I think we have to question the morality of these Trump followers because their morality is not strong enough to overcome their self-interest of staying in the cult," Dodes concluded. They finally say this is not right, as Liz Cheney did. People who have high moral qualities and values do stand up, we sometimes consider them heroic. "I think it has, certainly, a moral quality. Unfortunately, intelligence doesn't help you when you've got these enormous internal and external pressures to stay in line with the leader. "It helps to be stupid, but I think that they're different because there are intelligent people who are members of the cult, you know? As much as some of these people who are republicans who don't seem to care about either democracy or morality are odious to us, they may be intelligent. READ: How right-wing extremists are using UFOs, 'ancient aliens' and other conspiracy theories to recruit new members "What is the difference between adherence to a cult and stupidity?" "Doctor, it seems that one defense against cultism, one personal defense that we might all possess - many of us might possess - is intelligence, you're simply too smart to fall for the stupidity of what the cult is selling," O'Donnell said. O'Donnell wondered about the role intelligence plays in susceptibility to joining a cult. "On the other hand, to stand up against that, therefore, means that you are an outcast, you are a pariah." It is a self-affirming system, everyone agrees on the same things and they all follow and worship the leader," he continued. "The advantage of being in such a group is that you have an echo chamber of people who are admiring you and affirming you. And a part of that, which is important to understand, is that you are also required to deny or ignore or attack those people who would challenge the belief system, which is exactly what we see from many of these Trump followers, who simply act as though they cannot hear and they attack those people who challenge it, as happened to Cheney." "If you are in one, you are required to believe the belief system of the group. "What a cult is - especially a charismatic cult, which is the kind we're talking about here where you have an all-powerful leader, Trump, who is seen as a god-like figure - those cults are self-contained, intentionally," he explained. READ: 'Beyond our current worst nightmares': Mental health experts warn about the likely effects of a Trump comeback Lance Dodes, a retired clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard.ĭodes said, "I think the word cult is probably correct. Those quotes raised questions for O'Donnell, who wondered, "Is it a cult or is it stupidity? And what's the difference?"įor analysis, O'Donnell interviewed Dr. "I say to Republicans all the time, take back your party from this cult." "They seem to have reached rock-bottom with their statement that what happened on January 6th was normal political discourse," Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said. "You know, the 'C' in RNC doesn't stand for 'committee,' it stands for 'cult.' It's not the Republican National Committee, it's the Republican National Cult," Rep. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell began his examination of the issue with quotes from two Democratic Party leaders. Legitimate political discourse" has sparked a renewed conversation on whether Donald Trump's MAGA movement is a cult. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C., on politics, demographics and inequality.The statement by the Republican National Committee arguing that the Jan. In 2016, Donald Trump recruited voters with the highest levels of animosity toward African Americans, assembling a “schadenfreude” electorate - voters who take pleasure in making the opposition suffer - that continues to dominate the Republican Party, even in the aftermath of the Trump presidency. With all his histrionics and theatrics, Trump brought the dark side of American politics to the fore: the alienated, the distrustful, voters willing to sacrifice democracy for a return to white hegemony. The segregationist segment of the electorate has been a permanent fixture of American politics, shifting between the two major parties.įor more than two decades, scholars and analysts have written about the growing partisan antipathy and polarization that have turned America into two warring camps, politically speaking. Lilliana Mason, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins, makes the case via Twitter that Trump has “served as a lightning rod for lots of regular people who hold white Christian supremacist beliefs.” The solidification of their control over the Republican Party “makes it seem like a partisan issue.
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