What Worries Me
When we were in high school, the school experimented with something called Channel One. One of the challenges schools have across the board is what to do with extra time they have during the day. Most schools have class periods that are the same length except for lunch and maybe one other period during the day because home room or advisory is connected to it. Channel one was a way they filled the gap when we were in school. It was a group of teenagers that were covering the news of the day. The news of the day when Channel One started was the saga over the Branch Davidians.
Over the years, there has been a huge debate over who fired the first shot and who was really responsible for how this ended. Some blame the Davidians and some blame the feds. Beyond that, these cults ended the way these cults always end. Jim Jones and Jonestown ended the same way. Charles Manson’s cult ended the same way. We can’t literally say that every cult ends exactly the same way, but they usually end in disaster.
The dictionary defines a cult as “a small religious group that is not part of a larger and more accepted religion and that has beliefs regarded by many people as extreme or dangerous.” Trumpism doesn’t fit that specific definition, but a growing number of people are considering it a cult. Are they off-base? We have seen a recent poll referenced in a number of places where more people who consider themselves Trump loyalists believe him than people from their own family, their religious leaders, or other right wing politicians. We have seen other loyalists say that they will back Trump no matter what until the day he dies.
So, how does all of this end? This is what worries me. If Jonestown ended in mass death and Waco ended in mass death then how does this all end? If it were a point of just cultists perishing then that would be one thing. We would do what we could to save our family and friends caught in the cult and let the rest of the lemmings jump off the cliff. Several agents died in the standoff in Waco. Jonestown even claimed the life of a member of Congress. It isn’t the plight of cultists that concerns me. It’s what happens to the rest of us. How many innocent victims go down when this finally ends?
We have already seen some of these isolated events go down. We have seen mass shooting events that were based on his rhetoric. We have seen a few loose nuts perish in showdowns with FBI and other agencies. The good news is that every time Trump calls for his followers to protest on his behalf it seems that fewer and fewer people show up. This is what happens in traditional cults. Members peel off when the trance breaks. As Trump gains more felony indictments, more and more members peel off. They may still vote for him, but they aren’t going to stick out their neck for him.
All it takes is one though. Who knows where the next crazy person will come from? Who knows what they will have up their sleeve or how many damage they could wreak if they are successful? Some of us could very well be collateral damage. That’s what frightens me. The trick is balancing that fear with the negative impacts of giving into it. We have to finish this thing. We can’t let the Freedom Caucus blackmail us into dropping charges. We need to finish it, but it doesn’t change my terror of what will come of it.
What he said. Damn well betcha. Be scared. There are idiots out there that are willing to go out in a supposed blaze of glory for the cause.
1Don’t be so scared that you back down. Courage is not NOT being afraid; it is facing that fear and doing what needs to be done, despite it. We’re all going to need to face the Fascists eventually. If we don’t, they will win, and we will cease to be a democratic country for a very long time. Sooner, before they get stronger, is better than later.
2FYI, Texans: Starting to look like some potential TX power outages this evening.
ERCOT ‘demand vs capacity’ forecasts are now showing “Demand” exceeding ‘Committed Capacity’ beginning about 7:00PM until ~9:15PM for the statewide electrical grid.
Although the forecast “Available Capacity” remains slightly above the Demand, it won’t take much to trigger actual outages in this environment.
Unless demand is eased or more generating capacity found, there may be outages.
ERCOT and the power companies usually pull ‘rotating outages’ in this situation. So be ready.
This is new info, earlier today the forecasts didn’t project any major supply-demand problems until Sunday.
So either demand has exceeded today’s forecast or capacity has significantly diminished, or both.
Given how my weather stations, and most others, have recorded the temperature rocketing up all day [106F, 74F dewpoint now, 2 hours before peak], and winds weak, with very high humidity, demands for AC are going to drive a very high electrical load on the grid.
https://www.ercot.com/
https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards
3Good essay. Right on scene. In my studies in both undergrad and grad psych, I always wondered how and why various people go through life without a shred of insight. Way too many are all on surface. These are the ones who waste their time and money and the therapist. Without the “nerve” to look deep into them-selves its no wonder that they hitch themselves to “grievances” and act out, always claiming to be the victim.
