The GQP: Trumpist Death Cult

[mdmost 42502]

14 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

 

I love these performative nonsense burnings. Taylor already got your money. It doesn't affect her one way. There was another one of a mom who wasn't going to take her 13 year old to Toronto for the next show because Taylor endorsed Kamala. She's looking to sell her tickets to someone. So Taylor already got your money, the only person you're hurting is the 13 year old who does not give a shit about your stupid politics. 

[WelfareBuysMyWeed 5322]

17 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

 

That's some real high class housing she's living in

[Willfully Horn 7892]

2 hours ago, Captainant said:

Holy shit

 

He would have loved you more than Eva Braun

You would have been his kind of girl

You'd have been there right beside him As he drove around the world

And when he stopped, you'd have pushed him on

And he'd have loved you more than Eva Braun

He would have loved you more than Eva Braun

You would have held the secret to his heart

And when they found you in the bunker They'd've had to tear you both apart

But if you'd said, "Argentina?" he'd have gone

And he'd have loved you more than Eva Braun

A broken heart is like a Nazi And a Nazi's like the blues

The fuerher that you have The fuerher you have to lose

He would have loved you more than Eva Braun

If he'd only known what fun you really are

You'd have shown him how a fresh wound's More exciting than a scar

(He wouldn't have cared you're not a natural blonde)

And he'd have loved you more than Eva Braun Oh, he'd have loved you more than Eva Braun Ja, he'd have loved you more than Eva Braun

[SydneyCarton 47488]

41 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

 

Lol. That woman was totally a taylor fan, and didn't just buy a new shirt and an album to set on fire so should could advertise her own business, which happens to sell T-shirts! Totally authentic!

[Derka 5664]

 

[speed817 18926]

[Ted Lange 15935]

 

 

[Pancho 43026]

[Chad Fuck 17309]

17 minutes ago, Pancho said:

Man I grew up with one side of our family that spouted this pseudo-christian, gobbledegook.  A couple of them grew out of it.  But most of them go to their grave scared of boogie men and are more than willing to throw you under the bus if that's what the god in their head tells them they should do.  Scary as hell.

[texasdago 7465]

3 hours ago, mdmost said:

There was another one of a mom who wasn't going to take her 13 year old to Toronto for the next show because Taylor endorsed Kamala. She's looking to sell her tickets to someone. So Taylor already got your money, the only person you're hurting is the 13 year old who does not give a shit about your stupid politics. 

"Yes... yes... totally get it... yeah, you want to sell your tickets.  Sure.  You paid what?  $1,000.00 a ticket?  I'll give you $20"

Hope she eats whatever she paid for those tickets.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23247]

At this point in the simulation maybe it’s time to see what the witches have to offer? 

[chainsaw 9668]

2 hours ago, Ted Lange said:

 

 

I've made up my mind. Podcasting should be illegal.

[Gatorubet 29796]

23 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

At this point in the simulation maybe it’s time to see what the witches have to offer? 

“…to dismantle Michigan at their home?”

[Macanudo 12798]

2 hours ago, Ted Lange said:

 

 

$20 says that pastor is closeted.

[RDCanecutter 25999]

8 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

This is a photo of standard issue women at Mar A Lago.  Loomer fits right in.

 

[BamaATL 16299]

1 hour ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

At this point in the simulation maybe it’s time to see what the witches have to offer? 

Well, I just hope it's like Macbeth for a certain someone.  

[RDCanecutter 25999]

2 hours ago, Chad Fuck said:

Man I grew up with one side of our family that spouted this pseudo-christian, gobbledegook.  A couple of them grew out of it.  But most of them go to their grave scared of boogie men and are more than willing to throw you under the bus if that's what the god in their head tells them they should do.  Scary as hell.

I am going to visit family this weekend, and there's at least one cousin who gets rolling spouting Be Gone Forces of Darkess etc, she considers everything to be witchcraft while sounding like a Shakespearian witch herself. I asked her why she was slipping into faux-1600s English, she said because it was based on scripture. I asked her why she didn't use "thee" and "thou." Silence.

