The GOP has been running a destructive cult for decades. Many GOP followers are under the influence in this cult. This cult now has a defacto leader: Trump. Trump is Jim Jones and the core followers — the same 35-40% who think Obama was a Muslim born in Kenya, the same 35-40% who think Saddam Hussein was directly involved with 9/11, the same 35-40% who think Hillary should be in jail — live in Jonestown.
Shaming does not work to break the spell of a cult. Shaming questions a person’s belief system.
It is not a question of facts, so arguing about facts goes nowhere. It is deeper than that. It is a belief system based in falsehoods: Steven Hassan, Facts vs Beliefs.
But GOP messaging has thoroughly corrupted the belief systems of tens of millions of Americans. Their belief system includes that Democrats and the media are full of elites who don’t understand the problems or have real solutions and government as the source of all of the problems that impede their prosperity.
Republicans capitalize on this distrust and fear, while providing solutions that are nothing more than well engineered scams.
The GOP cult sells snake oil laced with fear and fake outrage to further their control over others — pretending to care about their “followers” while focused on enriching themselves and their master billionaires at the expense of everyone else.
We have to treat the Right-Wing as a cult, not simply mis-informed voters who can be fixed with shaming.
Republicans are engaging in psychological warfare, trying to keep millions in the lower levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, where individual critical thinking is repressed and people can more easily be manipulated into what they should think (by the likes of Fox News and others). Democrats are responding as if elections are simply policy debates where they can appeal to reason and critical thinking — exactly what the GOP cult has destroyed.
That is also why shaming does not work — shaming also involves reason and critical thinking.
Trump is a slick snake oil salesman and voters were under the spell of his narcissistic charm. Dems discounted this and assumed Trump would sink himself. Lesson learned?
Republicans are willing to blatantly lie to get and retain power over others. Democrats are not. However, to date there is no downside for Republicans, so they continue to get away with it. Tens of millions of Americans trust Brietbart over CNN and Trump drove home that the media is dishonest — for highlighting his own dishonesty!
Actions are based on beliefs.
When voters vote against their own self-interest, something has corrupted their belief system. The cult followers will not question being screwed over — their belief system has been altered to not only accept what the GOP says is true, but they are convinced that their sacrifice is needed for the greater good. They may even feel sorry for the ‘high’ taxes that the wealthy pay. This is where Republicans exploit a sense of ‘fairness’.
From the blurb for Steven Hassan’s book Freedom of Mind:
Unstable Global Environment Enhances Dangers of Unethical Control
The world has changed greatly in the last decade. The rise of the Internet, the emergence of global terrorism and of dangerous totalistic ideologies, and the shifts in global markets—these and other changes have created new opportunities for unscrupulous individuals, groups, and institutions to exert unethical control over others. Freedom of Mind exposes the techniques and methods that individuals, cults, and institutions of all types—religious, business, therapeutic, educational, governmental—use to undo a person’s capacity to think and act independently.
Individuals More Vulnerable than Ever
The Internet is now the primary vehicle for recruitment and indoctrination. It is also a means for spreading sophisticated information about social psychology, hypnosis, and other techniques of social control, which are being used—in ways both effective and dangerous—by ‘influence professionals.’ Meanwhile, people are becoming increasingly vulnerable. Sleep-deprived, overweight and looking to improve themselves, overloaded with often frightening images and information; anxious about the current economic decline, climate change, and government corruption on all levels. People are more susceptible than ever to charismatic figures who offer simple, black v. white, us v. them, good v. evil, formulaic solutions. These factors—the rise of the Internet; increasingly sophisticated knowledge about how to influence and manipulate others; and the growing vulnerabilities of people across the planet—make for a dangerous, potentially devastating combination.
Trump has a cult-like following and the GOP operates like a cult: attract followers with fear and lies, make promises they can’t keep, alter their belief systems, create an alternate reality and keep the followers hooked with fake news, then with the power their followers give them, they give more money to the rich and screw over the very people they promised they would help.
This is what Republicans are doing daily.
We need an intervention to break people away from the GOP Cult, more effective messaging to counter the psyops and show people the light. If we don’t, more people will be joining the GOP, standing in line for their snake oil.
Shaming is not the answer. It not effective for dogs or children and it does not work for cult followers.