Hmmm...a bit of a stretch, no? Maybe when he sets up gulags and executes a few relatives with a howitzer the comparison will make more sense. Though at least it's a change from the lazy journalistic "Trump is Literally Hitler" trope. Truer comparisons might be to FDR and Reagan, both presidents who transformed America and the world, both who attracted fanatical believers and fanatical haters in their day. Certainly the vitriolic attacks on Trump are reminiscent of the attacks on Reagan (remember? He was going to start WWIII by defeating communism, which all reasonable people knew was impossible and lunatic). And of course now that the media have become institutional defenders of the status quo - the vanguard of the oligarchy - all we ever hear is the usual performative hysteria. After a while it doesn't sound annoying anymore - just pathetic.
On that I agree, and recently published an essay by Alexander von Sternberg comparing Trump to other presidents, which you might enjoy. But when it comes to the fanatics, as I said in the piece regarding Lincoln men and Camelot, presidential comparisons don’t work. This is a cult.
But I literally said, "The danger is not that Trump will build gulags." My focus here is far more on his hardcore, sycophantic MAGA base — not all his supporters, mind you, just the extremists — and bootlickers like Batya.
Yes, I did read that, my point is that until he actually starts acting like an actual dictator in the real world he might be better understood in the context of other American presidents who also got everyone worked up.
By the way, notice how they tell you to read the “Art of the Deal” if you don’t understand what’s going on. As if the people who loose money and trading partners are guilty in not reading it. “This is the Tree of Wealth to those who hold strong to it”.
You are just incorrect. Trump is the only one who has shown up that can do what needs to be done, in part because he is the flawed character that he is.
So what if a portion of Americans are Trump sycophants? Obama certainly had sycophants. There are all kinds of groups of sycophants in America. Just part of the cultural tapestry.
I don’t recall Obamacons claiming he was the Messiah or weeping in ecstasy as they painted his portrait in front of adoring crowds, and whereas Trump is pathologically intolerant of dissent and surrounds himself with MAGA yesmen, Obama worked with Republicans and even had some in his Cabinet who often disagreed intensely with him: Hagel, LaHood, Gates, etc.
Also, I started the piece with the Fifth Avenue quote to demonstrate that Trump himself is fully aware of what I’m saying, except he likes it.
David, this column is beneath you. It is a cheap shot hit piece on Trump supporters. I have found your writing to be more thoughtful and nuanced than this, except for your foray into Hitler's sex life. I expect better from you. You are an intelligent man. Why write drivel? If I wanted MSNBC, I'd own a TV. This piece is disgusting. Goodbye.
This is the second such reply I've received, which I find puzzling because I made it painfully clear that I was only commenting on cultish followers. People who, as I directly cite in the piece, literally regard him as a messianic figure or cannot cite a single error he has ever made. These are not reasonable or rational supporters. These are bootlickers. But now I'm starting to wonder why the moderate supporters, as I would describe many of my own readers, are choosing to take it personally when I attack the extreme fanatics.
There are fanatics on the left as well. They are targets of memes, not serious examination of their belief system.
A better use of your time would be to investigate what lead them to these beliefs, such as the destruction and export of their jobs, a ravaging opioid epidemic, Covid authoritarian madness, 10 million illegals, a $35 Trillion debt, and a government that has consistently lied to them no matter which party was in power. (many more for that list which you can add.)
I did not have any empathy for these people most of my life. I do now. I’ve spoken with some Q anon folks a few years ago. I learned a lot.
It is human nature to believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. This applies to the spiritual realm as well as more pedestrian matters, such as supporting the home team or favored political leaders. When you don’t believe either party gives a rat’s ass about your interest, you are at risk of nihilism, and believing anything that promises a better future.
When viewed through this lens I don’t blame the fringe, disaffected, alienated on either side. They need help and a system that looks out for them.
