Seriously, take the 8 minutes. He gave me so much information about trumpers and why they are and do what they do and believe what they believe. There are other videos following, but my brain isn't quite ready for them. I need to mull over his first one that explains trumpers clearly and concisely like I've never heard before. He's really good.

But we don't fucking do that DU anymore

And unfortunately makes me worry for the future even more. We are dealing with some very fragile and easily manipulated voters in these MAGA "heroes".

I think he has effectively defined what is a cult.

-- Ron

Of course I’m interested in how the cult hive mind works and what effective countermeasures there are. This initial video illustrates very well how the cult circle logic works and why it’s so impenetrable. Let’s see where this goes…

And are susceptible to emotional conditioning. We never knew how many of us were so fragile

is these MAGAts will go on about "grooming" without realizing they themselves are being GROOMED

I highly recommend them for anyone who wants to understand the MAGA mindset.

My theory is a little more simple. It’s “I’m somebody and I’m part of something and this something is going to reward me”
If you’re an average Joe and Jane in America you live an ordinary life. You work non stop, barely see your kids, struggle to make ends meet, see your hometown ravaged by drug addiction. You get online or watch TV and are inundated by success. You see a model of a perfect life that is far out of reach. And if you’re a racist you begin to see people of color starting to get ahead. They’re existing in some of these places and spaces that are are out of reach and you become even more bitter and jealous.
You live in a small town that used to be special, but the factory your town survives on shut down with NAFTA. Every time you vote for the change candidate, but the change you want never comes. Even though that candidate wasn’t promising the change you were looking for, you thought maybe they’ll see me. Trump comes in and speaks directly to them. They feel noticed. They feel seen. They now have a champion.
Us here on DU knows he conned them and didn’t deliver on the promises, but he gave them what they wanted most of all. They wanted to feel like America wasn’t moving on without them.

Somebody recently: "Remember all those real estate agents at Jan 6?"
A lot of Trumpers are pretty prosperous. Not just those billionaire-babies. Remember the boat parades? The exurb voters?
It is certainly possible that some economically hurting people this election cycle will be making the difference one way or the other, but I am skeptical whether that's what's driving Trumpism on the large scale.

There's something about toxic nostalgia & some of that might be in your hypothesis too. Don't know if that's dominating.
Peter Turchin might have some insight on this.

I believe I heard that a couple of weeks ago. It was voters earning twenty thousand or less.

Every one of them was insecure as hell. I got to see them at cocktail parties and listen to my father’s stories. It wasn’t pretty.

that I figure I inherited from my Dad. I got my degree in psychology, but by the time I graduated, you couldn't earn enough of a living on it to raise a kid with it. Saving grace was I could type 150 WPM on an old Selectric. Got into a gov't contracting job, and moved from receptionist to actually working with computers. Moved up here to KS, and actually got my first job as a "PC Guru" (there was no other title at that time). Picked up workshops, etc., to learn more about them and then began taking them apart, building them, etc. But as easy as it came to me, and as quickly as I'd diagnosed and fix problems, even setting up a sub-lan (which is what we used prior to intranets), I was always insecure about it. I remember coming home nearly in tears one night and asked my husband "What do I do when the magic is no longer there?" I saw it all as external, not internal within me. Not that it was my own curiosity that helped me do the job, as well as a decent personality that let me interact with everyone. As the tech changes came down the line, I was curious enough to pick up on several that I liked... even tried my hand at programming (which I was terrible at). But I relished the web. Had one of the first websites online, fashioned after the BBS I ran. But I always had the seed of insecurity I couldn't shake.

But I don't think I ever came across as a know it all because of that insecurity. I loved getting together with groups of techs and trading stories and ideas. Of course, it was a different time back then. We learned from each other; we were so thrilled when we tried a new way to do something and it worked, that we'd call all our tech friends to let them know about it. Knowledge was something to be shared; not something to be hoarded. I even tried to get my Dad interested in computers. Really wanted to open up a shop with him. But it was a line to far at his age for him. One of the biggest "If only's" in my life. I'd really love to have shared it with him.

