Background
I recently had a Facebook conversation with someone who I did not know that went way, way too long. The gist of it was that he could not help himself by making a snarky remark to a posting regarding a Republican company posting that Biden won the election and that everyone should get on with it. His remark: he challenged the veracity of claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election, as if one had anything to do with the other. The old sour grapes and misdirection move.
I must admit that I could not help myself either. I commented on his post by showing links to a Wikipedia article that explained in detail the Russian interference. It was then pointed out that Wikipedia was not always accurate. Because of the self-governing aspect of Wikipedia, this is a valid concern but highly overblown as any misstatements are generally corrected very quickly. Nevertheless, I immediately conceded that possibility and chose instead to ask the person to use Google to find the plethora of web sites, including Republican sites, which confirmed the Russian interference. I advised the person to check his facts before he posted as I always did.
This person did not give alternative sites or alternative explanations. Oh no. His response was to refer to those sites as sites containing “facts”; in other words, “fake news”. At that point, I discovered it was hopeless and pretty much said so. His response “the truth hurts” as if he had made some powerful point of logic by his pontifications without facts. I told him to be an adult and quit posting. Maybe I got through because that was the end of it.
That Got Me Thinking
That got me thinking. Even though this was a TB (Trump Believer), it was not all that different that some altercations I have had with BB’s (Bernie Believers). Both seem to be willing to believe the subject of their adoration is almost deity-like and can do no wrong, even when there are facts falling around them everywhere. (As a note: the lies and negative aspects surround Bernie are essentially non-existent but, like all real people, they do exist. However, not to a BB. In the case of Trump, the lies and negative aspects are insurmountable). Coupled with this is the willingness of TB’s and BB’s to believe that absolute most atrocious things about their deity’s opponents and ostracizes anyone who has anything negative to say about them, even if supported by fact.
Do not get me wrong, I am not bundling Bernie into that same category as Trump. I am just noting that the same level of blind support emanates from followers of both.
However, the reason I may see this so clearly is that I do not really support either of them so I am:
- In the case of Bernie Sanders: see his foibles and come to a different conclusion than many people whom I am like-minded.
- In the case of Donald Trump: see his lies, mental illness, self-serving actions, and inability to lead the country.
In both cases, I am ready and willing to point out the lies of their followers, sometimes rather strongly. I just will not put up with their crap. That has led to several people who have unfriended me and me unfriending some people who refuse to quit lying.
I have even had someone say, in defense of some of these actions that the people involved (specifically Bernie Sanders followers) are passionately following their dream candidate and reminding me of how passionate I was when I supported Bobby Kennedy. I thought about that – a lot. First: Bernie Sanders is no damned Bobby Kennedy. He had ideas with no clue on how to accomplish them. Enough said? Second: I would like anyone to point out one damned time I ever (I repeat ever) lied about anything in my support of Bobby Kennedy.
Why do they do this?
Let us focus on Trump. He lies on a daily basis and has since day one. His supporters seem to ignore this completely. They talk about his accomplishments as President but I never hear them state anything specific. His inaction as a leader in the Covid-19 Pandemic is just short of criminal. They say that the office makes the person; well that statement is put to rest forever.
Look at the most obvious and worse lie he has ever stated; that he won the 2020 election. Not only did he lose, he lost badly. Then he has had to audacity of trying to disallow millions (yes, millions) of people’s votes in order to stay in office. They are even floating the idea of declaring martial law in the swing states so they can rerun the elections there. He is doing this instead of running the government during a crisis.
This does not surprise me in the least. This is what I would have predicted of him. He is every negative aspect of a so-called human being that I have been saying he was since he decided to run for President. The surprises have been in two area though:
- The vast majority of Congressional Republicans (House and Senate) standing by; saying and doing nothing against this obvious travesty of power. In fact, well over 100 of these so-called leaders were willing to support a Texas Secretary of State’s frivolous suit to the U.S. Supreme Court to negate the votes of people in four states. I expect more of these people, even from a party that I do not support.
- The voters who voted for Trump. The last poll I read stated that 77% of those who supported Trump thinks he won the election. That is over 1/3 of the voters in the country. Admittedly, this is as a direct result of Trump’s childish and self-serving denial. Nevertheless, they are falling in line behind him.
It would be easy to dismiss these actions by saying the people are ignorant, stupid, naïve, or crazy. While I will admit that is my shorthand thought at times, I know far too many people that do not fall into any of the above categories that support Trump. Some fall into another category that votes Republican regardless of the candidate and really does not know the issues and could not understand the issues in any discussion because they, quite frankly, pay no attention.
I believe the vast majority of the supporter fall into a category I am calling “voluntary brainwashed”. I do not know any other way of describing in. It is as if these people are intelligent and cognitive enough to know right from wrong. They know truth from lies. However, they chose to assume that an idea or person they have decided to believe in is telling the truth, regardless of everything that is going on around them.
That is how cults exist: pure and simple. I saw it with Sun Young Moon and his followers in the 1970’s. The world has seen it on a larger scale in Germany in the 1930’s. If you want to look into it, you can see some of the same type of thing with Huey Long in America in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
Donald Trump has become a cult leader and the Republican leadership is afraid to defy him and bear the wrath of his followers. Moreover, his followers have become voluntarily brainwashed so that all he says or does is good, OK, and right.
I do not have an answer for this, just this observation.
