# Cenk Uygur and Reza Aslan on the cult of Trumpism **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 15, 2017, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590 "2017-12-15T22:55:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/1 "2017-12-15T22:55:26Z")
This is a 4-minute snippet from a longer interview, and well worth a listen. In short, most of the Trumpists also call themselves Christians, and there is nothing Christian about any of this. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/2 "2017-12-15T22:58:00Z")
Same was true of Bush 1 and 2 , they did a lot of non Christian stuff too. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/3 "2017-12-15T23:05:45Z")
Who’s going to be first with the Gandhi quote? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/4 "2017-12-15T23:07:46Z")
A lot of these people would vote for a Hitler/Charles Manson ticket if they were anti abortion. Just this week they had no problem voting for a child molestor. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/5 "2017-12-15T23:37:30Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Same was true of Bush 1 and 2 , they did a lot of non Christian stuff too. I don’t remember Bush worship. I definitely remember Reagan worship. :rolleyes: It all pales in comparison to Trump worship. 😕 There’s a BIIIIIIIG difference between respecting the presidency and, well, this. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2017, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/6 "2017-12-15T23:38:36Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > A lot of these people would vote for a Hitler/Charles Manson ticket if they were anti abortion. Just this week they had no problem voting for a child molestor. True, or even just Republican. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/7 "2017-12-16T05:10:45Z")
This item really drives the point of why I stopped following organized religion and ultimately became an Agnostic/Deist. > [@](#): > > But the one figure that I think is impossible for us to really understand, again PRI did this research, white evangelicals in the span of a single election cycle, in other words going from Barack Obama to Donald Trump; they went from being the group in > America that was most likely to say that public morality in a politician matters to now the group that is least likely to say that! > > Atheists in America say public morality in a politician matters more than white evangelicals who call themselves value voters! There is only one real explanation for this and that it’s in the same way that Trump has transformed the Republican Party, has really hijacked the Republican Party, he has transformed white evangelicals into > a large swath of white evangelicals into his own personal cult ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/8 "2017-12-16T15:41:10Z")
The issue isn’t religion, it is authoritarianism. People who score high on authoritarianism, also called right wing authoritarianism, tend to adopt religious fundamentalism. In fact I’ve heard religious fundamentalism referred to as the official spiritual belief of authoritarianism. There are Christians who are decent people like Jimmy Carter. It’s more that people who score high on authoritarian personality traits tend to be fundamentalist and also support very draconian, regressive, unequal social policies. People who score high on authoritarianism in a secular nation (like the ussr) become hard headed defenders of communism. Authoritarianism is more about supporting the status quo and hostility to equality and outsiders than religion or economic policy. That is why Trump won despite (on the campaign) being hostile to traditional gop economics. Trump was anti trade, pro safety net, etc. He was also an obvious secularist who didn’t give a damn about morality. his votes didn’t care about that. They just liked his hostility towards outgroups and his calls for rabid aggression towards all enemies, foreign and domestic. Fwiw, I personally believe the rise of Islamic extremism overseas is also an authoritarian movement, just like the resurgence of white nationalism in the west is an authoritarian movement. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/9 "2017-12-16T19:42:56Z")
Opportunism and fake virtue don’t constitute a cult but I guess whatever makes you feel better. Imagine thinking Christianity is compatible with capitalism, but not Trumpism. > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > The issue isn’t religion, it is authoritarianism. Let’s make an Altemeyer cult. But yeah, just look at how so many of the new atheists turned into reactionaries, and some of them independently developed some retro galaxy brain ideas like “Christianity is false but we need to pretend it’s real because it’s the foundation of Western morality, which godless leftists want to destroy.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2017, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/10 "2017-12-17T13:51:34Z")
We can close the thread. \*\*Wesley \*\*nailed it. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/11 "2017-12-19T16:06:19Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Opportunism and fake virtue don’t constitute a cult but I guess whatever makes you feel better. Imagine thinking Christianity is compatible with capitalism, but not Trumpism. > > Let’s make an Altemeyer cult. > > But yeah, just look at how so many of the new atheists turned into reactionaries, and some of them independently developed some retro galaxy brain ideas like “Christianity is false but we need to pretend it’s real because it’s the foundation of Western morality, which godless leftists want to destroy.” Not quite following you – who are these “new atheists” of whom you speak? ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/12 "2017-12-19T18:06:46Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Who’s going to be first with the Gandhi quote? Be the change you want to see in the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/13 "2017-12-19T18:35:15Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Not quite following you – who are these “new atheists” of whom you speak? [New Atheism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Atheism) Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, et al. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/14 "2017-12-19T18:53:59Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > [New Atheism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Atheism) > > Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, et al. ??? Do any of these guys believe anything close to “Christianity is false but we need to pretend it’s real because it’s the foundation of Western morality, which godless leftists want to destroy”? ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/15 "2017-12-19T19:05:31Z")
The hard core trumplodyte is a person who could be cooking rat meat over an oil drum fire, look off in the distance and see a mushroom-shaped cloud rising and his last thought before the blast wave hit would be: “Hillary would have been worse.” ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/16 "2017-12-19T19:08:40Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > ??? > > Do any of these guys believe anything close to “Christianity is false but we need to pretend it’s real because it’s the foundation of Western morality, which godless leftists want to destroy”? I don’t know. I’ll leave that in **marshmallow** ’s hands, I was just trying to point **Ulfreida** in the right direction. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/17 "2017-12-19T20:45:45Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > [New Atheism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Atheism) > > Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, et al. Oh, them. Got it. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/18 "2017-12-19T22:11:53Z")
There is nothing that reveals the puritanical nature of progressivism more clearly than when, without any self-awareness whatsoever, they make judgements about “how Christian” a group of actual Christians is. The most Christian characteristic of all being the tendency to judge the Christianity of other sects. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/19 "2017-12-19T22:16:18Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > The issue isn’t religion, it is authoritarianism. People who score high on authoritarianism, also called right wing authoritarianism, tend to adopt religious fundamentalism. In fact I’ve heard religious fundamentalism referred to as the official spiritual belief of authoritarianism. > > There are Christians who are decent people like Jimmy Carter. It’s more that people who score high on authoritarian personality traits tend to be fundamentalist and also support very draconian, regressive, unequal social policies. People who score high on authoritarianism in a secular nation (like the ussr) become hard headed defenders of communism. Authoritarianism is more about supporting the status quo and hostility to equality and outsiders than religion or economic policy. That is why Trump won despite (on the campaign) being hostile to traditional gop economics. Trump was anti trade, pro safety net, etc. He was also an obvious secularist who didn’t give a damn about morality. his votes didn’t care about that. They just liked his hostility towards outgroups and his calls for rabid aggression towards all enemies, foreign and domestic. > > Fwiw, I personally believe the rise of Islamic extremism overseas is also an authoritarian movement, just like the resurgence of white nationalism in the west is an authoritarian movement. Yeah. I mean look at the holy roller Bolsheviks and contrast them with the warrior Menonites. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2017, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590/20 "2017-12-19T23:08:49Z")
I feel like the general consensus in the United States is that Jesus was a peace loving, socialist, forgiving hippie. I always find it strange that his religion is considered to be closer in values to the hawkish, capitalist, punitive political party. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cenk-uygur-and-reza-aslan-on-the-cult-of-trumpism/804590.md?page=2)