Good Riddance 2017

Today is the last day of 2017. I have only written two blog posts in 2017. "How to Build a Cult" and "How to Build a Cult - Part 2". When I started this blog five years ago I cared enough to write about my atheism or rather my anti-theism. I have changed in the past year. In speaking on the thought experiment of what it would be like to meet yourself from when you were a teenager at an older age, AJ Jacobs said recently on Sam Harris' podcast that his adolescent self was a real asshole and he probably wouldn't have gotten along with him at all. We change drastically over the years, not just mentally, emotionally, or figuratively, but also physically down to the cellular level. If I were to meet myself at the beginning of this blog five years ago maybe I would try to convince him to loosen this obsession with anti-religion. I don't really regret it, I just feel like it was a large waste of time.

My views have not changed at their core. I'm still an atheist. I still think religion, superstition, magical thinking poisons everything (except maybe art. Well, art from antiquity at least) I obsessed over reading friends who were still religious somehow, some of which were pastors, or youth teachers. I'd look over their social media rolling my eyes as they would write or comment about things that were fallacious and illogical. I laughed at how bad a philosopher their heroes were like C.S. Lewis or C.K. Chesterton. I laughed at how their beliefs really were babyish and they never really grew up. It was a sort of addiction. People close to me realized it and even told me I was obsessed. I spent a lot of time in email disputes regarding some Biblical nonsense, or trying to get people who were "open to the idea of evolution" to stop tap dancing around and give me a real concrete answer based in science on what they actually thought about the natural world and how life evolved over time. These people knew next to nothing regarding the scientific theories they questioned, but that's usually how it goes. It was not really much different from the young Earth creationists I grew up with who taught my science classes. These people are magicians. To be a good religious apologist in the modern era (I called them the New Christians), you have to learn how to debate well and wiggle out of anything by deflection, usually by using the newly politically resurrected "whataboutism". The philosophical arguments against god have won the debate centuries ago. This is not bias, this is just true. The smarter the person is the less religious he or she is. That's actually true if you look at the polls.

I wrote a lot in those last five years about my personal experience growing up in a religious family. Though I rarely see my family now but only once a year at best I am not nearly as exposed to religion with them. My dad is my only real outlet to the past in this regard. There has been noticeable damage done to my mother in regard to how religion has poisoned her view on reality and especially reality based in science and politics. Our history, the planet in general is all compromised by religion then fanned by Fox News idiocy. I wrote several blogs over a couple years called "Into the Lion's Den: Notes on a Recent Trip" where I blogged about my experience visiting my father and going to church with him. We also attended some Christian school fundraiser Bible trivia night, that was fun. My aunts and uncles on my dad's side are still steeped in religion, my cousins have of course seen through some of the fundamentalism but aren't quite comfortable letting go of their faith completely like I have. Religion just won't go away. It's deeply embedded in our apeness.

Last year's distraction was the election of Donald Trump. I wrote the blog posts about the cult-like behavior of his followers. There is something deeply sinister, tribal, and religious going on and it only makes sense in a country as deeply obsessed with superstition, magical thinking, and religious fervor, that someone like this cult leader could rise to power. It is also not surprising at all to me that in a country as religious as America most of the Evangelicals supported and voted for a man that openly bragged about grabbing pussies, married and re-married multiple times, calling war veterans weak for getting captured, or having a wife that has nude pictures online. It also goes to show you in many ways at our core our idiocracy is deep and we want a blend of religion and politics. The Evangelical right has wanted this for years. Just as long as it is their religion in charge.

I'll be bluntly honest here, the election of Donald Trump fucked me up. I am still not fully recovered. The night it happened I had a panic attack. I had to sit down because my legs and arms were shaking so bad. We handed our country over to a fucking tyrant. A neofascist cult leader who's religion was nationalism and hate of "the non-white" or the immigrant or of Muslims. The man doesn't have a religious bone in his body but with Trump its con from top to bottom. Everything you see and hear from this lunatic is a con. He *uses Christianity and Evangelicals as his own personal cult army. Trump I can guarantee you is an atheist. Knowing what we know about Trump can anyone convince me that the man thinks anyone or anything (this includes "god himself") is above him? Or is better than him? The man is a narcissist so much so using the word itself doesn't describe accurately the deep obsession with himself he displays. He is deeply delusional and dragging the country and the world into his delusion of his view of reality. When he lies 95% of the time you know you are dealing with a man that has no regard for the truth. This too lies at the heart of how he is always deeply misread.

