Is it time to call Trump et al. a cult?

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It should be obvious how I feel about Trump's notions pertaining to excluding Muslims from the country, pertaining to building walls, pertaining to immigration in general.

I married an immigrant. My grandmother was an immigrant.

Excluding Muslims from America is akin to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

Case closed.

Trump's own wife is an immigrant. And I think there were some issues with her visa because she worked as a model on a non-work visa. Anyway the irony is astronomical.

If the other side would stop stooping down to Trump's level, Trump would go away like the Wicked Witch in "The Wizard of Oz."

By the Clinton people attempting to air Trump's dirty laundry, it's lessening the moral authority of Clinton. It's better to take the "high road," in this instance.

The Clintons have no moral authority. That is an important reason the race has been competitive to this point and why so many Republicans supported a nominee they believe is unfit for the office and wrong on key issues.

Yeah, Hillary's slimy. Makes me wish Bernie had done better.

LOL......never said that Clinton has "high moral authority."

All I'm saying is Clinton's dirty politics is lessening whatever smidgen of "moral authority" she possesses.

While The Donald is somewhat different and unusual in American politics he has done nothing of a cult-like or religious action. So far all of his actions have been within the law (however unpleasant they are). He is playing to the feelings of alienation found in the white middle class. It is not the first time a politician has played to the feeling and prejudices of a subset of the population and it will not be the last.

What else can they do except hammer in his bad attributes and foreign connections? And what usually happens except 'dirty politics'? Republicans want it as dirty as possible, clearly... but if they'd only engage on the personal, negative level how else would anyone reciprocate sensibly? Also, wbport, just parroting that without also mentioning that this other nominee was actually bailed out by the Saudis more than once... kind of tired of repeating that, but then again his supporters' programming probably filters it out automatically while loading the next tweet of his...

BaalChatzaf, cults per se have never been illegal, so that can't be the only qualification... many sites list a number of clear signs that the more it goes on the more cultish it became (and sure, others in the past had supporters etc. but not to this degree of almost religious fervour) - here's another that seems to make sense: http://www.dailywire.com/news/5248/10-i ... en-shapiro - even on this board, with reference to the 'truth' as if somehow, out of all the possibilities in the world, he somehow has exclusive access to it... I wonder how many know of epistemology.

Cult? Did someone say cult?

If a cult was simply defined as such then all representative democracy would fit... but there are differences between a dictatorship and what happened just prior and afterwards, a spread democracy (a balance in parliament/congress)... and then groups like Jim Jones', and I do see similarities (except there hasn't been an aftermath yet, the equivalent of mass suicide, as in that group). Fundamentally, it's about being not at all critical, and in the aftermath of Hitler's case, appeasement and collaboration.

http://www.gq.com/story/the-cult-of-trump

The characteristics of cult leaders:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sp ... lt-leaders

The article's concluding paragraph gives warning:

When a cult or organizational leader has a preponderance of these traits then we can anticipate that at some point those who associate with him will likely suffer physically, emotionally, psychologically, or financially. If these traits sound familiar to leaders, groups, sects, or organizations known to you then expect those who associate with them to live in despair and to suffer even if they don’t know it, yet.