I love this guy, and I guess this afternoon was meant to be spent in "psychoproctology" (LOL) I went thru all 9 of the vids, and then found a couple of others. Gotta stop to get supper going, but I've got 'em bookmarked and recommended them to hubby. I think he'll get a good laugh out of them, too. He worked at the same mental hospital that I interned at... just before I got there. I'm afraid to start a convo with a trumper because they're usually so much bigger and more imposing than me, but if one ever engages me first, I think I've learned enough in these vids to hold my own. I just need to go through them a few more times to ingrain it into my brain. He's really good... and I love his "dual conversations" (LOL)

Living in California - where an agent historically could make $30,000 from the sale of a single $1 million home (the other $30,000 going to his or her broker), I have met very few who are financially stable. Remarkably, most don't even own their own homes - primarily because their inconsistent incomes made for spotty tax returns, which in turn made it hard for them to qualify for mortgages. Yes, a small handful of hard working real estate agents do extremely well. They are at the tip of the pyramid though. The rest are primarily burnouts from other failed careers drawn by the illusion of quick riches. Lacking discipline and a good work ethic, they're lucky if they sell two or three homes each year (even a broken clock is right twice a day). If anything, real estate might be the most likely field to attract folks who think someone else is to blame for their plight.

I shifted to specifically talk about a specific segment of his voters.
There are the ones that are the fake everyman.
For Example, there was a small business owner that met Trump in front of TV cameras at an airport outside Cincinnati. This was around 2016 and he boo hooed about how he’s just a small business owner and how Obamacare was killing his business.
Well he lives in a neighborhood some of my friends live in. His home is $2.5 million. He has a couple hundred thousand in cars. He put on $10,000 firework show in his yard for 4th of July.
And even ones that are more “common” I see in those pickup truck parades. They’re driving trucks that are $80,000 starting price.
I have a cousin like that. And it’s like they want to look rich by proximity. Being a Trumper makes them feel like they are part of an elite club.

8 minutes of more self awareness than the maggots ever posses in their entire lives. Almost all the maggots I encounter up here in the north country are just filled with hatred. They hated Obama, they hate Biden, now they hate Harris because they have been trained by their brainwashers to hate them. They hate gays, they hate people who aren’t white, they hate people who don’t go to their church, basically they hate everyone who isn’t exactly like them.

The few maggot intellectuals if there is such a thing are fallen libertarians, and they rationalize their support in a somewhat similar way.

I for one am not going to waste another minute trying to understand these feeble minded people who have chosen to support tfg, I already know everything I need to know about them, and after this election I want them swept back under the rock where they belong.

We need to understand this phenomenon though.
I used to think it was purely sui generis Trump, but it's bigger than him.
Very close to half the population seems to think this way. We don't have a big enough rug.

Most of those I know are driven by hate and Christianity, Fox is all they watch and their preacher is all they hear.

REAL maggots are of actual critical importance on this earth

When I was in college in the late 70s, there was a radio station that had "listeners segues". If they played yours, you got a WLIR t-shirt.
My segue was I Can't Explain by The Who into Clash City Rockers. The DJ liked it so much, he sent me 2 t-shirts.

Where did you hear/who told you such a ruel, stupid, heartless thing?" It takes the onus off them completely and allows them to feel like they're OK, it's someone else who's been leading them astray on the subject.

Never confront them head on. It triggers their defenses and doesn't work.

ETA: His video about the secret ingredient in MAGA KoolAid is right on the mark, especially when he gets to the punch line.

It's like trying to teach a bull to dance.

It doesn't work,and it makes him mad as hell!

Explaining his followers and their loyalty has always baffled me.
But this video goes a long way in explaining how-come so many people vote for tRump.

Thank you!

Using the unfortunate human tendency to project --- that is, to take one's failures, weaknesses, flaws and even "sameness", a charlatan uses these, as a poster boy (exemplar) to blame OTHERS for those failures and weaknesses. That's where the sameness comes in.

It's easy to take a more or less homogeneous group and blame a minority -- POC, Jews, immigrants, gays ... the list goes on, and it repeats through history. It's what Hitler did to the truly beaten down German people to convince them that first communists, then Jews then gays were "poisoning" the "master race".

In order to gain these "benefits", the leader forms a cult which reinforces people in a group-think way, using a giant propaganda machine, and threats of violence. A little violence goes a long way.

A "good" cult also "legitimizes" some normally forbidden behavior that many people harbor, and had to suppress in civil society, such as racism, antisemitism, abuse of minorities, equality for women, and sexual freedom (which actually reflects their own self-fears of inadequacy), or violence, anarchy, a kind of three-year-old saying NO to grown-up behavior.

In short, a cult unifies people by projecting failures and banality onto others, making them into "virtues" and also (which I think he left out as I nodded off) permission to do otherwise unacceptable things under the group banner of "we're not them".

The downside is that people give up their dignity, money, jobs, prospects and futures, all for "the one". and cult membership is always self-destructive just to obtain that group feeling, perverse privileges, and ability to blame others for one's failure or weakness.