope]

50. I see it going back to the 1971 Powell Memo.

The Powell Memo (also known as the Powell Manifesto)

In 1971, Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Though Powell’s memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration’s “hands-off business” philosophy.

Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building

[Duppers]

9. "if you told someone their religion was BS."

That's it!
Coincidentally, that's exactly what I told my hubs last night about my RWNJ brother. There's is no chance of his accepting facts; he's hopelessly brainwashed and will not read or listen to anything but other RWNJs.

(Hubs and I are awash in a sea of them here. Gawd, do I ever appreciate DU and msnbc's Rachel.)

[underpants]

51. Lies! It's all lies! You are being lied to. Only *I* know the truth.

Don't listen to your friends or family they are just lying to you. They always have. I know the truth so ignore everything and everyone else. Only listen to me.

THAT is the basis of talk radio and then Fox News. Pure cult tactic number 1.

[dem4decades]

2. I have a former friend I haven't spoken to this year.

Last year he was kind enough to send me an "editorial" "written by Doris Kerns Goodwin" about all the good things Trump does that goes unknown. My name was on a list of others that received it.

I did some quick research and couldn't find any record of her writing it. i sent an email back telling him it was a fake.

Months later I learned about the Russian misinformation campiagn, I don't know if they were the source of that editorial but to this day I consider that my friend sent me Russian lies.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. Yikes! Obviously Doris Kearns Goodwin said nothing like that

She's a historian - and she's been making the rounds promoting her book - comparing him to previous presidents, she has not been kind to Trump:

[Brainstormy]

13. agree. There's just no way that

Kearns said that.

[KPN]

21. Creating their own truth. Not unlike their

reading and interpretation of the Bible.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. I've totally stopped talking to right-wingers....

for the sake of my BP and sanity. It's a shameful thing to admit because this is a crucial time where we all need to be engaged with our fellow citizens on many, many issues. Republicans have cleverly build a thick wall of division in an attempt to conquer America, and done so with tons of financial support. This is what most commercial interests around the world want as well.

I found years ago these people suffer from a very high degree of confirmation bias and only listen to info coming from within their own bubble from Faux News, Limbaugh, et al, their own peer groups and many churches. Part of the brainwashing involves throwing doubt on any source outside their bubble.

We need an effective nation-wide campaign to call our the lies, perhaps using billboards and TV spots. At their core, I think most people hate being lied to and deceived.

Bubbles only collapse when enough holes are poked through them......

[Duppers]

12. Exactly! We needs ways to put truth in their faces.

They do indeed live in bubbles. Billboards and tv ads would be great.

[KPN]

23. Hasn't worked one bit in my case. Our best hope

is that they are a dying breed. Far more millennials (many of them children of educated RWNJs) reject their fictional truths and alternative facts than buy into and embrace them. No amount of fact-based arguments or persuasion will change their thinking. They are for the most part a lost cause. We need to outlast them.

[Merlot]

52. Hoping they will die out is not a solution.

There are young ones to replace them every day, and it doesn't take a majority. Look at how the republicans with their less than majority approval ratings on most the issues have strangled the country and taken over with cheating, gerrymandering, voter suppression, outright lying, etc.

Waiting for "them to die" is a passive solution and they are very agressive.

[KPN]

55. I agree. Who's waiting? That's why voting Dem is so

important. We aren’t going to re-educate or persuade them with facts, rational arguments or other communications-based means. We have to beat them despite their underhanded means. Beating them at the polls will not change their thinking, beliefs, ideology or values however. Only time will do that.

[Maggiemayhem]

47. Excellent summary

[lancelyons]

5. agreed brainwashing has caused this.

And Fox news and Rush Limburger are the catalysts.

[Texin]

6. I've run into quite a few of these folks.

And I've found that they're a great deal like extreme evangelicals. With that group of true believers, I can shut them up with four words: "I am an atheist." Their mouths open and they can't think of anything else to say. With the tRump ride or die-rs there's nothing that will ever change them. I believe he could personally come to their houses and torch them to the ground and they would remain implacably behind him and they'd believe they'd done something to personally justify his actions.

[Kurt V.]

