Group Discussion Introduction for 12 Rules for Life

I just finished re-reading Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, this time reading it in full, more carefully than the first time, and with the help of having listened to over 100 hours of Peterson’s lectures and interviews this past summer.

I have gathered here three friends for discussion, who have each read this book, and each coming from different religious viewpoints—one Christian, two atheists, and myself a mystic—and from different personality types: On the Enneagram model, a One (Reformer), a Three (Achiever), myself a Four (Individualist), and a Five (Investigator). I’m very interested in seeing how we each of us experience Peterson and his thoughts differently, including what resonates, what irritates, what has been helpful to us, and what we criticize.

My experience reading 12 Rules for Life was expecting a simple, encouraging, practical self-help book I would find mostly irrelevant for my life, and instead got a 370-page intellectual buffet that was often hard work to follow and anything but simple and to the point. Using science, psychology, mythology, philosophy, religion, cultural and social studies, case studies from his clinical practice, and personal anecdotes, Peterson made many claims and opened so many doors to further thinking and discovery. For me, the book was pregnant with portals, which was exciting and stoked my curiosity to learn more.

When someone speaks to a general audience, referencing many different disciplines and making connections between them, covering so many controversial topics with original thinking, making conclusions, and suggesting applications, this on one hand makes him relevant to more people, but leaves a lot of room for debate, error, and criticism. So there are dozens upon dozens of specific ideas we can discuss from the book, both generally or by getting into the weeds, but I’d like to start with the general overarching theme or thread that holds the book together: Order and Chaos / Meaning and Nihilism.

But before we get there, I’d like to start with hearing in general how the experience of reading this book was for you. Would you have liked something more practical, rational, concise, efficient, and to the point, or did you enjoy the cumbersome, meandering, intellectual journey? Was something particularly exciting or annoying for you? Was he too deep and complex, or too shallow and imprecise in certain areas?

The comment section below can be used for discussion.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking - Susan Cain (Notes)

 

Where you fit on the introvert-extrovert spectrum influences your choice of friends and mates, how you make conversation, resolve differences, show love, what career you choose and whether you succeed in it, how likely you are to exercise, commit adultery, function well without sleep, learn from your mistakes, make big bets on the stock market, delay gratification, or whether you’re a good leader.

No one is completely an introvert or extrovert, and those in the middle are considered ambiverts. Where we land on the spectrum is reflected in studies of the brain and nervous system. One third to one half of Americans are introverts.

Today’s society values the Extrovert Ideal—being gregarious, talkative, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight. Action is preferred to contemplation, risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt, making quick decisions, working in teams and socializing in groups, and putting yourself out there. Introversion, on the other hand, is associated with being sensitive, serious, and shy, which are considered second class traits to be overcome. People may think of you as strange for wanting to be home with a book rather than out with friends, eating alone in a restaurant, or being too much in your head.

But some of our greatest thinkers, artists, revolutionaries, and inventors were introverts—Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Vincent van Gogh, Lewis Carroll, Dr. Seuss, George Orwell, Charles Shultz, Steven Spielberg, J. K. Rowling, and Rosa Parks, among many others. Introversion is associated with artistic and intellectual achievement.

There are no fixed definitions for introversion and extroversion. Carl Jung coined the terms introvert and extrovert in his 1921 book Psychological Types where he said introverts are drawn to the inner world of thoughts and feelings while extroverts are drawn to people and action. Introverts focus on the meaning of events while extroverts simply plunge into them. Introverts recharge their batteries by being alone while extroverts need a social life to recharge.

Expanding on these definitions since Jung, we know that introverts need less stimulation to function and extroverts more, introverts work slowly and deliberately, being reflective, focusing on one thing at a time and don’t care much about money and fame while extroverts tackle assignments quickly, make rash decisions, are comfortable multitasking and risk-taking, and enjoy the thrill of the chase and the reward of money and status. Extroverts like to be the center of the party, can think on their feet, are loud and talkative, and are comfortable with conflict, but not solitude. Introverts, in contrast, prefer a quiet night alone, time with a few close friends in deep connection rather than small talk, listen more than they talk, think before they speak, express themselves better in writing than conversation, and dislike conflict.