It's a fairly big house, I can slip off and hang out with my uncle, who'd rather talk about airplanes.

[RDCanecutter 25999]

19 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

$20 says that pastor is closeted.

Do I get $100 if he's not?

[TeeDubya 3329]

34 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

Do I get $100 if he's not?

every accusation..... every one.  (in this case, every fucking one)

[Nice Guy Eddie 13318]

Love how everyone in these loomer media discussions avoid the obvious. Trump has other loonies in his orbit and some are attractive compared to loomer but there must be strong rumors which is putting the focus on her. Two current mentions of her on the cnn homepage. I expect some trump allies are feeding the press info hoping Trump will send her home.

 Trump probably can’t just kick her to the curb. She’s the type who shows up to your office when mad. In this case she can scream about their late night campaign advice sessions.

 

[Gatorubet 29796]

1 hour ago, RDCanecutter said:

I asked her why she was slipping into faux-1600s English, she said because it was based on scripture. I asked her why she didn't use "thee" and "thou." Silence.

“ This just in… Generalissimo Francisco Franco….. and King James…..are still dead.”

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13485]

4 hours ago, Pancho said:

 

[Pancho 43026]

 

[aggie08 20489]

I'm just here for the globohomo gay globalism. While not usually my bag, that sounds like a lot of fun.

Edited September 14 by aggie08

[TwiceHorn 30851]

23 minutes ago, Pancho said:

 

You fucking sawed-off, stumpdick, okie twat plumber with latent syphilis, the federal government doesn't have any standards of ir-regularties.

Wayne. You cunt.

Edited September 14 by TwiceHorn

[atomheartbevo 89081]

2 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Love how everyone in these loomer media discussions avoid the obvious. Trump has other loonies in his orbit and some are attractive compared to loomer but there must be strong rumors which is putting the focus on her. Two current mentions of her on the cnn homepage. I expect some trump allies are feeding the press info hoping Trump will send her home.

 Trump probably can’t just kick her to the curb. She’s the type who shows up to your office when mad. In this case she can scream about their late night campaign advice sessions.

Why do you have to hate on them?  We should be happy for them, they are living their best life.

 

[atomheartbevo 89081]

8 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

It’s disturbing because you don’t get anymore far alt-right than Loomer.  She is the bottom of the bottom, which means she will likely become the governor of Florida in my lifetime. 

We can only hope he continues to spew bullshit conspiracy theories.  We could be a few blowjobs and a week or two away from him declaring the earth is flat, the Holocaust didn’t happen, and we didn’t land on the moon.

All hail the simulation that is seeing Laura Loomer potentially sink him.

[Blotto 23293]

11 hours ago, TeeDubya said:

Burt was one of the founders of QT

https://www.tulsahistory.org/halloffame/burt-holmes/

8 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

It’s disturbing because you don’t get anymore far alt-right than Loomer.  She is the bottom of the bottom, which means she will likely become the governor of Florida in my lifetime. 

You could lose a lot of money wagering *a person couldn't be any more far right, Trump couldn't say anything dumber/more full of shit, etc...“ There is no f'n limit to their depravity or stupidity. You only get noticed when you take it one step further.

That dildo Markwayne is a perfect example. That's how a GQP senator gets "noticed" now. 50 years ago the other 99 would have all pulled hamstrings by repeatedly kicking his shriveled up nuts. Fucking traitor. 

[tx 3 putt 75600]

7 hours ago, Ted Lange said:

 

 

 

he’s banged kids. i’d put a paycheck on it 

[TeeDubya 3329]

Dr. Mark Galeotti, a Russian studies expert in England, has a great podcast called "In Moscow's Shadows."

In the latest, his discusses the kleptocracy that is the Russian government.

Stop me if you've heard another organization that sounds similar....

