Just so we’re not talking past each other, I consider IFB (Independent Fundamentalist Baptist) churches to be a cult. It’s a position that is not without controversy and this thread is probably not the place for that discussion. As far as I know, Adam Kinzinger has never publicly referred to that group as a cult, but he discusses breaking with them in this Atlantic article.
It may be paywalled, here’s a quote.
Kinzinger was raised as an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist until he was 20, but the experience left him alienated. “That was a really damaging, in my mind, a very damaging religion” he said. I asked him why.
“The best way to put it is that your salvation is by faith alone unless you do something wrong - then you were never saved in the first place.”, he said. And by the way, we have these really strict rules that you have to follow that no one can follow, but everyone at the church is going to act like they are and you’re the only one that isn’t.
So I believe that when he was talking about his family being brainwashed by conservative churches, he was speaking broadly, not just referring to their unhinged adulation to Trump. Brainwashing is kind of a full spectrum procedure, an altering of the victim’s thought processes - it’s usually not about just one thing.
Some anti-trump Republicans are staying and fighting for their party, some are investigating going third-party, some are going Dem and trying to pull them toward (what they perceive as) the center. Splitting their forces in this manner means that all will be ineffective.
In case you haven’t seen it yet, the NYT published an absolutely stunning visual investigation that goes over everything they know so far over the Capitol Insurrection and a minute by minute play of the day. An amazing piece of journalism.
I highly recommend the Jocelyn Zichterman book you linked to, it’s possibly the best cult memoir I’ve ever read — in addition to talking about her horrific personal experiences, she delves into the structure of the group and talks about their substandard educational system and their alliance with political conservatism.
The thing is, and I think is relevant with regards to January 6th, there are millions of Trump supporters that are members of a cult. I’m not talking about QANON or some metaphorical “Cult of Trump”. I’m saying that they were literally members of a cult before Trump entered the political scene. I’m not talking about a single group, but multiple generational cults that are usually centered around a fundamentalist religion. Many of these groups have been deeply political for years, note how Kinzinger talks about how he was raised to believe a Democrat couldn’t be a Christian.
Cults love Trump. His two biggest print cheerleaders are two cult-owned newspapers, The Epoch Times -owned by the Chinese Falun Gong cult and the Washington Times, owned by the Moonies.
These groups seem motivated by a dissonant combination of red white and blue rah rah patriotism and anti-government sentiment, and Trump managed to play into all of it. They love his authoritarianism and they couldn’t care less about his moral failings…….he’s not a prophet, he’s a weapon sent by God, a hammer.
Trump isn’t the problem, the problem is the millions of people that were waiting for God to send them a big hammer.
And, just for fun, here’s Don Jr. engaging in macho gun play with a high level member of an extremely noxious polygamous cult, playing with guns made in their own cult-owned munitions factory - which the US government is trying to seize because it’s part of a billion dollar fraud scheme. You can’t make this stuff up.
FYI, this cult actually ranks their high level members (the numbered men), with the rankings changing annually, reflecting things like how much money they brought in and their success in keeping their wives and children in line.
While 72 may not seem like a very high number, it’s high status in a cult with over 10K members
I posted this in a Pit thread, but I wanted to drop it here in case you haven’t seen it.
For those who are doubting that this was a real insurrection attempt, apparently some of these groups of “peaceful patriots” had amassed a weapons arsenal and staged a “quick reaction force” in a hotel across the VA state line, 10 minutes from DC, and maybe another one on a nearby farm in Virginia.
They had very detailed plans for transporting those weapons to the Capitol and handing them off to the insurrectionists. Maybe not incredibly realistic plans- some of them expected LEO’s to take their side, and there was some really ill-conceived plan to transport the weapons across the Potomac by boat……but no one ever accused these guys of being smart.
The link has surveillance footage of the insurrectionists bringing large quantities of weapons into the hotel.
