MAGA is a cult. 

Like all cults, it is authoritarian and believes in authoritarianism. Cults are the antithesis of democracy. A democratic cult would be an oxymoron.

Cults are led by psychopaths. See the Robert Hare Checklist of Psychopathy Symptoms — the 20 criteria for psychopathy — here.

MAGAs don’t really believe the Biden/Trump election was stolen because they don’t believe in elections. Thus, no amount of evidence could convince them any election Trump loses was fair. Today, they are already preparing to claim that the next election was stolen if Trump loses.

They believe in the authoritarian power of the cult leader, and they believe this authoritarian power is what was taken from Donald Trump. When MAGAs chant “Stop the steal,” they don’t mean the steal of an election. They mean the steal of Trump’s unconditional, god-like power.

Donald Trump acknowledged MAGA is a cult when he said he could “shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any followers.” Recent events prove him correct; his indictments and criminal convictions yielded more campaign contributions from his followers.

To a MAGA, evidence of Trump’s guilt merely is proof that the “deep state” did something dishonest.

Trump follows the familiar scripts used by Charles Manson, Jim Jones, Saddam Hussein, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, and other dictators.

One sure symptom of a cult is when a leader can commit any crime, no matter how heinous, and not lose followers. The irony of Trump’s followers brandishing American flags is lost on them.

They genuinely think they are being patriotic by supporting the man who sent a mob to overturn an election he lost by over 7 million votes and 74 electoral votes,Mao:

We describe cult realities in The Most Common Personality Traits of a Cult Leader.

A comment on that post came from reader “rawgod” who asked, “How do people protect themselves from falling into the clutches of a cult, especially one as widespread as MAGA?”

Opinions about that can be found in many places on the Internet. Here is my take:

Some people are forced into cults by parents and caretakers. Some join willingly. Cults offer the willing members something they do not receive elsewhere: Protection from their fears.

While cults can be fearsome, they exist partly because members feel that “the fear I know is better than the fear I don’t understand.”

The fears can include one or more of the following. Fear of: Blacks, browns, yellows, reds, gays, men, women, immigrants, foreigners, a religion, peers, parents, siblings, loss of status, strangers, a political group, a secret organization, and or the government.

There may be others that are less common but no less fearsome.

Fear is the mother of hatred. One cannot hate someone or something without fearing it. A cult leader plays on the fears of his/her followers.

Donald Trump is an expert fearmonger. He calls Mexicans “rapists.” He says blacks come from “shithole countries.” He tells his followers that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the nation,” an example of replacement theory.

His message always is some variant of: “These people want to destroy you, but I will protect you.”

Who are the people who fall for his blatant lies? Who are the gullible people who would vote for him, even if he “shot someone on 5th Avenue”?

Begin with the rich, who care about one thing: money, or more accurately, The Income/Wealth/Power Gap between them and those who have less.

They fear and despise the poor. They invent reasons: “I work hard for my money. I pay taxes. Why should they be able to do nothing and get everything free from my tax money?”

Never mind that lower-income people generally work harder than upper-income people (unless one considers numerous vacations, living in mansions, riding in private planes and the chauffer-driven cars of the rich to be “work.”)

Never mind that lower-income people do not benefit from the tax breaks the rich receive and the fact that in a Monetarily Sovereign nation, federal taxes do not fund benefits to the poor. See: Monetary Sovereignty)

One thing is clear: Facts don’t matter to cults. They invent their own facts, “alternative facts.”

“Alternative facts” was a phrase Kellyanne Conway used to defend Sean Spicer’s false claim about the attendance numbers at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.

When Chuck Todd pressed her to explain why Spicer would “utter a provable falsehood,” Conway stated that Spicer was giving “alternative facts.” Todd responded, “Look, alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods.”

Donald Trump made more than 30,000 false or misleading statements during his four years as President of the United States. MAGAs don’t care about Trump’s lies. Loyalty to Trump is the only measure that matters in the cult.

The astounding figure, which roughly equates to 21 false statements per day during his tenure at the White House, comes after he spent weeks falsely alleging that the 2020 election was “stolen.”

He continues to make the false claim, which his followers want to believe despite 60+ lawsuits, investigations, and recounts finding no evidence to support it.

In a cult, the only evidence members need is the leader’s utterance. Nothing else matters.

If facts don’t matter, what is the answer to rawgods’ question?

Being in a cult resembles being addicted to alcohol or other drugs. Physical addiction and psychological addiction have similar symptoms and similar results. To an addict or cult member, facts are evidence of a secret effort to hide the facts.

