Coup/protest in the US

thestaggy said:
Seems to be a thing in the US. I've seen it in many Reddit subs with people saying they are not speaking to relatives because they support(ed) Trump.

Politics have become people's entire personalities and reason to exist.
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I mean, can there be any argument at this stage Trumpism isn't a cult?

I am given to understand that certain truths can be held as self-evident, that still a thing?
 
i'm super hoping that this is true...

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...and when he buggers off, they do too.
 
SlinkyMike said:
I mean, can there be any argument at this stage Trumpism isn't a cult?

I am given to understand that certain truths can be held as self-evident, that still a thing?
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www.gq.com

Social Justice Catchphrases Have Taken Over Dating Apps

But what does tossing a slogan into your bio really tell your potential matches?
www.gq.com www.gq.com

As I said, politics are now personality traits and defining who and what people are and determining who they will associate with. It even gave rise to the term ''wokefishing'', where people bullsh*t their political positions on dating profiles by using all the buzzwords in order to get matches.

And it is not just the MAGA crowd doing this.
 
thestaggy said:
Seems to be a thing in the US. I've seen it in many Reddit subs with people saying they are not speaking to relatives because they support(ed) Trump.

Politics have become people's entire personalities and reason to exist.
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when they divorced politics from economics, it all became about "culture" (which for a lot of people is code for race, making it worse). soft issues like that are all that's left to you when you agree that politics is no longer about the disposition of common funds.so now everyone sees political policy as being indistinguishable from culture/race/identity.

it's how you get people to manifestly votes against their own interests. the rise of the Tea Party in the states is a great example of this. those folk thought they were super-smart, making identity and values the centre-piece of the movement when all they were doing was further removing themselves from any influence over the things that matter and affect them. like the disposition of common funds, for example.

edit: it's the same reason I think the self-proclaimed left's insistence on policing language and identity is dumb. if they actually achieved anything (and their impact is vastly overstated) all that happens is that everyone now asks for pronouns before having a conversation, but (a) corporations still pay fvckall tax, (b) the investment class still owns the majority of assets, (c) decisions about the disposition of the commons are still taken solely by that class for their own benefit, and (e) employment continues to move towards insecure, gig-economy models.

and while I think their actual impact is both negligible and risible, they serve to make an annoying strawman, one that draws attention away from policy and other interventions that would actually improve people's quality of life. it becomes a competition of the "dumbs" and the urgent policy reform needs are lost in the noise.
 
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thestaggy said:
www.gq.com

Social Justice Catchphrases Have Taken Over Dating Apps

But what does tossing a slogan into your bio really tell your potential matches?
www.gq.com www.gq.com

As I said, politics are now personality traits and defining who and what people are and determining who they will associate with. It even gave rise to the term ''wokefishing'', where people bullsh*t their political positions on dating profiles by using all the buzzwords in order to get matches.

And it is not just the MAGA crowd doing this.
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Do you really think that young people of dating age wanting to fit in or find suitable people to date = cult? Not sure if I'm reading you right here?

This is the definition of a cult that I would go by:
Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, who once taught at Harvard Medical School, wrote a paper titled Cult Formation in the early 1980s. He delineated three primary characteristics, which are the most common features shared by destructive cults.

1. A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power. That is a living leader, who has no meaningful accountability and becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of power and authority.

2. A process [of indoctrination or education is in use that can be seen as] coercive persuasion or thought reform [commonly called "brainwashing"].

The culmination of this process can be seen by members of the group often doing things that are not in their own best interest, but consistently in the best interest of the group and its leader.

Lifton's seminal book Thought Reform and Psychology of Totalism explains this process in considerable detail.

3. Economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.

The destructiveness of groups called cults varies by degree, from labour violations, child abuse, medical neglect to, in some extreme and isolated situations, calls for violence or mass suicide.
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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/may/27/cults-definition-religion

I don't see changing times and a trend toward social justice ticking any of those boxes.

Trump's base on the other hand clearly ticks several of those boxes.

You know, I have a friend whose dad kicked him out of the house at 16 because he got an ear pierced - it was the 90s, we were all doing it but in his case he was literally cut off by his old man because it was "for moffies."

Now, did every male who got one ear pierced in the 90's partake in cult? I mean, clearly not yea? It was just the times and they were a changin'.

I don't really see the protestations against social justice, non binaries, green hair or nail polish on guys as any different to that. Boomers gonna boom.

Storming the capitol because god-emperor ordered it, on the other hand - is definitely cultish behaviour.

BTW: I have heard from friends who are in the dating scene that a trending hashtag on dating apps is "#nocyclists" ...crying laughing over that tbh but my point is that people are free to prefer what they like, doesn't make them cult members just because those preferences are shared with others.
 
SlinkyMike said:
Do you really think that young people of dating age wanting to fit in or find suitable people to date = cult? Not sure if I'm reading you right here?

This is the definition of a cult that I would go by:

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/may/27/cults-definition-religion

I don't see changing times and a trend toward social justice ticking any of those boxes.

Trump's base on the other hand clearly ticks several of those boxes.

You know, I have a friend whose dad kicked him out of the house at 16 because he got an ear pierced - it was the 90s, we were all doing it but in his case he was literally cut off by his old man because it was "for moffies."

Now, did every male who got one ear pierced in the 90's partake in cult? I mean, clearly not yea? It was just the times and they were a changin'.

I don't really see the protestations against social justice, non binaries, green hair or nail polish on guys as any different to that. Boomers gonna boom.

Storming the capitol because god-emperor ordered it, on the other hand - is definitely cultish behaviour.

BTW: I have heard from friends who are in the dating scene that a trending hashtag on dating apps is "#nocyclists" ...crying laughing over that tbh but my point is that people are free to prefer what they like, doesn't make them cult members just because those preferences are shared with others.
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I never called them cult members. You are fixating on cults.

I merely said politics are now defining people, who they are and who they are willing to interact with and it is very clearly not reserved by the MAGAhats.
 
thestaggy said:
I never called them cult members. You are fixating on cults.

I merely said politics are now defining people, who they are and who they are willing to interact with and it is very clearly not reserved by the MAGAhats.
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I think that's because politics in the UK and USA polarised like never before in history and in addition had immediate real world impacted on people's lives.

Some of my UK friends found / find themselves estranged from direct family as a result of Brexit as an example.
 
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thestaggy said:
I never called them cult members. You are fixating on cults.
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OK, sorry - I thought I was a bit confused. Thanks for clearing that up.

thestaggy said:
I merely said politics are now defining people,
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Only now? What do you think the counter culture movement has been about since the 60s?

thestaggy said:
who they are and who they are willing to interact with and it is very clearly not reserved by the MAGAhats.
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I agree, don't see an issue with that TBH.
 
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