Subject: Re: Trump's Truth
I think you lost your way with that argument. Sure, we all violate some law all the time, even if unintentionally. That's not the point. The broader point is that Dems do NOT rally around (in general) a "disgraced" Dem. I personally thought that the Al Franken thing was an overreaction (apparently he didn't touch the woman, he just made a crass photo). But that is an example of Dems not rallying around one of their in-group.

If Joe Biden were suddenly found to have conspired to fix the 2020 election, for example, he'd almost certainly lose the 2024 election because no one would show up to vote for him (and no self-respecting Dem would vote for a piece of corrupt filth like Trump, so no point in showing up at all). So I really can only explain the Trump phenomenon with the term "cult". It's more than just in-group/out-group. To be part of an in-group, you have to have some shared values.** I very much doubt that the conservative posters on this board share values such as cheating, anti-democratic behavior (i.e. trying to steal a legitimate election and/or stage a coup), and violation of other laws (like the secrets laws), but they still support Trump. Which implies -to me- a cult-like warping of their thinking. Not that they would drink poisoned kool-aid if instructed, but at least some of the Trump cult would gun-down congressmen (no one on this board, of course). Will they abandon him if he is convicted? If not, then I think "cult" is correct.

https://www.google.com/search?...

I hesitate to compare this, but from the time of Trump's campaign back in 2015/2016, I was posting on TMF that he was following some very scary patterns that I recognized from the National Socialist Worker's Party in Germany (circa 1930). Right after Trump was elected, The Atlantic published an article that seemed to me like the author was reading my posts. Well, fast forward to 1945, and the German people were made to realize what a monster they had installed. Many realized it years earlier, but many engaged in denial and deliberate ignorance until forced (by the Americans) to walk through the "labor" camps and see undeniable evidence with their own eyes. It was a cult of personality that required that drastic an action to break.

Right now Trump supporters are threatening grand jurors for the indictments, and I believe I've read about threats to judges and DAs, not to mention the threats to vote-counting officials in 2020. It is more than in-group. It's a cult of personality, and I almost wish I didn't know so much about the most horrific cult of personality of the 20th century, because this has some echoes of that.



**One interesting example I read about was they staged an experiment in the UK where someone wearing a shirt for a given football club would feign passing out in public. Depending on where he was (i.e. if the club was a local favorite), he would receive help or not. That is in-group. That is "tribe".

(In case the reference was missed because I'm older than many/most here, look up Jim Jones in Guyana.)