Monkey See, Monkey Do: The Sad, Sad Tale of the MAGAites Cult
I heard Trump blaming Ms. K and Coach Walz for a guy showing up at one of his golf courses with an AK-style long gun. He also just claimed that Springfield, Ohio is being overrun with pet-roasting Haitian immigrants. His boy, JV, is from Ohio and was on with Dana Bash and claimed he got calls from his constituents about the made-up problem. JV more or less claimed that he jumped on a Facebook story that turned out to be completely false.
God Almighty!
Springfield has to have state troopers at all their schools and hospitals because of all the bomb threats being called into the local police. Needless to say, Trump, always the lying POS, knows that what he’s saying is not true, and says it anyway. JV went so far as to admit he made it up.
His excuse was that he made it up so the press would pay attention to the real problem, which he failed to enunciate. He made some vague reference to the Democrats taking away freedoms. All either of them are doing is feeding the people who are not in any way connected to Springfield, but want to have a reason to hate on people who are different than they are. Trump and JV think there are so many people who are like that that they’ll win in November.
And now, they can claim that Ms. K and Coach Walz are trying to bump them off so they’ll win in November. Ooo, what a coup. Never mind your reality-smenality.
I do not understand how selling bald-faced lies to the American public is a winning strategy for garnering votes. It looks like the actual strategy is to lose the election, then claim it was stolen. That is such a sad song. I don’t think it will sound any better in the second verse, either. But a fight about the legitimacy of the election appears to be the only path to the White House for the GOP ticket.
The violence that Trump and JV are promoting is something that ex-MAGAites are stating as one of the major reasons for abandoning the cult. As the cultists escape the fearful hold the cult exerts on the members, the escapees are beginning to give us glimpses into the reasons for the unwavering faith in what the Orange Jesus says.
One of the most sticky realities for the MAGAites is that they do not hear anything that is contrary to what they think they see as real.
When anyone is involved with a cult, they really do not ever get the chance to hear other points of view or even to consider that their view of the world could be flawed. Because of the lack of feedback, cultists tend to think that they’re “right” about all things political or spiritual, depending on the cult’s focus. The operative thought for a cultist is they are right and there is no other description of the world.
For MAGAites to see Kamala and Joe as sending some nutcase to go stalking Donny on his golf course makes perfect sense. That’s one of the wonders of our brains. We make things internally consistent, whether it is or not. If, for instance, you want to vote for Donny, you’ll align everything in your thinking to agree with that idea. Even if, to outside observers, you do not make sense. You won’t be able to see how you don’t make sense because everything aligns in your thinking.
It’s an art to break through such armor. The most effective breakthrough technique comes from other MAGAites. It would take a fellow cultist to know where the weak points of the cult belief exist because everyone in the cult has to wrestle with that point to stay in.
What Trump did with the Great Haitian Petco Invasion tirade made no sense whatsoever. He was called out on it during the debate with 67,000,000 people watching. That did not register with him. He went out the next day and spread the same plant-enhancing material over his live audience, which would be appropriate because I suspect he thinks of his audiences as walking vegetables. I have no idea if anyone in that audience listened to that spiel or not, but in Trump's head, it all had to be true, or he had no reason for interfering with that immigration bill that he had MAGAMike kill. There has to be thousands of Haitians destroying Springfield, Ohio, or his name isn’t Trump.
He has also been mentioning Aurora, Colorado. The actual story there is a developer made up the story of Venezuelan gangs not allowing them to make court-ordered improvements to their properties. That isn’t true either. The developers made up that whole story. But in Trump’s head, that has to be true because he has to have immigration for his justification for getting back to the White House and, I nearly forgot, staying out of jail because he could order the Justice Department to lay off, and they would. All of that has to be internally consistent for the man so he can say anything he needs to service his wished-for reality.
I can understand why he would try to sell his picture of what might or could be to the populace. That’s the only thing he’s ever done. That’s how he was taught to sell condos. When people bought his condos, he sold them the idea of the glory of pure white living in a Trump Tower. When people belong to one of his golf clubs, he sells them on the glamor of playing at a Trump course. The dream is all that he sells. You know that old sales saw. “Don’t sell the steak; sell the sizzle.” That’s what he’s trying to do with his Presidency, again. But in his vision, the sizzle is white, or it has no value.
Let’s face it. Trump is a washed-up real estate salesman, or maybe huckster is a better word. If he hadn’t been given money as a kid, he would have been the world's greatest timeshare salesman.
I find that one-size-fits-all approach to real estate and governance to be off-putting, to say the least. I get that people like to boot scoot while they ney ney, but as much as folks all like to dance the newest craze, they’re still all pretty different underneath the big belt buckle, cowboy hat, pointy-toed boots, and tight jeans.
Trump thinks folks really are those boots, that hat, the buckle, and the jeans. It kind of looks like he’s spent too much time putting on the Ritz and no time at all learning to be human. It must have been terribly lonely for him as a kid. He’s had to act like he was rich from the day he was born. His dad, from all accounts, pushed the poor kid to act like he was old money. He wasn’t. The only option he really ever had was to act like he knew because he imagined.
That’s why, for him, alternate realities are the same as the real deal. I doubt he can tell the difference. It’s all an act for him in either case.
I don’t know about you, but I’m happy Ms. K and Coach Walz are running. I think they have a fair to middling chance of winning it all. I do fear the transition will not be peaceful, though. But as historians all know, the victor writes history.
I won’t miss the daily mental carnage that Trump brings to the table. In fact, I’m looking forward to not seeing his name in the news for years to come. He should get a nice obituary when he passes. Everyone should. Well, maybe not Stephen Miller. Stephen just cannot keep his bigotry to himself. Neither can Trump, but that’s part of putting on the Ritz he learned as a boy.
Not to rewrite history here, but it would have been better if Fred Trump had made Donny a trust fund baby. Instead, Fred thought that Donny had what it takes to actually be substantive. But Donny is such a good grifter that he even fooled his daddy.
You can’t fool all the people all the time, is what someone who understood these things, once said.
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