Please help me understand

Why do people worship this guy?

I think a most of the "worship" is just tongue in cheek stuff.

But for those who do, it most likely the result of social trends. With tongue in cheek Trump worshippers, normalizing it. Then some people started worshipping him for real.

Trump's machismo certainly hasnt made the situation any better.

That's the funny thing about personality cults, usually it's for pathetic figures. But it is incredible seeing a phenomenon like this happening right at the heart of the USA and the lack of will from the right to kill it while they can.

Still funny, seeing such a collective political movement emerging from within the GOP. You literally can't make that up.

@warmblur: He’s the last hope of the hopeless. An authoritarian figure who these people believe will magically fix all their problems. One of my childhood neighbors mother hadn’t paid her mortgage for 6 months leading up to the election because she believed Trump would “take power” and somehow pay it off for her.

Unemployed, underemployed, do poorly with the opposite sex, behind on bills, or people just don’t respect you or value what you have to say, when Trump controls everything you will have all the things you want.

Of course this entire premise is absurd. Even in the Nazi party the ugly and stupid were at the back of the line.

The writers this season have really jumped the shark. A bunch of Evangelicals gawking at a golden idol is a little on the nose, don't you think?

Isn't he Donald Trump?
Correct me if I am wrong

What am i even looking at?

I suppose I am lucky in that all the Republicans I know never really supported Trump, they just made excuses for him is all.

But yeah @warmblur I never understood the support when he first came about as a candidate, and I will never understand the worship he received years after poor leadership and representing the worst parts of ourselves.

All I do know is I am ready to move on, which the press is not helping with.

Trump statue that his cult will worship at CPAC.

Because he is the person so many GOPers desperately wants to be?

@mrbojangles25: I.... Don't understand.

Cpac: Commissions and displays golden Trump statue.

Warmblur: Here's a picture of the golden Trump statue at cpac.

Mr bojangles, shaking fist at sky: "Media, why do you insist on referencing Trump?!"

What am I missing that connects the media here?

Because they see themselves in this moron.

For a group of people that get offended when they get compared to a cult, this is pretty rich.

He's speaking at CPAC right now, and the crowd is literally chanting "we love you, we love you".

Then again, the guy knows how to stir up his audience. The crowd went wild when he spoke about guns, the constitution, and rigged elections.

It's as if the die-hard Trump supporters only have 4-5 words in their vocabulary, and they start cheering whenever they recognise a word.

O yes, very much so. *looking at thread*

Republicans worship celebrities and democrats turn politicians into celebrities.

No, neither is good.

Because the Republican Party has no substance to it, all it can do now is celebrate its leaders for being themselves.

Why is he still saying the election was stolen after what happened on Jan 6th...................

Where are the Republicans/Conservatives of this forum. Are you going to pretend this isn't your front runner for the next few years lol and avoid all of his thread lol?

They are a cult of cucks, they blame minorities and left wingers for their lack of success in life or happiness and think trump will give it to them.

Oh just a comment that isn't really related to the conversation.

I was just thinking the other day that, with the exception 01/06 and the two or three weeks after, February was fairly Trump free and the press must have had bad business as a result, so now they're back to reporting about Trump.

It's just been really nice hearing about Biden, hope, goals, progress, repairing international relations for the past few weeks, then all of a sudden a big jerk back to the sad reality that Trump is going nowhere.

@mrbojangles25: It looks like he's here to stay, unfortunately. He'll fall into the background a bit now that he's out of office, but he's clearly still a force in this party.

@mrbojangles25: Yeah it was really nice hearing all that Biden propaganda all while he was screwing the country blind (actually not him, he's not in the driver's seat).

Losers of a feather flock together.

It's all propaganda man, whether it's from Trump or Biden. But if I have to choose between Trump's toxic nonsense and Biden's positive nonsense, I'll take the latter.

Well at least Biden's economy is projected to be better than Trump's and he's doing better on the virus. But that isn't hard, Trump's was one of the worst in history for a term economy and handled the virus very poorly going by studies and medical journals.

Anyway it's impossible to defend Trump. Which is why no conservative here does that anymore. Good luck with him as the candidate.

Yeah Trump's stuff is just insanely braindead and dangerous.

"All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach"

Some german dictator messaged that...

Ahem. Let's take that verse and do it in reverse.

"They are a cult of cucks, they blame white people and right wingers for their lack of success in life or happiness and think Obama/Biden/Harris will give it to them"

@palasta: There are white people that vote Democratic. A lot of them so your false narrative is foolish.

@warmblur: Depends.

What do you consider a Trump worshipper?

