When I was young I couldn't understand the Jonestown mass suicide.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Link to tweet

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[Newest Reality]

1. That makes the point.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. That's what cults can do to you.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

3. yep - that's how cults work. nt

[Music Man]

4. I have thought a lot about Jonestown in recent months.

Been thinking about and researching cults in general, actually, ever since the talk about "the economy is worth dying for" started to enter the discussion.

Like a lot of cults, Trumpism begins to creep in little by little before people realize they're in it. It starts with talk radio and Fox News and Newt Gingrich dehumanizing anyone with Democrat attached to their name. Mix in the internet and you have a cesspool of misinformation and angry, anonymous rhetoric.

At first, the worst candidate you can imagine is George Bush--an oaf who is in over his head and surrounds himself with bad people. Then Sarah Palin, an unqualified person whose selection was meant to rile up the base. The next step in the progression is Trump, a complete clown, uninterested in anything about the world or other people. But if you are a voter who has been desensitized to this kind of rhetoric for nearly 30 years, it is all you know of the world.

[shockey80]

5. The same goes for the German people of the 30's,40's.

I always wondered how so many people, not all stupid, could fall for Hitler's bullshit. He didn't hide the fact he was nuts. Now we know.

[Paladin]

6. Germany in the 30's. I think of it over and over again. (nt)

[AnotherMother4Peace]

7. Heaven's Gate cult members had themselves castrated...would trumpsters do

that if he commanded? I wonder what kind of orders they would follow. Could a fake order to wear masks work? I know they've been tricked in the past to sing stupid songs, and show up at bogus places. I wonder.

Heaven's Gate 39 cult members all committed suicide by self poisoning.