The biggest criticism you hear from people who loath Trump is that he is stupid, incompetent, idiotic, etc. There is of course truth to this but it's describing him *inadequately. He is of course not intelligent by way of scholarly knowledge or IQ. The man really does know staggeringly little about basic facts in the world and our country. But so did George W. Bush. Bush and Trump are clearly different. In fact they can't really stand each other and Bush warns that Trump is ruining the republic and isn't really a true conservative Republican, he's just using the party to gain authoritarian power. With G.W. Bush you have a guy who was ignorant but had smarter people in his inner circle surrounding him who were giving him little nudges along the way. Something that Trump is of course not remotely going to let happen. The media and many people got this wrong too. Trump is not influenced by anyone but Trump. This couldn't be any more obvious. He only does what he wants. He is like Putin. You don't tell these authoritarians what to do or guide them in any way. At least not successfully. You don't help guide or influence extreme Narcissists.

It is not *merely that Trump is stupid and incompetent. This is like saying Putin takes his picture with his shirt off too much to show he's manly. This is a feature of a narcissistic authoritarian gangster but it isn't his *defining feature; it doesn't get to the exact heart of the problem with Putin. No it's that Putin is stealing the Russian people's money and keeping everyone in Russia in this fake democracy, actual police state. It's actually worse than this comparison because Trump's ignorance is independent of his decision-making process. In other words, Trump cares nothing about the truth or being correct about issues, or learning, or building his knowledge UNLESS it will enrich himself and his brand, family, etc. Trump will embrace something that's true... Take the uprising of the people of Iran now against their authoritarian government and his open support of this. This is a good thing... but he only does this when it aligns with his goals. Trump's only goals have always been gain more power, money, fame. That's it. That's exactly why he became president in the first place. In the Iran example he's painting the picture that Iran is a terrorist state to bolsters his authoritarian position on immigration.

This is the type of thing that happens to me now in 2017. I'm in a constant state of panic. I set out to write this blog as a review of the past five years and as he always does, Trump has taken over my thoughts; he has taken over my life. This is what it must feel like to have an abusive spouse, living in a constant state of panic, worried if the mad man will do or say something else that could cause a nuclear war for literally no reason. Something big is going on here in American and we're right in the middle of it. Religion has primed this, tribalism (the true backbone of religion) of course is threaded throughout this problem fueled by a decade of propaganda from the right from Fox News to talk radio. These screaming imbeciles have created their own cult and it's called Middle America, mostly older, white, working class people with some upper middle class people as well. They have gotten these people to vote directly against their financial interests by voting for Wall Street, bankers, and CEOs. The con was started long ago and Trump is the physical manifestation of Fox News-type alternate reality painted for these cult members day in and day out. When I go home to my family's houses Fox News is always on. It is never turned off and my family actually thinks Fox News is fair and balanced because you know the rest of the entire world is liberal.

I would say another word for that would be ... "sane". The rest of the world is sane.

There is hope for 2018 for this country right? Democrats take back control of congress and we finally impeach this mother fucker already, right? Mueller's investigation concludes and Trump and his ilk are removed from office and sent to fucking jail where they belong for fucking TREASON, right? Or just more hourly madness? I cannot even bare to read the news headlines anymore on my News App. More bat-shit idiocracy tweets from our President about how global warming is a hoax, etc etc etc etc. We have finally reached the end of this god-awful year for America and everything is falling apart. Let me remind you, this is year one of four for President Donald Trump. But our institutions are still standing. So far. Trump hasn't fully turned us into a neofascist third world hell-hole yet. He hasn't yet started a totally avoidable nuclear war with North Korea or trade war with China. There is something to hang hope on isn't there? Our country is getting less and less religious right? The younger generation is dropping religion like a bad habit in the past several years because they are finally realizing its fucking childish nonsense their family's pushed on them. The statistics look really good for those of us who want this shit to go away or at least get more under control. We have that to be happy about, but we still have this man in office and I still want so badly to stop being distracted by him. First it was religion, now it's neofascism.