Anyone who voted for him?

or

Anyone who blindly supports every single one of his policies, and believes the man can absolutely do no wrong?

This is literally a massive generalization that does not help anyone move a conversation forward in any sort of productive way.

The latter basically his fanboys that will always defend him at any cost.

I've been closely observing Trumpism for these past five years (with the help of my father, a Trump cultist to his core with whom I've have many discussions), and've come to a few conclusions as to Trump's appeal.

1) Fear and emotion. Trump makes a concerted effort to appeal to fear, emotion, and the absolute worst inclinations in people. Nothing so much to the specific issue, but broad sweeping narratives that he harnesses and nurtures peoples' phobias and underlying insecurities which he can then leverage to pertinent issue when needs be. Trump is the walking embodiment of a demagogue if I've ever seen it. He says what his followers feel; he unabashedly grants license to them no matter how abhorrent, and they worship the ground he walks on for it.

2) His "honesty". This one always puzzles me as (to me) Trump is as transparent as cling wrap in his intent, but in truth I can understand the sentiment for those so taken. I can see how many view Trump as "speaking his mind" due to his brazen, unrestrained and bombastic rhetorical style that is antithetical to establishment politicians who are the opposite to him......very calculated in their behavior, very P.C., which is why so many suspect, despise and distrust them. They view Trump as someone with the balls to say what needs to be said, unfiltered, and this immediately grants him the benefit of the doubt in many a mind that while, yeah, he may be an asshole, yeah, he may be brash and uncouth in his approach, but ah well......that's the cold, hard cost of truth.

Except he's not telling the truth.....he's just an asshole.

3) Dictating his own reality. I think there's a massive appeal to Trump in his absolute contempt for the boundaries of objective truth in dictating his behavior. If you simply deny it, you don't have to abide it, and he's been remarkably successful at this not only in garnering a base so willing to go along with his deceits, hook, line, and sinker, but the GOP as well who fight for and enable his falsehoods. Trump literally exists in an alternative universe of delusion, and people want to exist in such a world that they determine through sheer will. Trump affords them that freedom.

4) Anti-establishment. Trump has somehow convinced people he is the savior to everything they detest and distrust about America and the world. That he will confront and purify the deepstate, rectify institutional injustices, stand up against the media, etc. The bull in the china shop. This is all nonsense obviously; Trump couldn't care less about anything past how it serves him, but nonetheless, many have bought into the notion he does. They adore him for showing no hesitation to take on what they hate, misattributing his intent as their own when he's doing it solely for nothing but self-interest.

I think in the end, a large part of Trump's appeal is that he sells himself as so UN-political. The common man. He represents and is fighting for us. Which is complete and utter bullshit, laughably so, but he's conned many to believe it. Many buy into his garbage, and I've no idea why.

@warmblur: Well, folks who defend him at any cost are straight up lying to themselves imo. The mind has a funny way of throwing up so many alternative theories and ideas just to avoid having to say "Maybe I was wrong about Trump" lol.

Add in the fact that social media will pretty much serve everyone up their own personal echo chamber (unless one intentionally seeks out opposing viewpoints), and its no wonder some people are so far down the rabbit hole now.

Twitter is now pretty much liberalville, so you're unlikely to find very much rational discourse there. I haven't looked on Parler, but I'll go ahead and guess its even worse, but at the other end of the political spectrum.

Nah, Parler isn't worse. Seeing as it is still shut down as far as I know.

@Maroxad: Oh? I had heard it was up and running, but im not interested enough to go actually sign up and see what people are saying there.

It isn't 'my' narrative. There are blacks, hispanics, women, homosexuals who are conservative and vote conservative.

The simple answer is, he is the first president who put the citizens first. Other president govern to make sure the media is on their side or they don't upset other countries at the expense of United States citizens. Just look a the current administration for confirmation of my post.

He didn't put citizens first. His policies helped the wealthy which most citizens are not.

Trump had the lowest approval rating in history. Trump failed the Covid-19 response, resulting in many deaths.

@warmblur: I don't worship him but I like Trump. He's funny and brash. He's a lot cooler than Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnel (its a low bar). It was nice having Trump the last 4 years. The leftists screaming about him all the time was the most annoying part. But now that he's gone they still scream about him anyway. Now we are all stuck with Joe Biden which is tragic comedy. In his first 30 days he ended a pipeline of natural gas and bombed syria lol Man he could have at least got out the next stimulus before bombing stuff ffs.

Hope Trump runs again in 2024, ill vote for him.

@zaryia: You do realize, the whole world (WHO) botched the covid response. We can see that by looking at the few countries who didn't f.ed it up.