Cult members often don’t believe they are in a cult. They believe the “truth” is whatever the cult leader tells them.

Cult “truths” can range from “The world is coming to an end” to “You always must obey (the leader)” to “The election was stolen.”

You can see some cult “truths” and realizations at 20 Cult Members Talk about The Moment They Knew.

Alcoholics Anonymous suggests a 12-step program for escaping alcoholism, which resembles a cult, with the leader being alcohol. Sadly, the program suggests that alcohol could be replaced by “a higher power.” Cult leaders generally claim to be that higher power.

As one cult member said, “Fundie (fundamentalist) cults are the worst.”

This is not to suggest that religion, per se, is bad. On the contrary, religion benefits many people. Rather, for all groups, religious or otherwise, the group has transitioned into a cult when the belief becomes so powerful that the leader can do no wrong.

Some of the most populated cults are sects (a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group). 

The power of religious sects comes from the leader’s claim that he/she speaks for God.

When you are part of a group that sets strict rules against what your common sense says, you may be in a cult.

If you are punished for disagreeing with the leader, you may be in a cult.

When your leader can make thousands of easily disprovable claims, and you don’t care, you may be in a cult.

When you are proud that your leader is a convicted criminal, you may be in a cult.

When your status in an organization relies on the depth of your love for and obedience to the leader, you may be in a cult.

When the group leader orders you to commit acts that are not in your best interest but are in the leader’s best interests, you may be in a cult.

If your leader says he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any followers, you are in a cult.

When you are in a cult, you have given your beliefs, ideas, creativity, compassion, sympathy, love, and indeed your humanity to another person. You are less than human.

In that sense, you resemble a pet, an obedient dog. You accept unquestioningly your master’s words. He may kick you, but you forgive him and lick his hand.

Children can be forced into a cult. Some people willingly accept that subservient role. Devoted MAGAs do not question Trump. They not only believe his lies, but they don’t even question them.

When he was proven in courts of law to be a traitor and a convicted criminal, they sent him money. When he offered them worthless online pictures, which one easily could access by turning on a smartphone, they sent him money.

When Trump said, “I was never indicted,” and then boasted that he’s been indicted more times than Al Capone, MAGAs accepted both opposing statements and sent him money.

When he sold gold sneakers at four hundred dollars a pair, MAGAs bought them, even though the website explicitly said, “Trump Sneakers are not designed, manufactured, distributed or sold by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their respective affiliates or principals.”

When he sold T-shirts showing his arrest mugshot, MAGAs bought them. MAGAs ignored Trump’s cheating of students with his fake Trump University and fraudulent Trump Foundation.

Trump claimed he would “drain the swamp.” MAGAs believed him.

What do you think “Drain the swamp” means? Do any of these names sound familiar? What do you know about these people? What do they have in common?

Steve Bannon, Tom Barrack, Elliot Broidy, Kenneth Chesebro, Michael Cohen, Chris Collins, Jenna Ellis, Michael Flynn, Igor Fruman, Rick Gates, Rudy Giuliani, Scott Hall, Duncan Hunter, Brian Kolfage, Ken Kurson, Corey Lewandowski, Paul Manafort, George Nader, Peter Navarro, George Papadopoulos, Lev Parnas, Brad Parscale, Sam Patten, Sidney Powell, Roger Stone, Allen Weisselberg, Imaad Zuberi

Trump still talks about “draining the swamp.” MAGAs still believe him.

So, in answer to reader “rawgod’s” question, I suspect people cannot protect themselves from falling into the clutches of a cult. Just as with a dog, this propensity relies on a combination of DNA and upbringing, the teachings one receives through life.

Some people have grown up to meekly accept authority. Some believe that rebellion from authority requires the acceptance of a harsher authority. Some are emotionally or even physically trapped by authority.

If facts don’t matter to cult members, what does? Their fears.

The path out of a cult is built with protection from a member’s unique fears. It requires identifying those fears and reassuring the member that protection will come from outside the cult.

And therein lies the rub. It’s an enormously complex problem that is beyond my pay grade. But that is the direction one must take.

To escape from an addiction, the addict first must recognize that he is addicted and that life without the addiction would be better.

To escape from a cult, members first must recognize that they are in a cult and that what they fear is less onerous than submitting their life and common sense to a psychopath.

A MAGAs sudden realization that Donald Trump is a fraud and a psychopath is the first step to reality.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell; MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell

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