It was first obsession with anti-religion and fighting with those who were religious or Christian apologists. That's so clearly a waste of my time now that I don't even bother thinking twice about some Bronze Age gibberish. I have too much else to worry about. Now I have to worry about a cult leader as President. An atheist *using religion to build a cult. A man who is truly and best described as "pure evil", The ideal Con Artist. He now sucks up all my attention. I just graduated with my degree in Earth and Environmental Science and I'm entering into a country slashing environmental regulations, making massive cuts to the EPA, shoveling money into old dirty energy, and opening up National Parks for resource extraction. Meanwhile record-breaking storms, fires, flooding, and drought is taking place all over this country alone, but these people won. It's over, right?

My family is religious, my family likely voted for Trump. Most of them did at least. Not my brother of course and I'm sure a few others. My mother won't tell me because of course she voted for Trump, let's just be real here, and she knows I'll lose my shit over it. Most of my family voted against my future and voted against people I love deeply. I have several people in my life who are peaceful contemporary Muslims. I have several friends who have immigrated from Mexico. My family picked a side and that side was with the cult leader. My father actually was the one exception to the rule. He didn't vote at all. Who saw this coming? I sure didn't. He said he couldn't vote for Trump and I asked him why after thanking him over and over. Was it because after I graduate I want to do things that this administration will completely undo? Was it because I have people in my life that I love very much that are Iranian and would be possibly banned from visiting their family in their country of origin?

No.

It was because of something my dad said that I would "think was probably stupid". Well, I'm sure I would. My dad turns the channel when a cuss word is uttered, so I'm sure it was some silly dogmatic rule. I guess at least, unlike most Evangelicals he's consistent in his beliefs. He wouldn't tell me but my guess is it had something to do with Melania posing nude or Trump being married multiple times. I'm not sure. But it was something dogmatic silly rule that hung up my dad just enough that he couldn't quite bring himself to cast a vote for Donald Trump. Never mind the obvious reasons not to vote for that utter piece of shit. The list is too long to go into here.

So after five years and a cult leader as President, thinking about my dad's decision to not cast a vote for the cult leader and for whatever silly reason he made that decision, maybe I should revise my outlook ...

Religion poisons most things!

Sources:
Photo credit:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/567206792/fuck-2017-banner-fuck-2017-new-years-eve

How to Build a Cult - Part Two

Trump’s most ardent supporters are . . .  remolding their own views to keep pace with their leader. . . This shows the extent to which Trump’s rise was not based on any particular positions or views. It was and remains a cult of personality. Trump’s followers worship him—and he worships himself, too. They are bound by a conviction, rooted in basically nothing but quasi-religious faith, that he is a singularly tough and savvy deal-maker who will protect American interests in a way that no previous president has done. - Max Boot

Right now I am watching archival NBC News footage from Jonestown the day before the mass suicide on November 18, 1978, just a little over two weeks before I was born. Little children are running around laughing and playing while the adults play games with them. The very next day a belief (for most) will drive them to inject these children with cyanide poisoning. An interviewer is asking the people who want to leave questions as Jim Jones in his bright red shirt, comb-over, and tinted glasses looms in the background. The very camera man that is filming this footage for NBC News was shot down with congressman Ryan, three journalists, and a Jonestown cult defector just a few days later.

I just finished "The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and People's Temple" by Jeff Guinn on audiobook. The other day I was in the bookstore and I thumbed through the actual book to the pages with images. Having only listened to the audiobook I didn't get a full grasp on the scope of the mass suicide. I had forgotten about these images. When I flipped to the image I posted at the beginning of this blog I lost my breath and felt extremely nauseous. The visceral sensation is something that welled up from deep within my core. It's hard to mask the terror I felt at that moment.

I was brought up in a large cult. Christianity is a large cult. It is a blood cult based on the life, bloody death, and resurrection of the supposed Jesus of Nazareth. There could be some family or friends reading this right now that are rolling their eyes and thinking I'm being sensational and absurd. Of course I didn't escape from some strange twisted suicidal ritual like many survivors of the Jonestown cult did, but people who have escaped fundamentalist religion of all varieties will attest to what I'm saying. It is low-level consistent brain washing, and it is most effective when it begins at childhood.