Introverts are not antisocial or shy (though some can be), they just need a break from groups of people, events, and outings, which can be overstimulating for them. Introverts are highly sensitive, meaning that while many enjoy art, music, and nature, it grips introverts in a deeper and more profound way, as does what is ugly and tragic. Every emotion is felt more powerfully and infused with meaning in a way that extroverts don’t experience their emotions. They also have a stronger conscience and higher empathy than extroverts. 

While we can list traits for introversion and extroversion and put ourselves on a scale, our personalities are unique and are influenced by other factors, so not every trait will apply to you. (Susan offers a 20-question questionnaire to test for introversion. I score 19 of 20.)

Susan documents how at the turn of the twentieth century rural Americans flooded into urban areas for a new economy of mass production, sales, and advertising, moving America from a Culture of Character to a Culture of Personality. Rather than being serious, disciplined, and honorable, being charismatic, magnetic, captivating, bold, and entertaining was valued. Image trumped substance. To be successful, you had to be an outgoing, extroverted salesman in this new economy. Extraversion, or at least learning the skills to perform like an extrovert, was valued. This lead to goal-oriented competitive stress, the need to appear self-assured amidst inferiority complex (or imposter syndrome) leading to an explosion of social anxiety. We began to worship celebrities and movies stars—those who got on stage and shined brightly.

Shy and quiet children were expected to learn how to have outgoing and “winning” personalities. In the 1940s, Harvard rejected “shy and neurotic types” for “healthy extroverted types.” The life of action was revered and the life of intellect suspect. There was pressure to sell yourself and entertain, as status, income, and self-esteem now depended on personality. Being shy, unable to speak publicly, and introverted became a mental disorder called Social Anxiety Disorder.

To be skilled meant you knew how to stage-manage your voice, gestures, and body language to present yourself in a certain manner—vibrant, confident, always with a smile. Every social encounter was a high-stakes game in which you win or lose the other person’s favor. In a competitive society, you must stand out in a crowd.

We are in danger of giving hucksters and narcissists power of us who are all presentation and image with no substance. We reward them for their influence and ability to “win.” If they are self-help gurus like Tony Robbins with a huge following, we reward them for being successful simply by measure of their fame and money, not by the integrity of their character or the substance of their advice.

Introverts, who tend to be open, highly empathetic, more likely to hear suggestions, and not seek the limelight actually inspire their workers to be more productive because they are excited to have their ideas implemented rather than blocked by a competitive extrovert wanting the credit by ignoring suggestions and implementing his own ideas.

Moses is a good example of a leader who was meek, shy, had a stutter, lacked eloquence, and felt unworthy to be called by God. God paired him up with his extroverted brother Aaron and Moses became his speechwriter. Typical of introverts, Moses went away on a mountain for forty days to acquire wisdom. The medium is not always the message, and the message can be followed even if not spoken well. Good leaders don’t seek their own fame, glory, and power or seek to build their ego and status, traits to which extroverts are more prone.

Introverts are more likely to express intimate details about themselves in real time on social media that might be shocking to those around them. They want to express their real selves authentically and have deep conversations about meaningful topics. They prefer to be online and write than express their ideas in a lecture hall, and establish a relationship online before meeting in person.

Evangelical megachurches put a premium on extroversion with emphasis on greeting people, lengthy sermons, singing, volunteering, plugging in and being involved, taking action, and seeing results. There is no room for silence, quiet contemplation, liturgy, and ritual. You must love Jesus out loud and display this publicly. Godliness is equated with sociability, image, and advertising. If the world doesn’t see it and it doesn’t bear fruit and get growth or results, what good is it?

Susan has a chapter on how introverts prefer to work alone, not collaborate with teams, and that this makes them much more creative, insightful, and productive. Yet, the modern workplace emphasizes teamwork and collaboration, making it harder for an introvert to survive. Introverts tend to lead in art, writing, science, thinking, and solitary disciplines. They are most alive in their own heads. There is nothing more exciting to them than learning and ideas.

Susan has the same peculiar practice I do when writing—finding cafes in urban settings, the ambience of the café, and the people there stimulating for writing. Writing in a cafe is still a solitary practice, but in a social setting.

Temperament refers to inborn, biologically based behavioral and emotional patterns that are observable in infancy and early childhood. Personality is the complex brew that emerges after cultural influence and personal experience are thrown into the mix. Temperament is the foundation, personality the building.