4Call trumpf’s followers what you want, but many of them act like a cult, ignoring reality for their leader. How will this end? No clue. If he gets thrown in prison, I’m thinking a group of them will peel off, but the remaining ones will be thinking revenge (including the freedumb causcus). Sarah Palin calling for civil war may sound deranged, as she is, but I think many in his cult , which they are, will be thinking exactly that. They are misguided but their leader could very well encourage that. When he’s convicted, what’s he have to lose to satisfy his malignant narcissism? Nothing in our history prepares us for what’s next.
5As with the cults you mentioned, the size of the dead goes with the size of the cult. I’m hoping the size shrinks along with his martyrdom, but time will tell.
6It’s just Jonestown and Waco on a grander scale. When Jones and Koresch realized the walls were closing in they triggered the end game. Instead of a 1000 it’s more like one million or ten million. I have to assume the rest happens to scale.
7What worries me and a tad off topic is Channel One. IIRC, it was gifted to American schools by Fox. Maybe the reason so many are in the Trump cult is they got used to watching FOX at school so it must be OK. Wasn’t being tuned in to fox the condition of having a tv in the classroom? The teachers where DD taught turned it down. They all voted no to having a tv in the classroom.
8Shudda checked before writing. No, it was not Fox and Roger Ailes. It was just as bad. Hard to believe but I was wrong.;-)
9@ maggie
In my studies in both undergrad and grad psych, I always wondered how and why various people go through life without a shred of insight.
You might want to have a look at Bob Altemeyer’s work on Authoritaria The Authoritarians nism. The Authoritarians is a long, funny, and excruciating[1] book summarizing Bob’ work up to the early 2000 in a pdf.
It is a bit amusing to see that political scientists and political pollsters have suddenly discovered the idea of an authoritarian personality in the last few years and are finding it useful.
If you have access to a good university library you should be able to get a number of his shorter studies and essays and to more recent work by other researchers. If worse comes to worst the book is in print for $$. And possibly easier to read as it should have had a bit of professional editing.
1. It looks like Bob, after a lifetime of rigidly conforming to APA Style, decided to overdose on endnotes! As someone who at one point owned the first and third editions of the APA Manual I was a bit appalled .
I had to read the book in two pdf readers at the same time’ one for the main text and one for the endnotes.
10Blast it, I messed up with a cut and paste but this link should work https://www.evcforum.net/DataDropsite/TheAuthoritarians.pdf
11Wouldn’t the Nazi be considered a cult? Hilter was a narcissist. Not sure that he was as bad as Trump, tho. Probably clues there of how this ends on a massive scale.
12I think most of the dedicated MAGA types simply blend in with the surrounding isolated, lonely people. You get the grumbling guy who bitches about stuff and occasionally shouts at clouds about how women never should have got the vote and how it is all Obama’s fault.
The die isolated and alone because no body can stand to be around them. No friends. No family. They drown their sorrows with Fox News, beer, booze and breathless rage. They die from a internalized hate induced cerebral aneurysms in their late 60s and early 70s.
If they are lucky someone will say a few words about how they weren’t always mean. That before Fox and Rush took over their brain they did good things and had a family that cared. Most end up with a number on an urn or a little tin square in a pauper’s field.
I few might not go so quietly into the night but age, declining health, financial limitations and a deep, bone-crushing loneliness is going to rapidly foreclose the opportunity for almost all of the serious eleventh-hour fireworks.
For most it is going to be a sad sigh. If not an actual whimper.
13Art, not all MAGAts are in the “isolated nut fondling his guns” category. Especially in rural districts, they flock together and back each other wherever they meet up: the local Dairy Queen, the seed and farm equipment supply store, and sometimes at church. True, the most dangerous and likely to go bonkers are the ones who are isolated because they are surrounded by sane people.
For everyone: there is audio tape of Jim Jones chiding his followers while the forced suicides were going on. Lots of shrieks and screams in the background. I STRONGLY advise against listening to it. It will fuel your nightmares for years, and sounds like a recording from hell. [I heard it because an ex girl friend of mine knew people in his “church” and she wanted to find if she could recognize any of them. Turned out you can’t recognize anyone’s voice when it’s one of dozens crying and screaming.]
14You are right. The habitual gun fondling wing of the right is, indeed, relatively limited. About a sixth by my estimate. But in referencing the general isolation and loneliness I wasn’t just writing about the right. The vast majority of Americans, particularly those over 55 are functionally isolated.