Jesus of Nazareth (the supposed Son and god of a Triune God) ,if he existed, was another messiah or zealot from ancient Palestine. There were many messiahs during this time. For our purposes "cult leader" can replace the word "messiah" since they are the same thing essentially. When I was a kid I recall the passage in the New Testament in the Bible where Jesus spoke fondly of the little children and how adults should have faith like little children to enter the kingdom of god. Like many stories that somehow were explained as wonderful ancient holy moral examples from God's Word, this one is really disturbing. The allure for these ancient cults like Christianity and Islam is the significant block of time separating us from it. We tend to make sacred that which is old. Look at how we now revere Native American culture as it was almost angelic when in reality it was quite brutal at times. Look at how we revere old books and ancient stories. There is something "magical" about aspects from our distant past.

The passage from the New Testament is Matthew 18. Here's just a small sample:

1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?  2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,  3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.  4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

Jesus understood its easiest to propagate your cult if children are involved. They have the most "faith" in the cult because they in many cases haven't yet had a chance to develop critical thinking skills. Jesus was an amazing cult leader. In fact in retrospect and hindsight he was likely the best cult leader of all time given the size of his cult in human history after he died. That fanatic ape sure tricked a lot of other gullible apes. The power of belief is what drives us and it is why we so easily fall for the trap of cultism. I challenge you look up this verse and read the entire chapter. It's all sorts of cult gibberish from cut out your eyes and chopping off your hand if it offends the cult leader and a set number of how many times a cult member has to forgive someone who did them wrong (that's precisely 490 times, just so you know).

I often cannot believe I made it out of the blood cult of fundamentalist Evangelicalism. Clearly I have my cult-PTSD which is likely why I'm writing this right now, but all in all I came out on top and it feels good. There is nothing more powerful in life than reasoning your way out of they years of conditioning perpetrated on you by bullshit artists. I was surrounded by a slew of bullshit artists growing up. Sure some, maybe even most were genuine believers in the bullshit they were telling children and teenagers but there were some I am sure were self-aware of the cult game they were playing.

Jim Jones was a fraud. In interviews with Jim Jones' son, Stephen Jones he explains that his father knew he was a fraud but was terrified others would find out and he increasingly became more paranoid as time went on. He started to lose his grip of control on his cult. This is ultimately what led to the mass suicide. Cult leaders often know they are frauds. I would venture to say most are this way, whether it be overtly religious cult leaders like Jim Jones or David Koresh, or Nazi cult leaders like Adolf Hitler, or fascist cult leaders like Mussolini, or political-cult gods like Kim Jong Un, or neofascist cult-of-personality leaders like Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump.

Demagogues recruit by uniting a disenchanted element against an enemy, then promising to use religion or politics or a combination of the two to bring about rightful change. Those as gifted as Jones use actual rather than imagined injustices as their initial lure - the racism and economic disparity in America that Jones cited were, and still are - real- then exaggerate the threat until followers lose any sense of perspective. - Jeff Guinn, author of The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and People's Temple

In the NBC News footage they scan through the dead cult members' dead bodies laid out in layer after layer, along with a shot of one dead dog. The camera man films the parrot obviously amused at how blissfully unaware it was of all this carnage. And says, Strangest thing I've ever seen. One man on camera says, You name it they got it, as they look at the vat of Flavor-aid and vials of poison while another person oddly laughs at that statement. It's funny. From the inside cults are hard to detect. The cult member does not think he is in a cult. The power of belief is enough to make one kill themselves. This is clearly true among the cult at Jonestown. This is clearly true of the cult of Islamist suicide bombers.

Jim Jones' son, Stephan Jones said in that video, I lost everything that day. I lost brothers and sisters and dear friends, people I'd known my entire life and the dearest person on the planet to me: which is my mother. My father, Oh I can tell you, I've never grieved his death. I remember feeling disgust that he didn't go the way everyone else went. Not only did he have to be shot in the head but he had to have somebody else do it. And I still believe it was because he couldn't bear to go out the way he was seeing other people go out.