Some infants are highly reactive, or highly sensitive, so process stimulation more intensely and deeply. Their nervous system is always on alert. In childhood, they think and feel deeply about what they experience, bringing nuance, and feel guilt and empathy more powerfully. They are highly imaginative problem solvers. This, along with twin studies, suggest a biological basis for introversion and extroversion. The peculiarities and differences in the personalities of introverts and extroverts are a result of nature and nurture working together.

We are born with our temperament and our personalities are elastic, meaning we can stretch them up to a point, but not change them. We are beholden to our genes, brains, and nervous systems, but we can use free will to shape our personalities. Still, Bob Ross will never be Michael Jordan no matter how much he wills to be like him.

When introverts were asked to perform at a noise level comfortable to extroverts, they were over-aroused and underperformed. When extroverts were asked to perform at a noise level preferred by introverts, they were under-aroused. Extroverts need more intense stimulation to function in life and introverts need less. The key is to fine-tune your environment and find your sweet spot for comfort and functionality.

Introverts are great observers, but less comfortable as participants. Participating can be more stressful and require a lot more than mere observing. They are suited for observing, thinking, and writing rather than taking action and participating. Interestingly, I journaled just this year that I need to accept “being” and not “doing” and if I can’t be the guy on the stage leaving a legacy, I can be in the audience relaxing and observing other leaving theirs—the world need a witness.

Susan, an introvert, attended a conference led by Elaine Aron, author of The Highly-Sensitive Person. (I read Aron’s books and took her highly sensitive quiz years back, and like the one on introversion in this book, scored highly sensitive on nearly every question.) Highly sensitive people are observant, sensitive to light, sound, scent, weather, pain, coffee, alcohol, and medication, don’t like being observed and evaluated, are more spiritual and philosophical and less materialistic and hedonistic, are intuitive, dislike small talk, dream vividly and recall their dreams easily, love nature, art, music, and physical beauty, and they feel their emotions strongly. They love romance, authenticity, and deep connection. They process information from their environments unusually deeply, noticing subtle shifts in other people’s moods or a light bulb burning a touch too brightly. They are highly empathetic and have strong consciences, feel guilt deeply, blush easily, concede and apologize more often, are thin-skinned, cry easily, and focus on things that are deep, melancholy, and too heavy or intense for others. On the Big Five personality traits, they rank high on agreeableness and openness to experience. (I took the Big Five test and ranked high on both, but terribly low on assertiveness, a trait high among extroverts.) Highly sensitive people lack the nerves of steel, stoicism, and cool poise kept by those who are anti-fragile, thick-skinned, confident, and welcome competition, challenges, conflict, exuberance, and thrill.

By contrast, extroverts are more reward-sensitive, so take more risks. They work and play hard, taking chances the rest of us don’t and get a great rush from doing what they do. They experience positive emotion, pleasure, and excitement more intensely than introverts. They have more active dopamine pathways than introverts, who don’t buzz easily. They are confident, competitive, and high achievers. They have more sex partners, commit adultery and divorce more often, exercise more, like adrenaline and adventure, build social networks, enjoy crowds of people and loud, fun, stimulating environments, and can be anti-social and commit more crimes. They live for the buzz that comes from achieving and winning, and in these moments of highs can become overconfident and less mindful, leading to risky behavior and rash decisions. In their need for efficiency they can cut corners and race through things, leading to more errors in their work. In multitasking they can become easily distracted. In their adrenaline-fueled risks, they can become injured. They need introverts to kill their buzz, make them slow down and focus, and think more carefully, just as introverts need extroverts to be more social, active, have more fun, and take more risks.

Introverts love their work, but more because they are caught in the flow of something they are passionate about—getting lost or being absorbed in their writing or art. They enjoy creating for its own sake, not driven by an external goal or reward that motivates some extroverts.

Susan notes that some Asian cultures uphold the introvert’s ideal. They don’t put a premium on the Western ideal of the individual, instead valuing family, cooperation, community, and group harmony by subordinating their own desires for a greater good. They promote quiet, humility, compassion, and sensitivity. The Western ideal is built around the individual, unrestrained, following his bliss, being independent, self-sufficient, doing what he alone is called to do. This requires gregariousness, boldness, verbal skill, and insubordination. Photos depicting dominance activated the pleasure center of Western brains while photos of submission did the same for Asians. Susan notes that one ideal isn’t better than the other, just that each type produces a different culture.