8. my family is seriously

Considering an intervention for my youngest sister and her husband bc of their cult worship of trump. Unimaginable less thanv2 years ago.

[KPN]

24. Good luck with that. If they are also evangelical

(so-called) Christians, they are a lost case. At least that has been my experience with 2 siblings (there are 8 of us in all). We six have not made a dent; not even the 2 evangelical (real) Christians among us who outright reject Trump and the current GOP.

[Kurt V.]

26. They're not religious. It's an Alex Jones fixation with

tRump as a proxy. thanks for the luck, we're gonna need it.

[Mariana]

36. Are you sure they aren't religious?

From what you describe, it sounds as if Trump the object of their worship, and Alex Jones is their prophet.

[Kurt V.]

42. i guess that could be considered religion.

but they don't talk about god or jesus.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

43. I hate what this has done to my family (and others)

My two brothers no longer speak to each other since the election. It has only gotten worse.

This man has divided this country like no one has since the Civil War.

I know of so many families who have experienced the same scenario. It is just so sad.

[TwistOneUp]

54. You don't have to be ...

"not even the 2 evangelical (real) Christians"

You don't have to be an evangelical to be a "real" Christian. Some would argue that 'gelicals are fake Christians ("CINO" ) who are on a power trip.

[KPN]

56. I would take it further and say you don't have

to be anything more than a loving, kind, good person to be Christian.

[TwistOneUp]

57. Nolo Contendere! nt

[LuckyLib]

30. You wonder what huge vacuum of purpose and meaning

in folks’ lives causes them to grab on to such craziness. We’re a culture of few meaningful connections — and the new team affiliation is Trump World. Best of luck with your efforts.

[superpatriotman]

31. I find they tend to be ignored,

know-it-alls, with something to prove

[Firestorm49]

10. Each day we get closer to anarchy.

The latest acts of cowardice on the part of some still unknown attempted bomber play like butter in the hands of Putin. The sowing of division in America couldn’t make him happier, hence his statement that America, as a super power, is over.

The unpopularly elected stooge (plant) in the White House is doing his very infantile best to fulfill his role for mother Russia, and it’s working. Grade school rallies that condone not only violence but ignorance from the unpopularly elected guy (boy) are destroying our democracy. Yet, hard working Republicans - not even his illiterate base, but educated people, still find some kind of worth in him. It’s beyond comprehension.

Day by day we inch (race) toward fascism, yet what’s his name, the fool with the unsecure cell phone, still has a following. The parallels to fascism, Hitler, Stalin, Duterte’ are frightening, and I can only hope that behind the scenes our intellegence apparatus will quell the situation in any means they must use, before outright revolt is upon us, because as much as I am a pacifist, this is frightening.

[lark]

11. Geeze, I'm now dreading my trip to TX for a family reunion.

I have to go, I have 2 aunts I dearly love who are 90 and 93 so this will probably be the last time I get to see them. There's supposed to be 85 people there as mom comes from a family of 12. The problem is these are all Repugs (maybe 2-3 aren't, not sure?) and some of them were terrible racists and rednecks even 33 years ago when I saw them last. Mom and dad were alive then, so I hung out with them & my few cousins that I liked and have hope that they aren't trumpers. Things have gotten much more polarized, so I'm a little nervous about this. I will not start a confrontation, but it will be hard to avoid one if they confront me, especially about kidnapping children and the bombs. My sister wants me to just keep my mouth shut and stand there, but don't think I can do that. I will tell them I disagree but haven't seen them in 30+ years so let's not talk about that and will walk away if they persist. I do have a temper though, so this will be a big challenge. Hopefully if I just hang with my aunts and sister I can manage not to get in a verbal fight. So sad when drumpf and repugs have done and are still doing daily to destroy us as a nation of constitutional laws.

[PaulX2]

14. Wear A Bernie Hat

It's what I did. My "conservative" classmates never brought up politics once all day.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

44. Or make a ground rule before the reunion:

NO POLITICS. Just family fun, enjoying each other's company, catching up, sharing memories. Pictures. Food. Games. Love.