The bureaucrats, generals, and ministers, in an effort to increasingly show their worth to their autocrat leader, try to out-do each other with purer and purer adherence to the stated ideology of the government......  and turning on those who haven't reached the standards of the ever-more extreme ideology.

[speed817 18926]

🤢🤢🤢

Spoiler

 

 

 

[wildcat09 28563]

3 hours ago, Pancho said:

 

If enough states certify a Harris victory, he’s more than fucking welcome to take up arms to contest it if that’s what he thinks is right.

[Brisketexan 103660]

If enough states certify a Harris victory, he’s more than fucking welcome to take up arms to contest it if that’s what he thinks is right.

Yep. I wish a motherfucker would. But he won’t. Because he’s a gutless coward. A completely worthless, spineless, quivering bowl of womanly jello.

[TheStoicPaisano 9851]

Sloppy Newt.

[Orale 1080]

3 hours ago, aggie08 said:

I'm just here for the globohomo gay globalism. While not usually my bag, that sounds like a lot of fun.

Welcome. Secret gay agenda zoom meetings are Tuesday nights at 11:30 (don't tell anyone!!!).

[mdmost 42502]

11 minutes ago, TheStoicPaisano said:

Sloppy Newt.

[Chico_SA 507]

[royiv 9045]

4 hours ago, Pancho said:

 

Is shortening it from Mark Wayne to Markwayne a way to throw everyone off the scent that he’s a serial killer?

[tx 3 putt 75600]

1 hour ago, TeeDubya said:

Dr. Mark Galeotti, a Russian studies expert in England, has a great podcast called "In Moscow's Shadows."

In the latest, his discusses the kleptocracy that is the Russian government.

Stop me if you've heard another organization that sounds similar....

The bureaucrats, generals, and ministers, in an effort to increasingly show their worth to their autocrat leader, try to out-do each other with purer and purer adherence to the stated ideology of the government......  and turning on those who haven't reached the standards of the ever-more extreme ideology.

 

The Death of Stalin ..... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4686844/

[TeeDubya 3329]

37 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep. I wish a motherfucker would. But he won’t. Because he’s a gutless coward. A completely worthless, spineless, quivering bowl of womanly jello.

 

He’s such a tough guy.  If you don’t believe it, just ask the little pudknocker plumber. 

[Shut up Lou Holtz 1990]

7 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

“…to dismantle Michigan at their home?”

Black Phillip! 

[Derka 5664]

 

[Pancho 43026]

 

[Mole 4311]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep. I wish a motherfucker would. But he won’t. Because he’s a gutless coward. A completely worthless, spineless, quivering bowl of womanly jello.

There is certainly a highly distorted view of strength and courage running rampant through our dead and rotting culture, but we all watched a woman stand up to and make a fool out of the big scary avatar of all of our worst traits while so many terrified men are desperately inventing new fears to fear; maybe it’s way past time to drop gendered insults regarding toughness and courage and find new ways to insult these trembling weaklings.

[Underdog 28237]

12 hours ago, chainsaw said:

I've made up my mind. Podcasting should be illegal.

Have never listened to one, but have heard good things about the Smartless podcast so may give that one a try. 

[Underdog 28237]

6 hours ago, Orale said:

Welcome. Secret gay agenda zoom meetings are Tuesday nights at 11:30 (don't tell anyone!!!).

 

[Bullneck 18783]

Pretty good explainer for MAGA . . .  from 2022.

Spoilered for length (and uneditedness)

Spoiler

America's heart of darkness: Making sense of the nonsensical allure of MAGA
Yes, the Trump movement is nuts. But a deeper explanation invokes history, psychology, economic factors and more
By Michel Gueldry
Published July 31, 2022 12:00PM (EDT) 

The Republican-MAGA movement's reactionary agenda is clear enough. But the deeper motivations of many Trump supporters, at least beneath their absurd and offensive stated beliefs, is much less so.