Some psychologists reject the idea of a fixed personality, taking a Situationist perspective, saying we all put on different hats and change personalities in different situations. This is the person-situation debate. This is resolved, as noted before, by recognizing that we have an essential temperament and personality, but it can be stretched within limits. A concept called Free Traits allows extroverts and introverts to practice each other’s traits and perform as the other even if it doesn’t come easily or naturally. If you are really passionate about your creation as an introvert, you can get out and promote it, doing what doesn’t come naturally, like public speaking, being in crowds, and selling, but only in a limited way and in limited settings so you avoid stress and burnout. This isn’t a personality change, but adopting extrovert traits and interspersing them with your base as an introvert.

If you are an introvert looking for a spouse but dislike the going out, meeting people, and dating, you have to stretch yourself and put yourself in situations to meet people so you can meet that person who wants to be alone with you or in a small circle of friends. This means doing what’s uncomfortable but within your limits.

There is often miscommunication between introverts and extroverts, especially in romantic relationships. Introverts want to communicate in a quiet, friendly, connected low-key tone, avoiding conflict, while extroverts are animated by their partner showing up for spirited, energized conflict. If the introvert lowers her voice, he feels she is checking out and is hurt. If he raises his voice, she is overwhelmed and checks out.

She might envision married life as being alone together and enjoying each other’s company and he might envision married life as having shared adventures. He wants parties and a social life to energize himself and she is rejuvenated by avoiding that and being alone. She wants to hide in a party, he wants to be the center of attention. She might want him to herself and feel he’s always giving his time to others. He might feel she gives her time to others at work, then comes home and ignores him for her alone time, telling him to go out with his friends without her.

Once introverts and extroverts discover each other’s differences and communication styles, they can compliment each other well and work together.

In the end, Susan urges readers to be themselves. What did you love to do as a child? What did you want to be when you grow up? What work do you gravitate to? What do you envy? Who has what you desire? These are clues to finding yourself and choosing the best path for you in life.

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation - Kristin Kobes Du Mez (Notes)

 

[These notes are a summary of Kristin’s thesis based on a podcast interview with her, not the book itself.]

Kristin Du Mez, professor at Calvin University was inspired to write her book when her students handed her a copy of Wild at Heart written by John Eldredge in 2001, who encouraged a rugged and militant masculine Christian faith. Rather than looking to the Bible, he looked to Hollywood, military men, cowboys, Braveheart, and mythological heroes and called that “biblical manhood.” He said God is a warrior God and man is made in his image, so every man has a battle to fight.

By 2005 dozens of books promoted similar images of rugged masculine Christianity. We were in the midst of the Iraq war in 2006 when these books came out, and polls showed that white evangelicals supported the Iraq war, pre-emptive war, condoned the use of torture, and embraced aggressive foreign policy.

Is this a fringe dark underbelly of evangelical Christianity or mainstream? Eldredge sold 4 million copies of Wild at Heart. Mark Driscoll in the 2000s was also wildly popular, and he preached a masculine, militant, crass Christianity. Du Mez collected numerous examples of abuse of power, sexual abuse, and protecting abusive colleagues among Christian leaders promoting this kind of masculinity.

Du Mez noticed how many white evangelicals got behind Trump. By fall of 2016 more than 80% of white evangelicals supported him. After the Access Hollywood tape of Trump’s sexual abuse and misogyny and lying, saying it wasn’t him on the tape, they continued to support him all the more. There is a habit in evangelical circles of enabling this kind of masculinity and looking the other way. They weren’t holding their noses when they voted, but were drawn to Trump’s alpha masculinity. Robert Jeffress said he didn’t want someone meek and mild, he wanted the meanest, toughest son of a bitch in the White House.

In the Nineteenth century we see genteel, respectful, self-restraint defining Christian masculinity. White men were seen as empowered to discipline women, children, and slaves. By the time of Roosevelt in the 1920s, we see rugged, rough, tough individualism, linked to whiteness and American power. By World War II, liberal Christians were more militaristic, but evangelical Christians weren’t. Evangelicals believed that a nation didn’t have a soul, people did, so America couldn’t be a Christian nation. That view among evangelicals would come later in their culture wars.

By the 1940s, evangelicals and Protestants attempted to unify and take back America through pop culture—magazines, books, radio, TV. This led to the rise of Billy Graham and eventually televangelism. During the Cold War in the 1950s, communism is identified as atheistic anti-God, anti-family, and anti-American. It’s a military threat that must be defended against with the military. America needed to be Christian and kept Christian, so faith and patriotism was linked to fight communism.

