Scientology?
QAnon might arguably be another one. It originally coalesced around the “Q drops,” but the leader-figure was anonymous and unknown, and relatively quickly became largely irrelevant. It’s one of the weirdest modern cult movements in that it’s so fundamentally decentralized and fueled almost entirely by its own lunatic ideology rather than by the unifying personality of a charismatic leader.
MAGA is different from a cult that’s entirely based around the idea that the cult leader is the Messiah or something like that, because it’s really the fusion of a political party and an entire political movement with a cult around their leader. If there’s a Messianic cult of like 60 members and their Messiah dies, it will probably disperse. But if Trump dies, you still have tens of millions of Americans who have recently felt empowered to be able to act on their worst impulses. There’s an entire country’s government, a media propaganda network, a social media propaganda network, and a huge mass of momentum behind them.
In some cults, the leader of the cult is the point of the cult, and without that leader, there’s no point. But I’d say MAGA is a little different in that the core of their cult is their desire to hurt other people, to turn back social progress, to make it acceptable to hate again, etc. Trump is just the magic guy who reversed decades of society getting better. He’s their leader because he’s the one who managed to get away with all the shit they’ve wanted to do but felt they can’t. So when Trump is gone, that will indeed be a huge blow to MAGA, but the hatred and willingness to distort reality to confirm their beliefs and stay loyal to their tribe will remain. In the post-Trump world, it may lose focus and momentum and cause a splintering where various groups vie for power, but unlike a traditional small scale cult it doesn’t just fade away.
We are stuck with tens of millions of incredibly shitty Americans who are immune to needing to see reality, will never change their minds, and whose driving purpose in life is to make things worse for others. The realization of just how common and just how bad it is is one of the most depressing parts of living today.
Yep. I offered no opinion on the effect of the “affair” or the subsequent denial. Was just pointing out that “Trump never even bothered to deny it” was factually incorrect. Infer from that denial, and whatever it says of our current political environment, what you will!
There is also the Occam’s razor approach. That actually we are over thinking this. He’s just a self centered middle aged man who’s bored of his wife and wants an affair.
The reason he seems to be angling for one, with the widow of his friend, in the full glare of the public spotlight, rather than keeping it in private is he’s an entitled prick who doesn’t think he will ever face repercussions for doing exactly what he wants when he wants. Not because he has a master plan to become Charlie Kirk’s successor.
Except Vance is a dedicated climber. It’s the one thing we actually know about him that’s real. His entire career has been a series of “Find a sugar daddy, do exactly what that person wants done, rise, and then repeat.” He’s switched around his entire personality several times to conform to the desires of the next sugar daddy he thinks will help him advance. He’s exactly the sort of person who would be lying awake at night, trying to figure out where his next stepping stone will be. When he figures it out, he’ll take that step without hesitation or remorse.
Why can’t it be both? Only half-joking.
This last weekend I was in a hard-red part of the country and attended a sorta rednecky working class festival that wasn’t in any sense political.
But the reality was the attendees were highly political. Or at least highly tribal and their tribe is MAGA politics.
I saw almost as many signs, hats, and T-shirts lionizing the mighty patriot Charlie Kirk as I did lionizing the might trumpenführer. Both for sale and being worn by the other festival-goers.
Kirk was a very big deal. Far bigger than I ever knew. There is a lot of celebrity momentum to be had by whoever picks up Kirk’s mantle and runs with it.
Kirk was a moderately big deal before his death, but he’s become a bigger deal after his death because he’s become another way to show your loyalty as part of the MAGA clan battling the eeeeevil liberals that all hate Charlie Kirk and are happy that he died because he was (suddenly) practically Jesus.
Basically, anything that wasn’t that important before but when their leaders/propagandists declare is now a culture war battle, they will immediately make the issue of great importance to them to the point of making it a significant part of their personality.
Agree. But that also suggests that the newly-created shiny mantle of Kirk as martyred prophet will be something that other wannabes will be quick to pick up.
Whether it’s Vance or somebody else is TBD. But they’re all scrambling now.
I mean if my original theory, about it being a calculated political move on his part, is true I was not suggesting he is tearfully abandoning his wife for a former model as an act of pure self sacrifice
When the Gilded Scrotum Ballroom opens up, will JD and Erika be dancing to The Merry Widow Waltz? Erika’s grief at Saint Charlie’s passing seems as genuine as Scarlett O’Hara mourning the death of her first two husbands.
Hell no. That would risk upstaging Trump and making the headlines about someone other than the POTUS. That would be unthinkable
On the other hand the day after Trump pops his clogs and Vance gets sworn in, very possibly (beneath a statue of Charlie Kirk arm-in-arm with Vance)
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Later Day Saints, Branch Davidians (Koresh wasn’t the founder, he was the third leader and the Davidians are still around)…
Might as well include the followers of Jesus Christ.
Sure, if you want to. On the other hand, Jesus didn’t claim there was an impending apocalypse that failed to materialize, give the apocalypse a new date that it was going to occur on or by and then hand down leadership of his church to a group of elders, like the three I mentioned.
Yes he did.
You mean… to become dead from the neck up…?
Oops… too late…
My point was that they stood close enough to each other to shake hands before the interview, and while she did have heels (probably 2 inches at the most) on, he was barely taller than she was.
Charlie Kirk is better known for the way he died, than for anything he did while he was alive.
If you’re speaking of Trump, that’s Queens real estate huckster.