Is Donald Trump a cult leader?

[pbrower2a]

(04-09-2022, 03:29 PM)beechnut79 Wrote: I don't think I would put Trump in the category of cult leader but Hitler and Mao definitely were, as they were worshipped as Gods. Putin is probably at least borderline. Even the free market is a false God in some people's minds. This can manifest as an irritation and then develop into something much bigger. We shall wait and see if Trump joins that exclusive group. But one could say the same when it comes to certain music and movie stars--Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles.

Trump has his cult. If he is not in the league with Hitler or Mao, arguably the two most horrific mass murderers of all time (the count for Stalin has been whittled down because much of his one-time count was found to be multiple-counting of victims, such as "bourgeois nationalists" and "enemies of the people" in different lists, so Stalin drops to a still-sordid #3), he has become a political equivalent of someone like L. Ron Hubbard or Sun Myung Moon, neither of who is undeniably linked to any deaths. 

I fault Trump for his criminal negligence in dealing with COVID-19 and his culpability in selling out democratic forces in Syria on behalf of his "good buddy" Vladimir Putin. Such are acts of state, which make him a large-scale killer. Yes, war is Hell, but it is not always easy to fix the blame, as its cause can be anything from a misunderstanding or accident to overt aggression.   

I question whether Donald Trump fully understands the harm that he has done -- especially the harm of creating a large mass of people who upon his political demise will fall for someone more ruthless, cunning, and adept at forming an authoritarian or even totalitarian movement that could establish the USA as an Evil Empire with great resources to do great horror where it is unwelcome. Others (like Rupert Murdoch, the Koch brothers, Karl Rove, and Newt Gingrich) have played dangerous roles in creating a Frankenstein monster..   
   

Quote:Maybe many are not listening to our intuitions or something else, which is why they're reluctant to get out and vote. The gospel has been preached, and many have done so only to have their desired shot down. Clinton and Obama campaigned as true progressives but neither really put their campaign messages to practice once they assumed office.

Something else has happened: the Hard Right has developed a network of political operatives and propaganda machines to offer fear, division,  and confusion. I am not going to say that they are behind the racist and religiously-bigoted people who parade at night with Tiki torches while shouting "Jews will not replace us!", let alone those who do bombings and shootings... or plotting to kidnap a State governor. The economic right has an undeniable agenda of ensuring that all but themselves live in fear and poverty on their behalf unless somehow privileged for serving the only people who ultimately matter -- themselves. In essence, no human suffering can ever be in excess if it brings forth some elite profit. Of course that is the ethos of every racket that has ever existed, including the slave trade. 

America has spiders in its soul, and we divest ourselves of those lest we be taken over and transformed into a great agency of repression, exploitation, aggression, and mass murder that one associates with tyranny. So what need we do? We need practice rational thought, and test strange new ideas against the realities that we know. Yes, I have heard voices telling me to commit crimes, and I have rejected those. We need to recognize the validity of traditions not our own so long as those are simply different. We need to recognize the distinction between Good and Evil and resist the seduction of Evil.  We need to recognize that objective truth, however inconvenient, is all that we can depend upon. We must reject any claim to someone possessing "higher" truth than objective reality; if that truth is simply counterintuitive it must introduce it as a refinement (that is how we have evolution and relativity) instead of a rejection of reality. If we are alcoholics or addicts -- then get rid of the bad habit. 

We need to become less dependent upon the Government and Big Business (both can be similarly obnoxious) for special favors.  Ideally we rely more upon small business as a solution for needs and opportunity. America became great because of small businesses incapable of supporting voracious, bloated bureaucracies.  Obviously nobody can deny that vehicle manufacturing, rail transport, energy extraction and distribution, scientific research, and the creation of high-quality entertainment, and much else can be a cottage industry anymore. Just contrast the (Soviet) socialist model that required the establishment of a bloated bureaucracy from the outset; that worked badly. 

(I have a thread on the business lifecycle, and in it I suggest that bureaucratization is the surest sign of impending demise of a firm. I am also convinced that large bureaucracies are one of the ways in which the elite of ownership buys off smart people who might otherwise gravitate to Marxism as a solution for economic injustice. So give smart people job titles with nebulous functions but enough pay so  they can live better than people who know what their contributions are, as in assembly-line work or meat-cutting, those smart people easily affording nice cars, with three-piece suits totally unsuited to physical toil, single-family housing, attractive spouses that they can ditch after their sex appeal vanishes, and college educations for their kids).         

Quote:Have often wished that I could remember my dreams from the last night to examine them and what they were saying. Dylan was pretty good at that and this is where a lot of his songs came from.  

Current social malaise which I have referred to many times is because there's a seesaw back and forth, emotions versus action. On this the former is probably winning and may or may not be why a lot doesn't seem to be getting done. But YouTube tarot card readers are forecasting that many heads will roll when it comes to the events of January 6, 2021. However they tell us that it is going to take time yet many are frustrated that the PTB has pressed the pause button, apparently not worried about running around and finishing tasks.

If one can see the effort to overthrow democracy by nullifying a free and fair election as itself evil, then one has a start. That is how Lenin's Bolsheviks took power in 1917 in Russia. Much of what went on in October/November 1917 in Russia or in January 2021 looks spontaneous, but only a fool could believe that either event was without coordination from outside the main theater. 

At least in 1942, when Americans perceived great danger of the destruction of democracy, the enemies were outside of America, easy to lampoon much like this:

  

It's not so clear this time. The danger is already in America, with people who hold democracy in contempt.

Quote:What if us the general public released our grasp and just observed what's happening? What would that look like? Might it take the emotional charge out of a situation or a feeling?

The current struggle is subtle.