What we might call the Great Demolition plot includes establishing a corporate oligarchy, a neo-feudalist regime based on long-term minoritarian rule and a malevolent pseudo-Christian theocracy undergirded by state thuggery and social authoritarianism, all of it infused with an incoherent ideological blend of anarchic libertarianism (on guns and most forms of regulation) and fascistic nightmare (white supremacy, antisemitism and numerous grades of conspiracy theory).

Millions of Americans support this regressive and oppressive agenda, but their views are not identical or monolithic: There are the probably well-meaning but horribly misguided Joe and Jane Average, the bloodthirsty fascists, the apoplectic culture warriors, the scheming plutocrats, the uniformed sadists, the gun-radical civilians, the Christian nationalists and "Dominionists," the QAnon believers, the con artists and grifters, the conformists, the deeply traumatized and the profoundly misinformed. All understand themselves to be "patriots," of course. 

 

Yes, Trump supporters are victims of the Big Lie scam. No, you don't have to feel sorry for them
Clearly, there is a wide spectrum of motivations, beliefs, personalities, interests and objectives, intensity of conviction and degree of lunacy among these mistaken millions. But how can one account for this herd-like descent into paranoia, cultish-nihilistic rage against reality, and proliferation of sociopathic behaviors? A general answer is that extreme beliefs bear little if any connection with the object they purport to discuss. They stem from complex and often subterranean interplay between biological forces (such as neural-hormonal wiring or gender), constructed biographies (whether individual or collective), economic interests, one's sense of belonging and social networks, and "belief formation," meaning the cognitive, affective and behavioral dynamics of decision-making.

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What is behind crazy beliefs? Craziness, in one form or another. Crazy beliefs result from dysfunctions and toxicity that, in many individuals, generate unbearable anguish. A more specific answer, then, is that fear plays a central role in individual devolution and mass indoctrination. As Corey Robin points out, fear has a social history. It is a political feeling, the raison d'être and oldest manipulation tactic of repressive groups and regimes. Many Americans suffer from fear, derived from multiple poisoned sources. Desperate and despondent, they lash out through nihilism, tribalism and rhetorical or actual violence.  

Fear has been part of the human experience since time immemorial. From Howard Sackler's screenplay for Stanley Kubrick's 1953 film "Fear and Desire":

There is a war in this forest. Not a war that has been fought, nor one that will be, but any war. And the enemies who struggle here do not exist unless we call them into being. This forest then, and all that happens now is outside history. Only the unchanging shapes of fear and doubt and death are from our world. These soldiers that you see keep our language and our time but have no other country but the mind.

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Britain and the United States, to cite the obvious examples, were able to develop generally successful and more or less democratic governments over time because powerful potential enemies were far away, while internal dissenters often emigrated or were crushed. Historically, this included Roman Catholics in the U.K. and anarchists, socialists, Black radicals and other political dissidents in the U.S. In America's case, two vast oceans allowed for safety from external invasion and also for considerable social, individual and ideological diversity. Yet after the traumas of 9/11, the war on terror, the Great Recession, the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan and the COVID pandemic, Americans reacted as many other peoples have done before them, sliding downward into mass intolerance and violence.

That included the wholesale and largely unquestioned surrender of supposedly cherished freedoms through emergency laws and mass surveillance; extrajudicial kidnapping, torture and imprisonment; new forms of unconventional warfare (i.e., drones) waged against civilians and militants alike; and an enormous consolidation of power in the presidency and the executive branch. All of this went along with military adventurism, political radicalization and polarization, and an upsurge of magical beliefs and both mental and physical health crises, including opioid addictions, obesity and suicide.

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After 20 years of mismanaged war in the Middle East, the U.S. finds itself in a situation disturbingly similar to Weimar Germany: disaffected veterans, militarized police, and right-wing radicalism converging with "mainstream" conservatism.