[lark]

58. That's what we did and it worked out excellently.

I heard a couple of cousins from rural West Texas talking about drumpf, but guess they knew to keep that talk away from me. There was so much love and acceptance, I am so very glad we went. It's funny, my most liberal cousin told me she had threatened her brother (a trumper) not to talk politics with me, or else. So after the formal reunion, most of us were going to one of our aunts to hang out and eat a late dinner. Bryan, her brother, asked me if he could come too, but I had to promise not to fight with him. I hugged him and said how about neither one of us talks about that and we'll be awesome. He hugged me back, agreed, and all had a great time.

[Manastash]

16. Critical Thinking Skills

Instead of brainwashing I feel it is a result of preventing the development of critical thinking skills. In an attempt to control people the importance of critical thinking skills are not being emphasized in our children. You can see this through out history in autocratic societies. What ever the king or master says is taken at face value. I’m a heath care provider and without the skills to evaluate the information which is available many people would have died. It is an important skill and leaders meed to embrace their actions to be evaluated for defects.

I had a friend who turned into a snow filled corn field one winter when the GPS said turn right now. Our country is turning into many snow filled corn fields.

[Moostache]

18. I agree 100%

The attacks and tactics used to buttress support for things like cigarette companies, young earth creationists and climate change deniers all follow a common playbook - attack the foundation of the scientific method to discredit legitimate reasons why their preferred outcome is bunk.

Cigarette manufacturers pioneered the approach which put simply is keeping flinging poo at the other monkeys until you obscure the view enough to cloud an issue in the minds of those who are easily swayed. They start by saying "there is no consensus opinion that cigarettes cause cancer or are addictive or that nicotine is addictive"...they produce paid "experts" who endorse their positions for a paycheck and then they project that flaw onto the legitimate researchers and true experts (this has been especially potent in their fight against climate change mitigation and response).

I hate them all with the fury of a supernova.

[UCmeNdc]

17. These Trump followers worship Trump like a new religion.

There is no way to reason with them.

[superpatriotman]

32. With apologies to Duran Duran:

"I can't help myself, it's a new religion..."

[jmbar2]

19. Did a quick check of Google images for "Magabomber"

It is stunning. It's not just our homegrown morons doing this. Every information warrior in the world has been pumping out false-flag, civil war memes overnight. Isn't some way to use their gullibility to walk them back to reality? Reverse engineer their susceptibility to misinformation and resentment?

We need to keep in mind George Lakoff's rules for information framing while this is going on. Never argue against their frame because it reinforces it. You have to work outside of the framing completely - in essence, find a more viral reframe.

[democratisphere]

20. Rupert's Racists

The cult of cults.

[yuiyoshida]

25. Indeed...helped in part by

Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

[hostalover]

29. I remember the first time I ever heard my brother say he "really liked"

Rush Limbaugh, several years ago. I was horrified. We were raised in the same home by our solidly liberal mother and her sisters. I don't know what happened to him. We barely speak now. It is so damned frustrating. I can't stand being around him. We're both in our 70's. He will be insufferable if his side "wins."

[Grins]

34. Imagine what he will be like if his side "loses"! NM

[hostalover]

37. Ahhh. I hope to find out!

[Mariana]

38. Propaganda works.

Some people are more susceptible than others, but as a general thing, propaganda works.

[yuiyoshida]

39. Also there are some areas where there is only one or two

Radio stations broadcasting, which is why "hate" radio is so prevalent. Sinclair Broadcast Group is one of the Conservative corporations that have bought up many radio stations.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

45. You forgot Hannity.

He practically drools over trmp. It is revolting.

[Rural_Progressive]

27. If you are interested in understanding the root cause of our current dilema

I can not recommend this book too highly.

Once you are aware of the origins of our Nation you will have a greater appreciation for how amazing it is we've managed to last this long. Truth is, we probably should have been a continent of small countries organized along the lines of the European Union.

I suspect I will run into some resistance regarding my statement. Unless you've read the book or one like it please don't waste your time. I have an extensive education and am very interested in the "real" history of this Nation and until I read this book I couldn't figure out how all the pieces fit, now I do and it makes understanding the "whack jobs" much easier (and much more frightening)

Presented for your consideration:

American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard

[Haggis for Breakfast]

46. Excellent recommendation.

Here's another : "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. It's told from the viewpoint of those who did not win.