Ask yourself, what would someone have to tell you or what would someone have to do to you to get you to do something that you couldn't possibly believe you were capable of, and examine that. Learn from it. Don't judge it. Don't stand separate from it. Be willing to stand in the shoes of the people you are judging. - Stephan Jones

Cult leaders thrive on fear and conspiracy and they are mythical strongmen to eyes of their cult, but in reality, like with Trump, like with Jim Jones, like with Jesus of Nazareth they are weak and pathetic deranged little men. Cult leaders have mental disorders, they are narcissists at bottom, only concerned about themselves. In the end whether the cult leader is Adolf Hitler or Jim Jones you take everyone down with you. Cult leaders never actually care about the safety and well being of their cult followers. This is something people should understand so they are able to walk away if they even can. We may know people who are trapped in cults and want to leave but feel like they can't, maybe someone in Scientology or Mormonism. We may know someone who is a Trump cultist who can never speak a bad word of their dear leader. This country is being run by a cult leader. This is the biggest a cult leader has even risen. Let's try to put ourselves in these people's shoes to help them out of the cult. I am writing this for myself to heed my own advice. We all should do our best to help them escape these cults if it's possible.

Sources:

 Jeff Guinn's book on Jonestown:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-road-to-jonestown-jeff-guinn/1124016017?ean=9781476763828

NBC Archive Footage from Jonestown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm7k2Eq-vD0 

Jonestown Cult Suicides: the True Stories:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3yzkhJVXE4

How to Build a Cult

And were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. - Thomas Jefferson

...If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. Without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started. - Sen. John McCain February 2016

What is a cult? Most people would say that Scientology is a cult. If you asked your average person in this country if Scientology was a cult they would say, "yes", most likely. We've all heard of the fringe cults like Branch Davidians or the People's Temple. Some consider Christianity a cult too. I do. It's largely a distinction without a difference. Religions are really just cults that have a large following. Christianity is a blood cult. The center of their cult is salvation derived through the blood shed of the Son of God. Also cults are newer. On average people would consider Scientology a cult because it's new. Even some people consider Mormonism a large cult. One definition of a cult is "a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object."

I was born less than a month after the Jonestown Massacre. I had heard about the People's Temple growing up. It fascinated me even then but didn't realize I was smack dab in the middle of my own cult. I was brought up in a small Christian fundamentalist Baptist church/school in a small town in Illinois. I recall very specifically some of the "cult-like" behavior from several youth pastors and Sunday School teachers. It wasn't as extreme as some of the famous cults but some of the stuff I was taught and behaviors were very cult-like.

I had let go of religion and the notion of god for awhile when I watched the PBS documentary on the People's Temple and Jonestown Massacre. It deeply disturbed me. If you haven't seen this documentary I recommend it. If you are anything like me when they play the "death tapes" at the end of the documentary a chill will go down your spine. The audio recording is almost an hour long and in it you can hear the cult leader Jim Jones explaining to his cult followers why they need to first feed their babies cyanide poison then finally drink it themselves. This is where the phrase "one is drinking the kool-aid" came from.

In the tape you can here Jim Jones saying, Die with a degree of dignity. Lay down your life with dignity; don't lay down with tears and agony." He also said, "I tell you, I don't care how many screams you hear, I don't care how many anguished cries...death is a million times preferable to 10 more days of this life. If you knew what was ahead of you – if you knew what was ahead of you, you'd be glad to be stepping over tonight."

^{In the audio tape you can hear screams by women and their babies crying. It is very disturbing to listen to. A lot of people can't understand how anyone can get to a place in their life where they are willing to kill their babies and themselves for a cult leader. Why is this so shocking though? Sam Harris has correctly pointed out that there is a direct straight line from beliefs to actions. He's right. All one need do is look at jihadists. These people are willing to die for a religious belief. History is riddled with examples of humans dying for beliefs. So called "holy texts" have stories of men of great faith willing to sacrifice their first born son for god. People will do anything for their masters. Even if their master is imaginary.}

A cult doesn't necessarily have to only be in a specific religious context. Another definition is "a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing, as in a 'cult of personality'" Cults can be in a political context too. This is how you get fascism. Even communism (the flip side of the coin) centers around a central figure head that people worship. Throughout world history we see example after example of what happens when people follow a cult of personality. The famous fascists such as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao all had a die-hard cult following that would do anything for their "dear leaders" and millions died as the result.