I think a couple of blood vessels burst when i came across one of the latest TheGuardian propaganda pieces (WHO~CCP "we became bestest friends")....

I digress. What else you got? Trump was POTUS four years. There gotta be a whole lotta bad stuff to justify the "second coming of Hitler antichrist" attitude people love to display... at every given opportunity.. (CAPC: "ZOMG, it's a SchutzStaffelStage!)

To put your 3rd Reich hallucinations into perspective, this what the real Nazis did after four years in power.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/holocaust-chronology-of-1937

Are you sure you want to have this debate? You are using a liberal talking point not facts.

Trump took no salary unlike Biden whos family got rich off of his position in government, but lets put that aside and focus on policy.

Trump opened up federal land for fracking that made the US energy independent creating thousand of good paying jobs that reduced our CO2 admissions to 1988 levels. Biden on his first day eliminated that. Trump restarted the XM pipe line creating thousand of high paying jobs which also helped reduce CO2 admissions. Biden canceled that on his first day in office again costing jobs and leading to increased CO2 admissions to transport the oil via truck and train, in which there have ben two train wrecks in the past with a loss of life and environmental damage. Trump stopped a massive increase in price to insulin used by many diabetics, Biden did away with it on his first day in office. When Biden got a push back he suspended it for sixty days which will be up soon. Trump suspended the practice of hiring foreign workers to replace citizens working mainly in the tech industry. Biden repealed that on his first day also. Trump limited immigration into the country Biden in the middle of a pandemic opened the borders with documented cases of illegal immigrants entering the country testing positive for Corvid 19 and being allowed to enter the heartland. Trump also gave every one a tax break by doubling the income tax deduction also a greater tax deduction for children and most of those citizens are not rich. Tell me who put the American people first Trump or Biden? I could go on and on but I made my point.

Reality: More than a decade long descent trend. 2.9% increase in 2018 followed by a 2.8% decrease in 2019.

Trumpet: Biggest most bestest of mega forever reduction in CO2!!!

Also. One of the main reasons for the decline? Coal which Trump was going to bring back big time... was finally overcomed by renewables.

It's a shame that there isn't a second mandate or we could see the great return of B/W TVs.

trump and his family made more off the presidency then any president before or after. The salary is negligible. You don't reach on that. But he leveraged his position and had the government spend a lot of money at his businesses. So stop with that lame salary crap.

Fracking tears up the country, pollutes the water, and is a health cost. I live in PA. We frack here and I hate it. If he had worked on alternative fuel then I would have applauded that. But not fracking. Let's talk about the Canadian pipeline. It would have only provided 35 jobs and not all of the full time. Most jobs would have been temporary so spare me the job cost. It's a lie. Do you know the reason why foreign employees are hired? Because there is not enough citizens to fill the slots. Our education system is a sham. Lack of education, which is expensive here, leads to a low employment pool. trump's administration had a higher number of illegal immigrants enter the country than Obama. Biden's been in just over a month so there are no numbers yet. That's a misdirect or dishonesty on your part. Our borders are not open by the way. trump gave some raw meat to the peasants with a temporary tax reduction soon to expire while giving the wealthy a permanent tax break. That is bad policy. It also increased the deficit astronomically. trump put the wealthy first. He didn't even try to curb the spread of a pandemic wherein the ones most at risk are low income. The wealthy sold their stocks and made more money while many Americans are without work or at decreased wages. At no time did he force his party which controlled the Senate to help these Americans. So stop with that BS.

Are YOU sure you want to have this conversation? You failed on every point.

Many countries botched Covid-19. But USA in particular did very poorly as well, as many other countries did better.

For US this can directly be associated with Trump going by medical journals and studies.

Well Trump's covid failure is pretty amazingly bad on it's own, so I'm not going to scoff that off and it'll still be one of my main points. Other than that he promoted mostly unpopular policy, hurt our global standing with our allies, and destroyed the economy. Also he was the cause of January 6th, his election lie in particular.

Hence the lowest approval rating in history. Which is why I find the Cult rally at CPAC weird, he hurts your party (bleeding independents/moderates) yet you these people believe his lies still.

Trump is the worst jobs president in modern history. His economy in general is one of the worst as well.

Your entire post was about economics, with Trump's being one of the worst in history I can't help but laugh. You're pretty much admitting Trump was pointless trash.