In the 1960s we see Civil Rights movements challenging southern white Christians, the feminist movement disobeying what were believed to be God’s commands for gender roles, and Vietnam and the anti-war movement. Evangelicals became increasingly pro-war, pro-military, and pro-gender roles: men were to be strong, tough protectors and women were to be weak, meek, and submissive. This increased the evangelical opposition to acceptance of LGBTQ acceptance and abortion.

John Wayne became the model of Christian masculinity for evangelicals. He was a cowboy, individualist, war hero, and a good guy who uses violence to defeat bad guys. Like Eldredge, this kind of Christian masculinity depends on fictional characters not formed by Christian virtues like loving your enemy as yourself.

If every man is made for a battle, then every man needs a battle, and that battle is the conservative evangelical culture war. Donald Trump comes along and is seen as the masculine strong man who is going to fight the enemies of the evangelicals, so they embraced him.

Fifty-five percent of evangelical women supported Trump, but they also help support patriarchy and believe in their own role of being a wife and mother who submits to patriarchal authority, which supports the strong man as protector. God gave men testosterone to have the strength and aggression to protect their home, faith, and country, so men must be very masculine and women very feminine. Women must be ready to meet their husband’s needs and not tempt other men.

The Cold War ended in the nineties, so Promise Keepers arose to answer the question: “What does it mean to be a man?” The warrior motif was there, but it was a tender warrior; a soft patriarchy. It got too soft, so a number of books released in 2001, like Wild at Heart, called for a militant, testosterone-filled, rugged Christianity. When September 11th happened, they became best sellers. We all have a battle to fight, and now we know who the enemy is: radical Islam.

Large conservative evangelical organizations like Focus on the Family promoted former Muslim terrorists who converted to evangelical Christianity and warned that Muslims wanted to come to America and kill us. There were numerous speakers, and they all turned out to be frauds. These evangelical ministries, knowing they were frauds, continued to promote them anyway because the ends justify the means.

Evangelicals were afraid because their leaders stoked their fear. Fear is a requirement to sustain militancy. They become Islamaphobes as a spate of books were written about the dangers of Islam. They believed they had to be ruthless and kill them first before they came here and killed us.

Many American evangelical organizations have global reach, so this masculine evangelicalism is exported all over the world where different cultures assimilate these ideas, leading to heartbreaking abuse.

Christians know Trump isn’t a Christian, but he promised to protect them and charge into battle on their behalf better than Rubio, Cruz, Carson, because Trump is tough, unconstrained by political correctness, civility, or rule of law, and desperate times call for desperate measures.

James Dobson said Trump was a baby Christian. Evangelicals tried to baptize Trump because they believe he is on their side, if not one of them. How could they support a man who was so morally reprehensible? The ends justify the means.

White evangelical values are deeply racialized. Christian nationalism says we were founded as a Christian nation and things were great until they went bad in the 1960s. Only white Christians can say that, not noticing their supremacy and privilege, completely ignoring the black experience in America.

Trump helped spread the narrative that Christians are persecuted while at the same time promising to privilege them. Evangelicals tell themselves that Democrats like Obama and Clinton are not true Christians, but actually hate Christianity. They are enemies who want to destroy your faith. But no matter how terribly Trump behaves, they see him as one of them.

The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control - Steven Hassan (Notes)

 

Introduction

To say that President Trump is using mind control on his supporters, and to call them followers of an charismatic narcissist who behaves like a cult leader and they like cult members is a provocative claim. Hassan, a cult expert who has written numerous books over the decades on the topic, was alarmed when he saw the parallels between Trump and his supporters and cult leaders and their followers. In describing the parallels, he makes it clear that this is not a partisan political hit piece.

When Trump first ran for president, it was hard for anyone to take him seriously, so it was quite shocking to find his most ardent supporters among evangelical Christians. Trump was a casino mogul, playboy, philanderer, regularly told outright lies, and doubled down on them when challenged. His life resembled nothing of Christian values and morals.