Fear is also inflamed through the national obsession with world domination, military power, militarized culture and gun idolatry. Historian Kathleen Belew, author of "Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America," argues that each modern U.S. war was followed by a significant increase in domestic radicalism, white supremacy activism and paramilitary agitation. After 20 years of brutally mismanaged war in the greater Middle East, the U.S. finds itself in a situation disturbingly similar to Weimar Germany in 1919: With a relatively large and often disaffected veteran population (think of Timothy McVeigh), growing fascist penetration of the police and the military, increasingly militarized police forces, and armed militias (akin to the Freikorps in Germany) assaulting the legal-constitutional order. Right-wing radicalism has begun to converge with "mainstream" conservatism, fueled by a proliferation of entrepreneurs of chaos and the widespread cult of guns. 

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Fear also comes from the economy: Since the 1980s, economic survival has continued to demand more expensive degrees, longer working hours and greater productivity. Increasing financial pressure on individuals, families and communities has weakened the middle class by raising the costs of education, health care and real estate, and undermining wages, job security and organized labor. Americans fear exploitation and intimidation in the workplace, and also fear loss of status, health coverage and retirement pension. What's more, they fear each other, and not entirely without reason — a factor that helps explain the proliferation of guns. (This is nearly identical to the classic "security dilemma" of international relations theory.) 

Global economic forces subject Americans to the rule of the unaccountable one percent, the whims of the FIRE corporations (finance, insurance and real estate) and the condescension and pandering of their lackeys in both political parties. Workers tough it out while the masters of the new Gilded Age buy politicians, lawmakers, judges, think tanks, media outlets and experts; corrupt and exploit the skewed tax system; flout the law and the public interest (no major executive was incarcerated for the 2008 Great Recession); and corrupt the public spirit. To say that the system is rigged, as critics on both the left and right proclaim, is nowhere near adequate. 

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Abandoned by corporate Democrats, in 2016 the (white) working and middle classes turned in desperation toward an arsonist leading a gang of saboteurs. Their rage resulted from their dysfunctional context; their radicalization was a reaction against structural injustice. Their radical politics may be understood, in part, as a desperate reaction against despair. As Hannah Arendt wrote in "The Origins of Totalitarianism" about 1930s fascism, "the masses' escape from reality is a verdict against the world in which they're forced to live.... It's a protest against the real conditions of existence."

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Male anxiety and overcompensation have further befouled this witches' brew. Dominant models of American personhood, and especially manhood, are rooted in stereotypes of heroism, self-reliance, stoicism, greed, athleticism and competitive vigor, not to mention heterosexuality. Reality appears somewhat different, as the hard right is characterized by panic, emotional incontinence, unhinged rage and homicidal schadenfreude. (Of course I mean Donald Trump, but consider also Ann Coulter, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Laura Ingraham, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, etc.) 

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Archetypes of manliness are grotesquely distorted by far-right online "communities" of gamers, "incels" and white supremacists, and entirely too many women who embrace a cartoonish vision of masculinity and denigrate feminism. Anguished "conservatives" and "patriots" are incensed by women's progress, the evolution of gender mores and increasing acceptance of a wide range of LGBTQ+ identities. They are simultaneously insecure and arrogant, fragile and bellicose. Their aggressive bombast and misogyny only serves to reveal the compensatory role played by performative toxic masculinity in lessening their inner turmoil and re-establishing a vague semblance of psychic safety.

There is a continuum that encompasses run-of-the mill misogynists, "pick-up artists," men's rights activists, the online manosphere (e.g., MGTOW), extreme gamers, incels, incels who murder women, the alt-right, and activists and politicians who want to strip women of their rights. Male supremacy also feeds white supremacy, as white sexual anguish stokes racial anguish over Black men's virility and fuels the spread of the "great replacement" conspiracy theory. 

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Related

What "great replacement"? Right wants us to shut up about Buffalo shooter's ideology
This shared hostility toward women and minorities springs from recognizable sociopathic traits: entitlement, grievance, raging righteousness, cruelty, and social domination. Many are looking for father figures, authoritarian or even punitive fathers, for unapologetically dominant alpha males (John Wayne, Rambo, Trump, "Top Gun," John Wick) and models on how to be a real man (Jordan Peterson). In April of this year, Tucker Carlson infamously pushed an apocalyptic-messianic "documentary" called "The End of Men" that advocated "testicle tanning," or exposing male genitalia to red light, supposedly to boost testosterone levels, as a form of "bromeopathy." 