Fast-forward to 2016 and we have the rise of our own cult leader here in America. Donald J. Trump got his feet wet politically by putting into the spotlight a conspiracy that President Obama was not born in the U.S. This was debunked when President Obama provided his birth certificate as proof. Trump danced around whether he accepted this as proof or not paving the way for what we now know and are used to with Trump: The fact that he can never be proven wrong because he operates on a different level from everyone else. He is immune to debunking because he operates on the "alternative fact" level. It's an alternative reality world in which Trump resides. He generates this on a daily basis. This is exactly how cult leaders operate. They pump out propaganda over and over to feed their cult armies.

As Senator John McCain recently said, dictators start out first by declaring war on the media. This has been one of the staples of Trump for a long time now but especially as of late while anonymous individuals working for the intelligence agencies are leaking out information on his administration's connection with Russia. Trump has to ramp up the drama to distract. Of course anyone with an ounce of knowledge in American history realizes a free and robust press is the key to democracy and is said to be so in our founding documents. There was recent research done on 50 of Trump's speeches and almost none of them mention the words "Freedom", "Liberty" or "The Constitution". This is a red flag!

The gateway to fascism is conspiracy culture and Donald Trump is the king of conspiracy culture. Fascists like Hitler rose on a wave of conspiracy culture. It is no accident that conspiracy culture spokesman Alex Jones has Trump's ear and vice versa. Alex Jones spent almost a decade under the GW Bush presidency railing on the New World Order and the police state. But now he is one of the biggest proponents for the police state. There is no way to fit the amount of absurdity in this blog post that Alex Jones has said over the years to his vast amount of followers. Here's just a few:

9/11 was an inside job orchestrated by the Bush administration
The government is releasing "gay bombs" to turn people gay
The government is trying to kill us through chem trails, fluoride, and GMOs
Michelle Obama is a transvestite
Hillary Clinton and her aids are pedophiles
Demons are in our government
Sandy Hook shooting was all staged with "crisis actors"

Etc. Etc.

Alex Jones recently said,
I'm ready to die for Trump, at this point. And I'm already ready to die for America, it's the same feeling I have for America, because he is America, you're America.

Let what Alex Jones said there sink in. This is fascism. This is melding the dear leader with the love of country itself. Donald Trump = America. There is no distinction you see. And clearly if you are against America you are a traitor of the worse kind and an enemy of the state. Remember this gem? -- Donald Trump wanted to make his inauguration day a national holiday called "National Day of Patriotic Devotion". Think about how troll-ish that is. Think about how fascist that is, how con man, how cult-like. Do you see it? 

Just before he was elected President Donald Trump appeared as a guest on the Alex Jones show and said about Jones "Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down." Sometimes its hard to keep track of the horror that is this President because we're all drowning in a sea of it, but when you stop to closely examine one of these horrors it shakes you to your core. We have a "Conspiracy-Theorist-in-Chief". Recently some documents were leaked that in the pipeline for Trump legislation is the defunding of PBS. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Trump propaganda news like Breitbart News or mostly Trump propaganda news Fox News soon get federal funding. The goal here should be obvious to readers. Trump is trying to kill the old media and replace it with a North Korea style all Trump-friendly propaganda news.

This was on full display in the recent press conference President Trump gave where he lashed out at the media for a long time sifting through the reporters to get one that was friendly to him and asked him a question that wasn't at all challenging. Fox News started this mess way back in the early years of George W. Bush. They created this false equivalence between "fair and balanced" and objectivity. Fox News is the Republican news because as they say all other cable news is liberal news. Of course this is complete fiction but divide and conquer has been a great business model for Fox News. They are providing a narrative their Republican base wants to consume.

The groundwork was laid for our first neo-fascist President through talk radio too. All these years day in and day out many from the heartland of our country listened/listen to propaganda news (talking points from the Republican party) when they listen to Mark Levin, Michael Savage, or Rush Limbaugh. There is good money to be made in propaganda. The left even tried it, though it's not nearly as lucrative as those channels on the right.

After years and years of priming the groundwork was finally laid for a cult of personality to take hold. The right-wing news propaganda machine has been building a "fake reality safe place" where most of their listeners and viewers live in. It's a reality that has Obama as an evil, far left Islamic sympathizer. Trump took it the furthest when he actually said Obama was the literal founder of ISIS. So it wasn't much of a leap to take the full plunge into Trumpland fake reality. This fake world created by talk radio and Fox News painted Obama as one of the worst Presidents in U.S. history when in actual reality (where facts and evidence matter) the economy grew, low-income families received health insurance, and we had no major terrorist attacks in 8 full years (unlike under his predecessor George W. Bush).

