Tag: cults

Beyond MAGA

A Profile of the Trump Coalition

by: Stephen Hawkins, Daniel Yudkin, PhD, Tim Dixon, and Jason Mangone

Publisher: More in Common US

Recommended by: Bob B.

A Coalition, Not a Cult

There is an image at the heart of American politics: a sea of
red-hat-wearing MAGA supporters at a Trump campaign rally,
representing the millions of Americans who voted for him over the past
three elections — 63 million in 2016, 74 million in 2020, and 77
million in 2024. Yet this image is misleading. President Trump has
built a coalition, not a cult. This coalition shares many common
concerns, from unregulated immigration to progressive overreach to
American decline. But it also contains groups with distinct
identities, competing priorities, and clashing worldviews. And while
there is a strong core of ardent Trump supporters whose identity is
wrapped up in the MAGA movement, they represent a minority: only 38
percent of Trump voters say that being MAGA is important to them.

The Four Types of Trump Voters

  • The Reluctant Right
  • MAGA Hardliners
  • Anti-Woke Conservatives
  • Mainline Republicans
See the full report

Thoughts on Aliens of Our Creation

Do they work for us, or for themselves?

By: Bruce Rafnel

Publisher: Substack, Authentic Community

Clearly, humans are causing climate change.

But we have more problems than warming the planet. Even if we control the temperature by reducing our CO2 emissions, there are many other ecological problems caused by humans: deforestation, desertification, disruption of water cycles, plastic pollution, insect decline, fishery collapses, and fuel resource depletion. The list goes on and on. “It is no accident that the ruins of the world’s oldest civilizations are mostly in deserts now. It wasn’t desert before that.”

Our human institutions are unwilling (or unable) to address these problems with real solutions. We created these institutions—corporations and governments, most notably—but we seem unable to control them. They have morphed into alien entities that now control us.

The smallest effective human-powered unit is a community, not an individual. However, tight, effective communities have been hobbled. It is time to relearn how to build communities, and then to do the work of taking back our government. At the same time, large organizations can be reformed or broken up, with non-violent actions, to remind them that they exist for humans, not themselves.

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Professor Jason Stanley outlines how fascism takes over a country

Fascism is a cult of the leader, who promises national restoration in the face of supposed humiliation by immigrants, leftists, liberals, minorities, homosexuals, women, in the face of what the fascist leader says is a takeover of the country’s media, cultural institutions, schools by these forces.

Fascist movements typically, though not invariably, rest on an urban/rural divide. The cities are where there’s decadence, where the elites congregate, where there’s immigrants, and where there’s criminality.

Each of these individuals alone is not in and of itself fascist, but you have to worry when they’re all grouped together, seeing the other as less than. Those moments are the times when societies need to worry about fascism.

The Cult of Trump

A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control

by Steve Hassan

Publisher: Free Press

Mind control and licensed mental health expert Steven Hassan draws parallels between our 45th president and people like Jim Jones, David Koresh, Ron Hubbard, and Sun Myung Moon, arguing that this presidency is in many ways like a destructive cult. He specifically details the ways in which people are influenced through an array of social psychology methods and how they become fiercely loyal and obedient.

Dr. Steven Hassan’s presentation to  Commonwealth Club of CA

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