As I said before, Trump may have the personality of a Cult leader, I may have that personality and a lot of people might, but you don't have a cult until you have a follower and an ideology. Trump is not an ideology, and while he may have a handful of fanatics who would be "followers", you can't simply state that any who disagrees with you is in the cult of Trump. How can we ever have any political discussion ever if those of you beating this drum, resort to it? It stops the discussion.
It doesn't matter what logical points you make, what facts you state, “nope, you are in the cult of trump” immediately lower your moral status and disregard whatever is said”
Consider this.
What is the main thing that that really makes a cult a cult? What keeps them together and going? Its not simply a “cult leader” it’s a system of control.
How do JWS keep the sheep in the heard? While there are several things that make a cult a cult, the most powerful tool is Political Correctness. Controlled language, which leads to controlled thought. Shaming and dismissing of dissenting views, censorship. These all run in the same vein and are the life blood of high control, group thinking cults. Political correctness serves to bring conformity, a lockstep in behavior.
Now let’s think about this in the context of the political climate of today in America. Where is the political correctness festering and growing? Which faction in today’s political spectrum uses isolation, threats, and routine shaming to silence those who cross them? The dreaded labels of “racist” “bigot” “trump supporter chills opposition in its tracks. The same way “apostate” or “suppressive person” does. Its not meant to challenge and idea, or a policy, its meant put you into a frame of mind where you will ostracize anyone for expressing an “incorrect” view, that is how cults thrive and maintain.
Bash Trump all you want, bash republicans, bash people that defending either when the criticism strays into the absurd, but that climate of controlling the very speech we use is spewing out of the left at an alarming rate. Who is shouting down speakers on college campuses? Inciting shaming mobs on social media?
Just this last week we have seen leftist mobs harassing members of Trumps administration, we have seen the likes of Maxine Waters calling for more of the same, we have seen the shaming, and shunning and its not coming from the Trump camp. Hell even if Trump wanted to, which perhaps he does, he could never wield a powerful propaganda campaign via the MSM. The MSM is political action arm of the Democratic party, and they are going off the rails. Out right lying, using false images that incite emotional responses, controlling the information bandwidth of millions.
Cults typically set up extreme us vs them dichotomies. People outside the cult are demonized and dehumanized. The divide between good and evil goes between the members of the sect and those on the outside.
In the last decade or so, polarization has been increasing dramatically in American politics, and the left largely drives this division. I hate to break it to you, but this started well before Trump. The right has moved little, and people who traditionally have defined themselves as liberal increasingly find themselves vilified for being “far right.” Cult 101
Cults usually see themselves as chosen ones, morally elevated above everyone else, with exclusive rights and privileges. This pattern also manifests itself on the left, particularly in intersectionality, or what in popular culture has been called Oppression Olympics. The most prominent victim is hailed as the greatest hero and gets to dictate the rules for everyone else. There is one set of rules for the members of the privileged left and another entirely for the rest of us.
But still, as mentioned before, the most tell tail sign of cult behavior is this prevalence towards intolerant political correctness to cult speech and dogma. Cults do not tolerate dissenters and independent thinking.
Any member who questions any tenet of the cult is severely reprimanded and ultimately ostracized. Even though I don’t really care what most celebrity’s views are on politics, you could see this in action in real time with Kanye West. Kanye expressed his opinion, and what happened? The “congregation” lost their shit. It is a well-known public secret that being openly conservative in Hollywood is the same as never getting hired. When the famous gay editor Chadwick Moore came out of the closet as conservative, he received death threats and lost most of his friends overnight.
The Cato 2017 Free Speech and Tolerance poll found that 71% of Americans believe political correctness has silenced important discussions in society, and 58% believe the political climate prevents them from sharing their political views. Where is that coming from? That fear to express your beliefs reflects a level of intolerance we usually associate with despotic regimes, not with a supposedly free society.
So you guys can make all the Trump cult BS comments you want, that’s fine. But if you and I want to debate a political subject, when you play the card that me or anyone like me is in the “trump cult” all you are doing is censoring discussion without effort.
