Do you sometimes ask yourself how it is that President Trump is able to attract and hold such a devoted collection of admirers, some of whom insist they ‘would die for him’? Are you amazed that they come out on the streets again and again in their thousands to cheer him and rail angrily against those who decry him? Why is it so?
One plausible explanation is that Trump is the leader of a cult.
In modern English, a
cult is
“a social group that is defined by its unusual religious spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or by common interest in a particular personality, object or goal.” The label is usually considered pejorative.
The concept of a cult seems to fit what we are seeing among Trump’s admirers. For them, it appears that Trump can do no wrong. Not only do they embrace every word he utters, but every concept, every proposition, every ‘truth’, even when his ‘truth’ changes often and inexplicably. They are even prepared to donate to his political fund!
When he lost the recent election, yet insisted that he had won it, his followers came out on the streets in droves echoing his accusation that the election had been ‘stolen’ from him. The thieves were not identified. How they could mastermind such a complex coup involving thousands of players scattered across a vast nation of over 330 million was never explained. Yet that did not concern Trump’s followers; if Donald insisted they had stolen the election, that was enough. Did they ask how any group, no matter how brilliant, no matter how well organised, no matter how ubiquitous, no matter how influential and powerful, could exercise enough influence at any point in the electoral process to ‘steal’ an election? Evidence was absent, as is so often the case in Trump’s utterances.
Characteristically, cult followers do not question the leader, dispute the veracity of his words, or doubt the plausibility of his predictions. What he says, goes. Thus it is pointless to try to address his propositions through logical discourse using verifiable evidence.
Think about Trump and his committed followers. When did you last see them debate an issue? When did they ever propose an alternative viewpoint when their leader has already made his pronouncements?
This in not an academic discussion. It is a serious exposé of the danger of cults and the perils to which cult followers may be exposed when they unthinkingly embrace the leader’s words and beliefs.
Beware!
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