I’ve come a long way from my Reagan Republican roots but the policies I supported for decades contributed to lead us here. I’m not reversing 180 to follow AOC and Bernie, but I do believe better policies would not fail these folks. And mocking them misses there point entirely. They are a symptom of larger, complex issues that deserve serious attention. These are econmic and social issues that merit attention. Grappling with these issues is much more challenging that hooting at some hayseed, but that’s what I will read.
I’ve changed a lot of beliefs over the last 5 years and I have no tolerance for cheap clickbait when there are serious issues to be discussed. Ask yourself how does this add to the conversation? Does it make a positive contribution? Your writings on Communism were really instructive and informative. How do you reconcile this with that?
Come on, brother. You and I have sat round the campfire together long enough for you to know that I often rant about the fanatics on the left. And yes, there are fascinating sociopolitical reasons for the rise of fanatical groups such as Qanon. I used to live in MTG's district, did investigative work on anons, and interviewed cult experts, including Steven Hassan here on The Radicalist. I get it. But you can have empathy for the people while scorning the tinfoil-hat notion of an Illuminati club of Satan-worshipping vampires. Just like you can sympathize with the people of Borno and how state corruption led to the Salafi-Jihadism of Boko Haram *while also scorning their ideology.*
How do I reconcile my writings on communism with this? I don't see them as distinct. North Korea is communist, Batya is a self-proclaimed Marxist whose rhetoric about the Dear Leader fighting for the Worker clearly echoes Ri Chun-hee, Trump's mercantilism mirrors NK juche, and the belief in Trump's literal godhood undeniably mirrors the cult of personality around KJU.
Marxism has become untethered from its economic substrate. On the left, we see it as a cultural force in woke. As I wrote above, there's policy and then there's posture, and in postural terms, the veneration of one's leader as a god, juche, the rhetoric about the Worker versus the rich, the intolerance of dissent, the diplomatic isolationism, and the propaganda-based legitimacy all line up. Understanding the broader nature of what is now the most powerful political movement of our time, including its most fanatical aspects — radicalism is the subject of this newsletter, after all — is always a conversation worth having.
David, I too have crossed paths with Steven Hassan, when two close family members joined a cult.
What we are seeing all over the left, especially with gender ideology, chopping up the bodies of kids who would otherwise grow up to be gay, is absolutely cult behavior.But that’s another point.
David, the bottom line is, write what your conscience tells you will add something positive to the larger conversation. Then own it. Your tribe will find you.
If I wanted to watch MSNBC I would own a TV. If I wanted to read cheap shot attacks I would read HCR, the NYT or Rural White Rage. I’m surrounded by this crap. I live in Manhattan. The island is majority crazy. I come to Substack to get away from MSM Dem narrative talking points.
That's entirely fair. But don't you get even a whiff of cult from the aspect of MAGA described above, especially the MAGA Communist folks like Jackson Hinkle and Batya Ungar-Sargon?
I understand individual people get pulled into this stuff for various reasons, and they deserve our compassion, but the pied pipers leading the way and the Red MAGA movement as a whole ought to be called out just as much as woke ideology.
Everywhere one looks, as you rightly point out, this stuff has spread. Part of my point above is that it's now spread even to MAGA. Or as I recently wrote, even to the Catholic Church. Now you have Chris Rufo out here telling people we need to adopt Gramsci thinking.
Every political group has some level of behavior on the group-think to cult scale. Both parties. Every admin. Some more. Some less. You can’t avoid it. That’s how humans work. We don’t apply critical thinking in all areas of our lives because we just don’t have that much to go around.
The MAGA folks are largely harmless. Many would rather be left alone. The left wants to inflict their vision on the entire world, silence dissent and mutilate childrens general’s on a national scale. Look at the over 100 gender clinics coast to coast operating on the most vulnerable children.
There have been many moral panics in America over the years. This one must be stopped.
