I've been thinking about how Trump's cult has a religious feel to it but it's not like a religion on many ways. And then the word "devotion" popped into my head. That's a shared area in the "religion/Trump cult" Venn diagram.

One of the definitions of "devotion" is, "the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal". That is true of strong believers in a religion and also true of the Trump cult. I also think that at heart being devoted to Trump is like being devoted to a religion in that they both take a significant leap of faith that is aside from rationality.

Just a small thing, but thinking about devotion kind of tidied up my bit of a muddle about how Trump's cult feels like it has a religious zeal to it so often.

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e pluribus unum



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2022 12:04PM by Ted King.

Faith. It matters.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

People want to belong to something and Trump gave them that. He marketed politics by offering a secret decoder ring. That was not something that the political parties had really done before. We saw a bit of it when Ross Perot first ran, but the world wasn't quite there yet.

It isn't that Trump delivers on all of his promises, it is that he delivers on the most important one - that the others aren't going to get theirs delivered either.

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“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

MAGAs think that white people are losing their power and that Trump will restore them to their rightful place at the top of the heap. They are devoted to him because he is their "savior", saving them from dark and swarthy menaces.

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In my rural community in SC, the Trump signs, flags and bumper stickers have disappeared. Completely. I noticed this over the past month in particular.

They were accustomed to his financial shenanigans, but I think the document stealing was a deal breaker for some folks.

The question is who gets their allegiance now, if anyone. Lots of these people were politically apathetic before.

In my recent voyage from Pittsburgh to Altoona, through very red territory, the Trump signs were notably sparse. There were more than a few Mastriano signs, though. (That's our Trump-endorsed GOP Governor nominee, and a Jan 6 participant.) Even if the shine is off the orange, they are still looking for that sort of "leader" to latch on to.

The last Trump election was quite a while ago...

I posted these in another thread, but very much worth reviewing:

[www.youtube.com]
[www.youtube.com]

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Quote
hal
The last Trump election was quite a while ago...

Yeah, well, Jesus died two centuries ago, yet here we are.

Quote
Acer

Quote
hal
The last Trump election was quite a while ago...

Yeah, well, Jesus died two centuries ago, yet here we are.

2 millennia ago?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2022 06:06PM by Lemon Drop.

Quote
Lemon Drop

Quote
Acer

Quote
hal
The last Trump election was quite a while ago...

Yeah, well, Jesus died two centuries ago, yet here we are.

2 millennia ago?

It’s about faith. Some things, like science, can be proven/disproven. Other things are faith. With faith, two centuries or two millennia, there is no difference.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

Quote
Lemon Drop

Quote
Acer

Quote
hal
The last Trump election was quite a while ago...

Yeah, well, Jesus died two centuries ago, yet here we are.

2 millennia ago?

I messed up another perfect snark. Oh well, you get the point.

It’s about faith.


I think there's got to be a better, more accurate choice than 'faith'.

Something like devotion that connotes the darkness and evil that lurks in the hearts of men.

Because offering faith to an evil 'savior' for evil reasons, bastardizes and corrupts any positive aspect of the word, to me.

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I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

"Cult" is the word you're looking for.

No disrespect intended, but it was blindingly, blatantly obvious that this had been the case ever since he declared his intention to run. At that time, I believed that he simply wanted to film his "campaign" for a reality show. He knew that he had a "following" from his television shows, although even he did not realize that they were a cult in the making, that these "disciples" would do his bidding and blindly follow him no matter the moral offsets they had to draw.

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Hurts like a bastid...

"If you give the people a light, they'll follow it anywhere."

Principal Poop

Firesign Theatre (1970), "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers"

Ahh, the joys of misspent youth...

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=TC

Started this thread with Olivia Newton John stuck in my head and ended it with George Michael.