I’m a bit of an outlier. At 63 I have two very close friends, a dozen casual friends, and another dozen acquaintances. Most my age are down to one or two acquaintances and, if pressed, perhaps a family member who might, assuming it is convenient, drive them to a doctor’s appointment. Most end up taking a cab or Uber.
Look around the neighborhood. Every shade and curtain is drawn, Every window tightly closed. If they don’t have a dog I don’t see my neighbors for months. And they want it that way. Everyone, outside a few of us, live in a little cocoon. Contemplate that I’m living in a relatively liberal enclave surrounded by deeply conservative counties. It is far worse farther out.
One of my more MAGA neighbors has enough guns to arm Somalia. He has lots of NRA stickers. I have a couple guns and like to go to the local range about once a month. On one of the few days I saw him out I tried to strike up a conversation. Perhaps invite him to come along and murder some paper.
He immediately took me for a right winger. Pointing to the NRA stickers I asked about guns, He quite proudly volunteered a list of firearms but declined to go. Even after I offered to pay. He said, in a conspiratorial tone, ‘we couldn’t trust anyone’ and declined to break his isolation.
Same thing happened with the flaming pro-LBTQ lady on the other side. Big Obama fan. Nope. Can’t go out for coffee with us. She has to stay hunkered down. It has been this way for decades, even before COVID, but it has never been this bad. The entire population is shell shocked and in isolation.
I understand why, At least in part. News is a 24/7 litany of murder, nightmares and monsters. The loss of agency to corporations is easily palpable. People make noises at government because it is an easy target. And safe to abuse. Try that with the real oppressors. Yell at your health insurance carrier. Or auto insurance. Or employer. Or the HoA. They have teeth. They can hurt you. Even inside your safe little house they can ruin your day.
So most Americans are laying low. 90% of the population is this way to some extent. Even the addicts only go out long enough to score. The MAGA types have been, essentially, IMHO, enjoying a last gasp of extrovert noise and symbolic aggression as a response to their fears. The fire in their eyes is going out. They will revert to normal and join the vast majority hunkered down.
Isolated, alone, vulnerable. Windows nailed shut to keep the Boogie man out. When the power goes out the AC will fail and Americans, liberal and MAGA alike, will die by the thousands. If not this year, next.
Yes, there are a few who will get violent. But lnot so much as might be assumed. Look at the MAGA rallies. Mid-to late 50s and up. Mostly up. Overweight. Very pale. Vulnerable to downsizing, isolation, heat, hate. Most are a lost pay or disability check away from living under a bridge, They talk of civil war but about one in six is on Federal disability or subsidy. Bills don’t stop so you can indulge your violent fantasies. The vast majority will hunker down.
The younger ones will mostly fall from suicide, testosterone driven stupidity, and Oxycodone.
Bad news: It didn’t need to be this way. Good news: Give it a decade and we can once again start talking seriously about a common good and a social structure compatible with human life.
In the mean time fasten your seat belt. It is going to be a bumpy ride.
15I posted this interesting article about the ex liar in chief below his famous presidential mug (down below), but I thought I’d copy it here because the only people that would believe what he’s saying are in his cult. Of note- says he shot a 67 yesterday to win his club championship (right) and the pictures of him yesterday kind of tell the story about the fantasy that he weighs 215. Should be a 6 instead of a 1 in there.
16https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/sports/2023/08/27/donald-trumps-latest-golf-feat-senior-club-championship-at-bedminster-because-i-am-just-a-good-golfe/70694503007/
It’s not a cult per se, because it won’t die if you cut off its head. Another will simply grow in its place. Authoritarianism is a simple answer to everything; just do whatever the boss says, and simple people will always be drawn to it.
Democracy is much harder; it requires you to think for yourself. Democracy in America lost its way when 24-hour cable news turned politics into a spectator sport where you choose a side and root for them win or lose, and when science and education made the internal contradictions of Christian dominion intolerable.
Heracles was able to kill the Hydra only by cauterizing each of its severed heads faster than they could grow back. I don’t know if we can do that. We won’t re-enact a civil war between Cons and Libs like the previous one with lines of soldiers mowing each other down with grapeshot fired from cannons, but we may be in for an age of free-lance terrorism that will make The Troubles in Ireland look like a small practice exercise.
17I’ve had to point this out repeatedly, but I’ll do it again: Koresh and Weaver both used their women and children as human shields.
18I already believe that we are collateral damage.
19