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!

*published on 2/19/17 from my blogger account: https://godsaiditibelieveitthatsettlesit.blogspot.com/

Sources:

Jonestown death tape:

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

PBS documentary "Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple":