Comments by "" (@DavidJ222) on "QAnon and Trump: Hear what his supporters think" video.
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"I have a chapter in the book on malignant narcissism as a characteristic of destructive cult leaders. These are people who have a deep need for grandiosity, to be the center of attention, who need to control others, and who lack empathy and lie without hesitation. These are psychological traits perfectly attuned to manipulation and projection.
But the malignant part is about sociopathic tendencies. Almost every cult leader thinks he’s above the law, which is why he’s allowed to persecute and harass or harm anyone he wants. When someone really believes this, they can rationalize all kinds of destructive behavior."
--Steven Hassan, The Cult of Trump
Narcissistic cult leaders like Trump thrive on chaos. They'll create crisis situations. When they walk in the room, you never know if they're going to be good and kind-hearted or be mean and call someone out or create some kind of dangerous situation.
A cult leader is also a master of manipulating information, so that his followers will only trust details that come from him. This is what Trump accomplishes every time he cries "fake news" or discredits a reporter as "terrible" or "nasty." He knows that Americans have access to all sorts of information, so he has to make his followers distrust other sources.
During a press conference back on March 20, Trump said to reporters: "Really, we should probably get rid of about another 75, 80 percent of you. I'll have just two or three that I like in this room." That's a textbook tactic of every demagogic dictator and cult leader throughout history.
Trump's followers use a Christian-right formula that believes that Trump anointing himself as the "Chosen One" justifies his abuses of power. Former congressman Zach Wamp, now a member of The Family, the evangelical organization that hosts Trump every year at the National Prayer Breakfast, called Trump a "vessel of God." Lance Wallnau, a founding member of Trump’s evangelical coalition, dubs him “God’s chaos candidate”: “the self-made man who can ‘get it done,’ enters the arena, and through the pressure of circumstance becomes the God-shaped man God enables to do what he could never do in his own strength.” 😲
Jesse Lee Peterson is a right-wing "pastor," certifiedNutter, and talk show host, who calls Trump “the Great White Hope.” When Rep. Elijah Cummings passed away last October, Peterson declared on his radio show, “He dead”—like Trump enemies John McCain and Charles Krauthammer, Peterson noted. “That’s what happens when you mess with the Great White Hope. Don’t mess with God’s children.” 😲
A cult environment like Trumpism discourages critical thinking, making it hard to voice doubts, when everyone around you is displaying dogmatic faith and obedience to their leader. The resulting internal conflict, known as cognitive dissonance, keeps them trapped, as each compromise makes it more painful to admit that you've been deceived.
Steven Hassan, is an expert in cults and an ex-Moonie cult member (as in the Unification Church, founded by a Korean businessman, Sun Myung Moon), published “The Cult of Trump” last spring. When polled, Trump cultists come across as having abandoned their commitment to libertarianism, family values or simple logic in favor of Trump worship. They’re lost to paranoia and farcical talking points, just the way Hassan was lost to Sun Myung Moon.
Hassan remembers, during his Moonie days, shouting, “I don’t care if Moon is like Adolf H. I’ve chosen to follow him, and I’ll follow him to the end” — broke free, and became an expert on cults and how to leave them. He has spent his career proving it’s possible.
When they are finally confronted with truth and reality, many cults and their leaders — as we remember from the likes of Jim Jones, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians — come to a catastrophic end.
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