Her son was an accused cult leader. She says he was a victim, too. | CNN CNN takes a deep look inside the delusional cult that went to Dallas in November of 2021 expecting to see the resurrection on JFK and JFK Jr. Pretty amazing. One of their leaders explains the Trump family tree as ... “John John and…Trump are cousins. And Trump’s uncle is JFK Sr., and Joe Kennedy, who is also not dead…. And Trump’s father is General George Patton, and his brother is Mussolini…” He got his followers to go to Dallas either expecting to see the Kennedys rise from dead -- or just show up and announce they faked their deaths -- and then announce one would be Trump's running mate for 2024. Some waited for months in Dallas because the date of the expected return kept changing. The article outlines how he started online with 9/11 conspiracy theories and suckered into silver bar investment schemes, and blossomed into a full on Q-anon child eating pedophile believer. Even when he died recently in an accident, his followers now claim he faked his own death, like the Kennedys, or that he was JFK all along .... What I don't get is how, when everything these people keep claiming and predicting -- like the Kennedys coming back life -- never happens ... why do people continue to believe?
It's all just bizarre. Looking at some of the stuff that Politifact debunks ... maybe some of them are posted as jokes, or maybe people really believe it. The most recent Pants on Fire judgments:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/believing-conspiracy-theories-makes-people-feel-special-2017-9?amp
It seems like it should be easy peasy to disabuse people of nonsensical beliefs. But dang is that a mirage. Human psychology and ego based commitments, resistance to change & cognitive dissonance make it so much harder than it appears to be; often impossible. And the more you try, the harder some people dig in. Head over to the covid thread. See this a plenty.
This is a huge part of it. A need for attention is one of the big motivators. Another is the ability to believe that you can control reality. Essentially, it is far scarier to deal with the reality of random chance than it is to eliminate it and ascribe everything that happens to somebody else's plan, even a nefarious person's plan.
When you peruse the .wins, which I don’t recommend, the overarching themes are 1) Privileged insider info 2) It’s all an orchestrated plan by an oppressed minority saint class 3) God wins. All setbacks are either intentional (Trump pushed the vaccine in order to “prove” it would kill) or media lies (“Operation Mockingbird.”) The relentless effort is impressive, in its own way. They will simply not be denied.
From Psychology Today. “typical traits of the pathological cult leader”. This was written with the idea of describing people like Jim Jones. But much of it seems written specifically for trump. However, it’s from 2012. Scary just a few… He has a grandiose idea of who he is and what he can achieve Requires excessive admiration from followers and outsiders. Is hypersensitive to how he is seen or perceived by others. Is frequently boastful of accomplishments. Anyone who criticizes or questions him is called an “enemy.” Hates to be embarrassed or fail publicly; when he does he acts out with rage. Dangerous Cult Leaders
May be related and sorry if it’s slightly OT, but one of you very recently linked a book about the appeal of authoritarianism. I went back but couldn’t remember which thread it was in or what the book was. Hope someone remembers!
Hey makes sense to me. Everybody keeps talking about how corrupt the Trump family is and we all know how corrupt the Kennedy family was.
Would the genius who gave this an off topic please read the OP then explain why this post was off topic?
"Politifact?" That's FAKE LIBERAL NEWS. We've proven that over and over, again and again. Why do you let fake news get posted here?
so.... you believe that stuff that rivergator listed there really happened? Do you also believe in the return of the Dead Kennedys as hardcore Trumpers?
Anything they do not like or that in any way casts their orange god and his followers in a negative light is " fake news".
The Kennedys and Trumps were the subject of the original post. The Kennedys were mentioned in the 1st 2nd 3rd 5th and 6th paragraphs of the original post.
I’ve mentioned before, beyond the amazement that people believe this stuff, there’s the fact that at least some of these people have jobs, own houses, pay bills, drive cars …