[Nitram]

28. Yes, it is a cult. A Cult of Personality around Donald Dump.

Makes you wonder if there is something in the water. I suspect the absolute worst thing that could happen would be if Trump were assassinated or died suddenly of a stroke or heart attack. Then they'd have a martyr. Cults love martyrs. And his followers wouold be spared the specatacle of their god being tried in court and jailed for life.

[Rizen]

33. Very true.

Republicans are a cult.

[lpbk2713]

35. They're an angry mob.

They'll swallow anything Faux throws at them. It is gospel from then on.

[Grins]

41. Been there!!!

Oh, I've been, and still are, there.

Like many of us, I regularly get those Reich-wing emails filled with crap about Obama, "Liberals", the" Mooselims", Pelosi, Waters, Soros, voter fraud, debt/deficits, MeToo, BLM and Kaepernick, Nike, the list is endless. It is almost always a "Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd:". I'm one of about 15 on the distribution that originates by three people - who are DOCTORS! An MD and two dentists, so, supposedly - effing literate!

And what I do: I answer every one of them! And they hate that. I used to be polite and say, "Uhhhh, no. That's not true. Here's why..." and lay it out. Caught - I get no response back. Most of the time.

Once it was a certain person's "Kenyan birth" and one of those dentists asked for proof. So I found it. In detail. With PICTURES!!! I got a disclaimer "How can you know that? Prove it!", so I went into detail on the source, again - With PICTURES!!! That seemed to have satisfied him. I thought. Two weeks later, same guy, the same birth lies repeated.

After a couple years of that they no longer argue back with any proof or argument; and two of those doctors, now angry, now call me "asshole".

And now, I return the compliment!

"Conservatives who received a correction telling them that Iraq did not have [Weapons of Mass Destruction] were more likely to believe that Iraq had WMD." Rather than improving understanding, fact-checking reinforced the mistaken belief." - Brendan Nyhan, now at Dartmouth College, and Jason Reifler, now at the University of Exeter, 2010.

Go figure.

It doesn't matter how many times you go back and explain, point by point where they are wrong. I once got a Gish-gallop type email with about 15 shots at Democrats, liberals, whatever. And one-by-one I took it apart, without once saying, "How effing stupid are you?" But out of that 15 there was ONE that had a tiny bit of truth. And what I got back was, "Ah ha!! So it's true."

That one partial truth negated all the other provably false hits.

"In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger." - Brendan Nyhan, now at Dartmouth College, who did that study.

This is a base so willfully meatbag-stupid that they will obediently ignore the rubble of one Republican catastrophe after another. The same people who fervently believe that Hillary Clinton ran a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor, refuse to entertain the possibility that Roy Moore used his position and authority to finger-fuck a 14 year-old white (of course!) girl and other young women and teenage girls. He still got 68% of the white vote.

You are right. They are cult-like. You will not change their minds (unless it is something that hits them personally, like health care, or a hurricane that takes all they have.)

[KY_EnviroGuy]

48. K&R. Thanks for sharing. I do admire your efforts.

I did some reading again recently about confirmation bias to refresh my poor memory. Seems that I also recall reading that when people are presented with contradictory evidence to one of their hard-held beliefs, rather than researching it and perhaps changing, they're prone to just reach out for further reinforcement of their existing belief - which is very easy to do in the right-wing sphere, or bubble.

It's a sad statement on the human condition and our fear of change or of being wrong!

Years ago, in the process of participating in a recovery program, I learned that I had to be willing to look at my side of the fence with any issue and be willing to see and accept my part in the deal - whether I'm right or wrong. With these issues in politics, I do feel our side is right in siding with love and equality, a sharing society with strong civil community, and a government that serves the people's will. We also believe that lying to the public and deceiving us is wrong.

So, I admit I am strongly biased toward those beliefs and see no logic in changing!........

[Hassler]

49. Uh, way: Cult 45

[TwistOneUp]

53. It's not a cult. It's religion.

It's fundagelicalism. Fundamentalists and evangelicals. Christian terrorism.

Know the difference between a cult and a religion? Cults don't have bingo.