In his 1897 classic of sociology, "Suicide," Émile Durkheim argued that suicide was not a purely individual phenomenon, but was influenced by collective forces. A society that nurtures functional "little platoons" (à la Edmund Burke) and the sound social integration and regulation of individuals helps them cope with the rigors of life. When that kind of integration fails, the result may be what Durkheim called "selfish suicide" (individuals who feel disconnected), while deficient regulation may facilitate "anomic suicide" (when an individual lacks a sense of rules and meaning). On the other hand, too much integration, as in the military or cult movements, can facilitate "altruistic suicide" (self-sacrifice for the group), while excessive regulation may facilitate "fatalistic suicides" (in which someone breaks under the weight of rigid social norms). In other words, unbalanced forms of social cohesion produce specific pathologies. It's not much of a leap to conceive that American society, with its social isolation, incessant consumerism, endless commercial spectacle and social Darwinism, could produce all sorts of alarming compensatory strategies, such as the manic, cultish, bellicose energy of the MAGA faithful.

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Indeed, the fear of death — whether biological and social — is the fear that underpins countless others. As anthropologist Ernest Becker showed in "The Denial of Death," individuals will do almost anything to lessen or forget this primal terror. Trumpers repudiate their loved ones, vilify reason and science, internalize outlandish lies and embrace servitude and mob rule. Cognitive dissonance, motivated reasoning, confirmation bias and amnesia are the ticket into the warm embrace of the tribe, which is both an extension of one's precious ego and a framework for security — the basis of Abraham Maslow's pyramid of fundamental human needs.

Furthermore, terror management and grief processing are closely connected. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross famously identified five stages of grief: denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance. Millions of Trumpers grapple with loss and remain stuck at the initial, pain-filled levels of the grieving process: "The COVID virus is a myth, I am in control" (denial); "Mask mandate is Nazism and/or communism" (anger); "Dr. Fauci stole my life" (anger and depression); "If I take vitamin D, I won't be affected" (bargaining). They take longer to move toward acceptance, if that ever happens: "I will wash my hands and keep a safe distance." David Kessler, a foremost expert on grief and close collaborator of Kübler-Ross, added a sixth stage: seeking meaning. But actual meaning can only come after an acceptance of reality. Delusional sense-seeking is what happens when individuals and groups short-circuit the process, skip healthy grieving and rush into compensatory worlds. 

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The fear of economic exploitation, violence, political sclerosis, loneliness and death is easy enough to understand. Yet another fear torments Americans: fear of freedom.

The fear of economic exploitation, violence and war, institutional or political sclerosis, solipsism and death is easy to understand. Yet another fear secretly torments many Americans: fear of freedom, or rather fear of the charges and duties that responsible freedom entails. Erich Fromm, in his study of Nazism "Escape From Freedom," explains that the rigors of freedom create considerable anxiety in many individuals, who seek to lessen stress through three mechanisms: destructiveness, conformity with (and submission to) the group, and seeking refuge in an authoritarian movement that seems to offers direction and meaning. Today, the mainstream, conventional American sense of self is self-centered, entitled and inauthentic; and therefore also insecure and hyper-vigilant, aggrieved and bellicose. An epidemic of narcissism and unmoored subjectivity that cuts across generations, races, genders, sexual orientations, classes and political affiliations has fed the current crisis. Irritable individual sovereignty, freed from any sense of responsibility, helps many Trumpers indulge their narcissism, intellectual laziness and conformity. 

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Indeed, willful ignorance is key here. In 1546, John Heywood, perhaps inspired by Jeremiah 5:21, wrote: "There are none so blind as those who will not see." Self-indulgence mixes with the old populist mystique of practical knowledge and vocational skills to feed the fear and hatred of analytical culture and critical thinking — and the particularly demanding form of freedom it offers.