Hmmm...a bit of a stretch, no? Maybe when he sets up gulags and executes a few relatives with a howitzer the comparison will make more sense. Though at least it's a change from the lazy journalistic "Trump is Literally Hitler" trope. Truer comparisons might be to FDR and Reagan, both presidents who transformed America and the world, both who attracted fanatical believers and fanatical haters in their day. Certainly the vitriolic attacks on Trump are reminiscent of the attacks on Reagan (remember? He was going to start WWIII by defeating communism, which all reasonable people knew was impossible and lunatic). And of course now that the media have become institutional defenders of the status quo - the vanguard of the oligarchy - all we ever hear is the usual performative hysteria. After a while it doesn't sound annoying anymore - just pathetic.
On that I agree, and recently published an essay by Alexander von Sternberg comparing Trump to other presidents, which you might enjoy. But when it comes to the fanatics, as I said in the piece regarding Lincoln men and Camelot, presidential comparisons don’t work. This is a cult.
But I literally said, "The danger is not that Trump will build gulags." My focus here is far more on his hardcore, sycophantic MAGA base — not all his supporters, mind you, just the extremists — and bootlickers like Batya.
Yes, I did read that, my point is that until he actually starts acting like an actual dictator in the real world he might be better understood in the context of other American presidents who also got everyone worked up.
By the way, notice how they tell you to read the “Art of the Deal” if you don’t understand what’s going on. As if the people who loose money and trading partners are guilty in not reading it. “This is the Tree of Wealth to those who hold strong to it”.
You are just incorrect. Trump is the only one who has shown up that can do what needs to be done, in part because he is the flawed character that he is.
My point was mainly about the subset of MAGA supporters who have become sycophantic.
So what if a portion of Americans are Trump sycophants? Obama certainly had sycophants. There are all kinds of groups of sycophants in America. Just part of the cultural tapestry.
(Careful with that Nazi-like salute.)
I don’t recall Obamacons claiming he was the Messiah or weeping in ecstasy as they painted his portrait in front of adoring crowds, and whereas Trump is pathologically intolerant of dissent and surrounds himself with MAGA yesmen, Obama worked with Republicans and even had some in his Cabinet who often disagreed intensely with him: Hagel, LaHood, Gates, etc.
Also, I started the piece with the Fifth Avenue quote to demonstrate that Trump himself is fully aware of what I’m saying, except he likes it.
David, this column is beneath you. It is a cheap shot hit piece on Trump supporters. I have found your writing to be more thoughtful and nuanced than this, except for your foray into Hitler's sex life. I expect better from you. You are an intelligent man. Why write drivel? If I wanted MSNBC, I'd own a TV. This piece is disgusting. Goodbye.
This is the second such reply I've received, which I find puzzling because I made it painfully clear that I was only commenting on cultish followers. People who, as I directly cite in the piece, literally regard him as a messianic figure or cannot cite a single error he has ever made. These are not reasonable or rational supporters. These are bootlickers. But now I'm starting to wonder why the moderate supporters, as I would describe many of my own readers, are choosing to take it personally when I attack the extreme fanatics.
There are fanatics on the left as well. They are targets of memes, not serious examination of their belief system.
A better use of your time would be to investigate what lead them to these beliefs, such as the destruction and export of their jobs, a ravaging opioid epidemic, Covid authoritarian madness, 10 million illegals, a $35 Trillion debt, and a government that has consistently lied to them no matter which party was in power. (many more for that list which you can add.)
I did not have any empathy for these people most of my life. I do now. I’ve spoken with some Q anon folks a few years ago. I learned a lot.
It is human nature to believe there is light at the end of the tunnel. This applies to the spiritual realm as well as more pedestrian matters, such as supporting the home team or favored political leaders. When you don’t believe either party gives a rat’s ass about your interest, you are at risk of nihilism, and believing anything that promises a better future.
When viewed through this lens I don’t blame the fringe, disaffected, alienated on either side. They need help and a system that looks out for them.