Trump capitalized on an opening created by Fox News and talk radio. He saw that door and walked right through it. As Trump was marching through the door liberals laughed him off, not taking his chances seriously along the way. I saw this coming from a mile away. Myself and only one other friend of mine saw this coming. Most of America is easily conned. On both sides of the political spectrum. Our country as a whole does not overall put any sort of emphasis on scientific or critical thinking. The education system overall in this country is embarrassingly lacking. This is how you build a cult.

For those on the left that misdiagnosed and misjudged Trump nearly every single step of the way they let their egos get the best of them. They over-thought everything. They still do. I see some on alternative news shows like the Young Turks or Secular Talk talking as if Trump is still a bumbling idiot who doesn't know what he's doing. The whole #PresidentBannon thing is another glaringly obvious missed mark from the Left. They cannot just take in the simple fact that Trump is controlled by Trump alone. He is a narcissist why would anyone think he would let Bannon control him? Some don't see him as a very politically savvy con man either because they can't admit they themselves were conned by him. It's as simple as this-- Like all cult leaders or authoritarians Trump wants as much power and money as possible. That's it. Keep that in mind and filter everything you read about Trump through that and your success rate for prediction on Trump go up significantly I swear. Trump will continue to seek as much money and power as possible until he is stopped. He will never relinquish power until he are pulled from power one way or another. This is going to happen with Trump. He will not go quietly under any circumstance. Just wait for that show.
  It gets difficult to see any other colors when we are swimming in a sea of red flags regarding Trump and his fascistic tendencies. Trump praises dictators. I would have thought this would be enough to sink him. Apparently praising the leader of North Korea and tweeting out Mussolini quotes isn't a problem with millions of Americans. Apparently neither is saying you want to bring back torture EVEN IF it doesn't work or to proudly kill women and children (the family members of terrorists). Apparently saying you want to ban people due to their religious affiliation or saying you would have stolen Iraqi's oil if you would have invaded Iraq isn't enough. Obviously it is OK for millions of Americans to vote for a man who defended Putin over America saying "we do a lot of killing on our side too". The Trump voter voted for a man that had for a moment there a Noam Chomsky talking point. It is clearly not a problem that Trump once said John McCain wasn't a war hero because he preferred soldiers who weren't captured.

The list of horrors said by Trump could already fill books, and it's easy to follow rabbit holes and get lost in a maze of shock and awe when discussing Donald Trump. We are focusing on how to start a cult and a cult starts with a charismatic leader who attracts people like moths to a light source. It's easier often to see this in religion. The founder of Scientology L Ron Hubbard is a clear example of this. The leaders of cults are in their essence masters of emotional manipulation. I would suggest that most cult leaders didn't even believe their own bullshit they were preaching. Donald Trump is no exception. He is conning. The con man cons, he knows he's conning. That's the point. Like I said, this is where often the Left falls flat. They have been misreading trump since day one. The intellectuals on the right have actually been the ones most consistent and correct in their diagnosis of who Trump really is. He's a con man. And at their core most cult leaders are con men.

I would suggest if you listen to those "death tapes" that Jim Jones doesn't actually believe the bullshit he's saying to his congregation as they commit suicide. He didn't even drink the poison like the members of his cult. He most likely shot himself in the head. Jim Jones first says, "This isn't suicide"... then later, "We are committing suicide". Like most cult leaders, from the fascist sorts like Hilter to the religious ones like Jim Jones, they utter complete gibberish. There is no logic, no reason because at it's core it's anti-logic, anti-reason, anti-intellectualism. It's the death of reason to become a member of a cult. You lay down reality and let the cult leader implant his own manufactured reality into your brain. It's where reason and rationality go to die. This is what makes cults so dangerous.

The cult leaders are con men, they are emotionally manipulating their cult. L Ron Hubbard once said,  
Make money. Make more money. Make other people produce so as to make more money.(Communications Office Policy Letter, 9 March 1972, MS OEC 384) He also said, The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly."  