As Richard Hofstadter remarked some 60 years ago, anti-intellectualism and paranoia are American traditions embedded in the national experience. In his 1963 classic "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life," he argues that intellectuals and experts are viewed as "pretentious, conceited, effeminate, and snobbish; and very likely immoral, dangerous, and subversive" — and un-American. Historically, the American glorification of the "common man" tends to feed demagoguery, favors the lowest common denominator and fuels self-absorption, religious fundamentalism and suspicion of the experts and other Others. It is Jacksonian democracy run amok. Mangled English and a smug ignorance (of science, history, the world, legitimate sources of knowledge) become evidence of one's authenticity (Trump, Sarah Palin, George W. Bush) and good character. Hostility toward critical knowledge is also a form of revolt against the Enlightenment, against an ideal of truth that demands questioning one's ego, one's limits, one's safety and one's world. This ontological insecurity feeds paranoia, which Hofstadter defined as "the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy" that characterizes "more or less normal people" throughout American history.

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Paranoia is found across historical time and space. Its American avatar harks back to medieval Christian millenarianism and end-time fantasies of destruction and salvation, which Norman Cohn describes as

the megalomaniac view of oneself as the Elect, wholly good, abominably persecuted, yet assured of ultimate triumph; the attribution of gigantic and demonic powers to the adversary; the refusal to accept the ineluctable limitations and imperfections of human existence, such as transience, dissention, conflict, fallibility whether intellectual or moral; the obsession with inerrable prophecies, systematized misinterpretations, always gross and often grotesque.

This portrait of medieval lunatics can be applied verbatim to contemporary QAnon believers, Christian nationalists and other "patriots." Trumpism is a charismatic, cultish and nihilistic mass movement that calls for destruction "for them" and salvation "for us." This helps explain why sadism, cruelty and sheer frenzy run deep in the MAGA circus: they bind the mob together toward mass cruelty and some apocalyptic showdown. Charisma replaces common sense. As Bret Stephens writes about the decay of moderate conservatism on both sides of the Atlantic: "Where there is sense, there is not much charisma; when there is charisma, there is almost no sense." 

 Trumpist zealots converge on style and substance, while their goals and deeper motivations remain diverse. Many Trumpers are not fearful at all, but arrogant, domineering and coldly conniving. Others — the sour, surly, and surreal specimens whom Jordan Klepper interviews regularly — demonstrate the truth of the adage that "there are limits to human intelligence but no limits to human stupidity." Others, like the morally flexible evangelicals, use the "Cyrus the Great" rationalization (Isaiah 41:2-4, 45:1-3) to proclaim that Trump, though imperfect, was anointed by God because he delivered their most cherished goals. Millions of others spurred by anguish are riding along in the bacchanal, serving as the useful idiots and shock troops for the Pied Pipers, princes and principalities (Ephesians 6:12) of Trumpistan. 

Read more

on why millions of Americans still love #45

MAGA is complicit — not conned: Trump supporters were the most pivotal part of his coup
Cult expert Steven Hassan sees 95% chance of worsening pro-Trump violence
New research on Trump voters: They're not the sharpest tools in the box

By Michel Gueldry
Michel Gueldry is professor of French studies and intercultural studies and director of the Global Engineering Program at Missouri University of Science & Technology.

 

[Biff Tannen 45232]

14 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

She’s the type who shows up to your office, stabs you with a soldering iron, handcuffs herself to the desk, then burns it to the ground when mad

Fixed

[tx ind 6904]

7 hours ago, Pancho said:

 

And here I thought I was doing ok as a husband and dad but apparently I screwed up somewhere along the way

[Macanudo 12798]

10 hours ago, TheStoicPaisano said:

Sloppy Newt.

 

Looks like it's about time for Callista to trade in Newt for a new, younger husband.   You know, the Gingrich Way.