I’ve come a long way from my Reagan Republican roots but the policies I supported for decades contributed to lead us here. I’m not reversing 180 to follow AOC and Bernie, but I do believe better policies would not fail these folks. And mocking them misses there point entirely. They are a symptom of larger, complex issues that deserve serious attention. These are econmic and social issues that merit attention. Grappling with these issues is much more challenging that hooting at some hayseed, but that’s what I will read.
I’ve changed a lot of beliefs over the last 5 years and I have no tolerance for cheap clickbait when there are serious issues to be discussed. Ask yourself how does this add to the conversation? Does it make a positive contribution? Your writings on Communism were really instructive and informative. How do you reconcile this with that?
Come on, brother. You and I have sat round the campfire together long enough for you to know that I often rant about the fanatics on the left. And yes, there are fascinating sociopolitical reasons for the rise of fanatical groups such as Qanon. I used to live in MTG's district, did investigative work on anons, and interviewed cult experts, including Steven Hassan here on The Radicalist. I get it. But you can have empathy for the people while scorning the tinfoil-hat notion of an Illuminati club of Satan-worshipping vampires. Just like you can sympathize with the people of Borno and how state corruption led to the Salafi-Jihadism of Boko Haram *while also scorning their ideology.*
How do I reconcile my writings on communism with this? I don't see them as distinct. North Korea is communist, Batya is a self-proclaimed Marxist whose rhetoric about the Dear Leader fighting for the Worker clearly echoes Ri Chun-hee, Trump's mercantilism mirrors NK juche, and the belief in Trump's literal godhood undeniably mirrors the cult of personality around KJU.
Marxism has become untethered from its economic substrate. On the left, we see it as a cultural force in woke. As I wrote above, there's policy and then there's posture, and in postural terms, the veneration of one's leader as a god, juche, the rhetoric about the Worker versus the rich, the intolerance of dissent, the diplomatic isolationism, and the propaganda-based legitimacy all line up. Understanding the broader nature of what is now the most powerful political movement of our time, including its most fanatical aspects — radicalism is the subject of this newsletter, after all — is always a conversation worth having.
David, I too have crossed paths with Steven Hassan, when two close family members joined a cult.
What we are seeing all over the left, especially with gender ideology, chopping up the bodies of kids who would otherwise grow up to be gay, is absolutely cult behavior.But that’s another point.
David, the bottom line is, write what your conscience tells you will add something positive to the larger conversation. Then own it. Your tribe will find you.
If I wanted to watch MSNBC I would own a TV. If I wanted to read cheap shot attacks I would read HCR, the NYT or Rural White Rage. I’m surrounded by this crap. I live in Manhattan. The island is majority crazy. I come to Substack to get away from MSM Dem narrative talking points.
That's entirely fair. But don't you get even a whiff of cult from the aspect of MAGA described above, especially the MAGA Communist folks like Jackson Hinkle and Batya Ungar-Sargon?
I understand individual people get pulled into this stuff for various reasons, and they deserve our compassion, but the pied pipers leading the way and the Red MAGA movement as a whole ought to be called out just as much as woke ideology.
Everywhere one looks, as you rightly point out, this stuff has spread. Part of my point above is that it's now spread even to MAGA. Or as I recently wrote, even to the Catholic Church. Now you have Chris Rufo out here telling people we need to adopt Gramsci thinking.
Anyway, I do always appreciate the pushback.
Every political group has some level of behavior on the group-think to cult scale. Both parties. Every admin. Some more. Some less. You can’t avoid it. That’s how humans work. We don’t apply critical thinking in all areas of our lives because we just don’t have that much to go around.
The MAGA folks are largely harmless. Many would rather be left alone. The left wants to inflict their vision on the entire world, silence dissent and mutilate childrens general’s on a national scale. Look at the over 100 gender clinics coast to coast operating on the most vulnerable children.
There have been many moral panics in America over the years. This one must be stopped.
The theatre is real… that recent televised cabinet meeting was a combination of loyalty test and the apprentice.