The purpose of the cult is to keep the cult leader in power as long as possible and often to make as much money as possible. Usually there is some sexual deviance mixed in, often pedophilia or in Trump's case incest. His openly televised attraction to his daughter Ivanka comes to mind.

Fascism when you boil it down is a essentially built around a "cult of personality". We as humans have a tendency to follow a strongman and follow him right off a cliff if necessary (and it usually is). The red flags are there with Trump. Historical experts say he is definitely fascistic. Just take a broad look at Trump: The silly hair and uniform (long ties over-the-top stupid red trucker hat with expensive suit). Trump wanted missile launchers (like in North Korea) at his inauguration. Like no other President before him, Trump held a campaign rally only a month into being elected President. His cult cheered and chanted his name as he explained that the media was the enemy of the people. Trump praises dictators and authoritarians like Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Saddam. Trump said in his GOP nominee acceptance speech (with a smirk on his face as if he knew he was trolling), I alone can fix this country! The list goes on.

In a recent article in Raw Story the author David Ferguson outlines a point-by-point comparison of Donald Trump to cult leaders. In the article cult expert Rick Alan Ross is quoted as giving three main signs Trump is like a cult leader:

Sign 1: His campaign is fueled by charisma
Sign 2: He's a raging narcissist
Sign 3: What he says is always right. Even when its not

Rick Alan Ross explains also that it's much more dangerous to have a cult leader as the leader of the free world,  

We're not talking about a compound with a thousand people. We're talking about a nation with over 300 million people. So the consequences of Trumpism could affect us in a way Jim Jones never did.
  There will be true patriots that will find a way to fight from the inside. John McCain is one currently. As of right now, Lindsay Graham may be another Republican siding with country over party. He said on Face the Nation today that a free press and an independent judiciary are the backbone of democracy. They're worth fighting and dying for. I hope it doesn't come to the last part of that sentence. Cults tend to have a strong track record with death. Not just mass suicide as in the case with the People's Temple but selective murders by fascist cult members. In modern times, just look to Putin's Russia for examples to this. The judges who deemed Trump's "Muslim ban" unconstitutional have received death threats from Trump's cult. The cult members are minions who will do your dirty work for the cult leader. If a judge is murdered by a Trump cult member Trump can go public and distance himself from it. If someone would have murdered Hillary Clinton after he suggested there were "Second Amendment solutions" to Hillary Clinton's email scandal then he would have of course been out there denouncing it, going through the motions. But his language is what fuels these fervent cult fans of his that do the dirty work of the cult master for him.

This is how people die. This is also what solidifies the strength of the strongman. Trump also needs and I would suggest wants a terrorist attack to happen on U.S. soil. He's all too eager to fan the flames of fear and revenge by making up terrorist attacks. He said at his rally this weekend that there was a terrorist attack in Sweden. He just made this up whole cloth. Just as Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway made up a massacre that didn't exist (the Bowling Green Massacre). Like all cult leaders this administration is trying to invent a new reality, a reality with their own facts and their own press. They can make policy off of this manufactured reality. There is no accountability when there are no facts. Orwell warned of this in his classic book 1984. People are waking up to this. Orwell's book sold out all over the world.

It's all what the dear leader says is true. This is the beginning of the end of the American experiment and I'm afraid it's going out with a bang - a flamboyant neo-fascist cult leader is going to drag us kicking and screaming into his reality whether we like it or not.

We must fight this. We must fight the cult from the inside and out. Cults don't die quietly and cult leaders take everyone in the cult off the cliff with them.

Resist as long as we can!

Sources:

Jonestown death tape:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown#Deaths_in_Jonestown

PBS documentary "Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydHRESPjBxg

"I searched the transcripts of 50 of Trump’s campaign speeches. He (almost) never mentions the Constitution, Liberty or Freedom":
http://poorrichardsnews.com/i-searched-the-transcripts-of-50-of-trumps-campaign-speeches-he-almost-never-mentions-the-constitution-liberty-or-freedom/ 

‘Drinking the Orange Kool-Aid’: Cult expert says Trump is like Rev. Jim Jones — but far more dangerous:
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/09/drinking-the-orange-kool-aid-cult-expert-says-trump-is-like-rev-jim-jones-but-far-more-dangerous/