Trump and his family have lost billions by him being president. I live in Pennsylvania also and unlike the western states the federal government does not own over 50% of the states land. There is no alternative fuel nor will there be for along time to come. Windmills and solar panels will not supply our energy needs. How are all these new electric cars going to be powered. Where is the electricity going to come form? The power grid right now will not handle it even if the electricity were available. The cost is going to be prohibitive. I agree our education system is a sham. The government ahs not helped in this matter only made it worse along with the teachers union and the Department of Educastion. The only children being educated are the home schooled and private schools. After this pandemic the minorities are going to fall even further behind. There was just a news article that came out of Baltimore of a minority student who's GPA was.03 being in the upper half of his class he was set to graduate and the school administrators said he could not graduate but had to repeat his last three years. His mother ask why was he promoted the last three years if he was failing.

The boarders are now open and illegal immigrants are poring through the border and along with a huge number of unaccompanied children. Did you happen to miss the people at the border with the Biden tee shirts on demanding Biden to let them in and keep his promise. Biden created this problem in fact the government is running out of room for the children they have opened up other buildings with cages in them that Biden built when he was VP. They are now going to send them to Fort Lee in VA,

I feel sorry for Biden and the country, Biden is not mentally capable of running the country. It breaks my heart to see him struggle to do the simplest task. He is clearly not the person he was as VP. I never agreed with his policies and he is just being used and going to be discarded by the power brokers I think very shortly.

@appariti0n: you obviously never tried to talk to Republicans which most of my friends are who some of them though that Trump is the worst President in US history and still voted for Trump and some of them didn’t go out to vote at all. You can present video footage about Trump what he did before he became President and during his presidency they say it fake news or its just Trump being Trump or whataboutism .

That's false Jim. They made a lot of money from his presidency. He also raised the rates of his properties because the demand was there. Not sure where you get your news but it's not telling you the truth at all. Add that to the election lies and he raised millions on that. I'm not wasting my time on this with you because it won't matter. You can't handle the truth. You're happy in your cocoon.

More illegal immigrants came in under trump than under Obama. So he wasn't the bastion for xenophobes they think he was. He talked the talk.

I get so tired of propagandists whining about Biden's mental state while they supported trump, and still do, who has diminished capacity himself. I'm not going to insult him for that though. That's low. But if mental acuity is important to voters then I don't see why they support him. Seems hypocritical.

What i had in mind was really mean racist stuff put into action. Some time ago (10+years) Barack "deporter in chief" Obama said something along the lines of "we are 90% there" regarding the state of race relations in the US. Not that he glossed over the issue of racism. However, jumping forward to here and now, there is a huge gap between the perception of a former POC president in regards to racism in america and the narrative of white supremacy Nr.1 threat and the alleged rampant systemic racism with Trump as centerpiece, and the perceived need to campaign against and cut down white supremacy capitalism.

All i see in Trump is a simple chump who happens to be rich and a public person. Not a career politician, unlike Biden, who said some irritating things on camera, unmistakably racist comments. The ignorance and downplay by MSM and his followers is one of many things that makes me not want to take your side. Apparently Trump, as undiplomatic as he is with his words, never uttered anything racist. A reason why the Charlottsville lie has been propagated to no end. The last time i heard it was by Michelle Obama at the 2020 DNC. It's all they got.

Another thing are the anti-semitic elements ignored by the left and their entourage. You know, something normal people usually associate with Nazi-Racists. Most recently: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/benjamin-netanyahu-blasts-snl-outrageous-155636498.html

Kristen M. Clarke:

President-electJoe Biden in 2021 selected Clarke as his choice to head the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

---

While presiding over the BSA in 1994 she invited Tony Martin to speak.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristen_Clarke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Martin_(professor)

I believe lies? There are lies i don't care about, and lies i care about. You -and everybody else for that matter-, set priorities, too. You believe the lies of Donald Trump are far more detrimental than the lies of the side you advocate for. I strongly disagree.

It's not my party, i don't have nor do i want a party. I'm not interested in playing a role in shadow play politics. For various reasons. It starts with the basics. Most of the time the majority of people don't know who and what they give their voice to. Popping up frequently these days is the horseshoe theory. I think someone in this forum posted a depiction recently. A crude representation based on the political spectrum that has its origins in the French Revolution. I'd even say a desired misrepresentation. Far more accurate would be an evolution tree, spanning across hundreds of years of history. A thing i can't help but not to overlook. I think it's crucial for understanding the who, the why and the how. Lumping everyone together makes it conveniently simple, at least for one side. Understandably. What would it look like, one moment on opposing ends, in the next moment right next to the most heinous attrocities in recent history. Ya, that wouldn't look good at all. People have this general notion in mind, right wing - where all the evil misanthropic Naziracistguys reside, and the more left you go the more heavenlier it gets, ending up in paradise with all the goody two shoes philantropists. And this couldn't be further from the truth.