As Trump became the Republican nomination for president, it was clear that he was using psychological and social techniques, exploiting these methods to great effect. He was a media manipulator who got Fox News to insult his opponents and brag about his accomplishments while CNN and MSNBC couldn’t get enough of covering his circus-like behavior. He was an entertaining, blustery speaker who used simplistic repetitious terms and slogans as anthems at his rallies: (“Lock her up” and “Build the wall”). He gave catchy nicknames to his opponents: (“Crooked Hillary,” “Lying Ted,” “Sleepy Joe”).

Trump has an air of absolute confidence and grandiosity (“Only I can fix this”), demands devotion and adoration, sows fear and confusion, demands absolute loyalty, lies and creates “alternative facts,” shuns and belittles critics and ex-supporters, and inspires a binary us-versus-them tribal mentality—those with him are in a special category and all against him are evil and dangerous. These are all techniques high profile cult leaders use.

Trump has an infatuation for authoritarian leaders like Putin, Erdogan, and Jong-un and has similar aspirations towards authoritarianism. When a leader gains psychological sway over his followers and other politicians, the checks and balances of healthy democracy can be stripped away.

Political operatives Roger Stone and Sam Nunberg developed for Trump the slogan that we were going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. Trump didn’t love it, but his crowds did, so he used it to conjure images of murderers and rapists at the border that only he can protect America from with a big shiny wall meant to insulate, isolate, and elevate America from the rest of the dangerous world. His Muslim travel ban, which was the idea of Breitbart’s Steve Bannon, a peddler of anti-immigration propaganda, achieved the same effect, as many on the Christian right fear that Islam will take over America and impose sharia law. This is how Trump uses fear and xenophobia to inspire loyalty.

“Trump uses all kinds of cult tactics—lying, insulting opponents, projecting his weakness onto others, deflecting, distracting, presenting alternative facts and competing versions of reality—to confuse, disorient, and ultimately coerce his followers.” (xiv)

At the top of the list is fear, which Trump told Bob Woodward is real power. He spends a lot of time on the air and on Twitter sowing fear of Mexicans, Muslims, migrants, globalists, radical left-wing Democrats, socialists, Hollywood, actors, and the liberal media, claiming they are all out to destroy America and only he can keep us safe. Trump, like other cult leaders, manufactures problems that don’t exist, then tells people to put their trust in him to fix it.

Trump doesn’t manipulate alone, he gets help from the right and far right media, Trinity Broadcasting Network, social media, internet trolls, and the Russian government.

Trump’s manipulation encompasses the control of behavior, information, thought, and emotion. By questioning government, politicians, and the media, claiming “fake news” and saying reporters are “enemies of the people,” he blunts critical thinking and closes his followers’ minds to disconfirming evidence and arguments. He alone becomes the source for truth.

Just as cults divide people from families with an all-or-nothing, us-versus-them polarization, family and friends have stopped speaking to one another based on whether or not they are for or against Trump. Otherwise rational people have become radicalized and obsessed with their support for Trump.

Hassan hopes his book will free people to be individuals who are authentic, who can free their minds from propaganda and regain their critical thinking skills, and he hopes this book will heal fractured families, relationships, and the nation from the division sown by Trump.

1 – What Is a Cult?

During Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting six months into his tenure, his cabinet took turns outdoing one another with praise and adulation for him. It was a spectacle of flattery. Shouldn’t they be counted on to give him honest advice, not stroke his ego? Trump interrupted them only long enough to praise himself, saying no president has passed more legislation as quickly as he did with the exception of FDR. In cults, members feel blessed even to be sitting in the same room as the leader, will not contradict him in any way, and compete to indoctrinate each other in loyalty to him.

Trump shuns, bullies, baits and expels in fury and anger all who “betray” and are disloyal to him—Munchin, Acosta, Sessions, Comey. He accused Democrats of treason for not clapping during his first State of the Union address.

A cult can be defined by “a small or narrow circle of persons united by devotion or allegiance to some artistic or intellectual program, tendency, or figure.” Many cults revolve around a central figure or leader. Cult leaders are motivated by power, money, and sex, in that order.

Robert Jay Lifton broke down “thought reform” in his 1961 book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, which looked at how political prisoners in China and American soldiers held prisoner during the Korean war were systematically broken down and remade to believe the exact opposite of what they once did. The term brainwashing was coined in the 1950s by intelligence agent Edward Hunter to describe how the Chinese Communist army was turning people into followers.

Lifton identified eight criteria of thought reform. The Trump parallels are striking:

1)      Milieu control. The leader or inner circle has complete control of information and claims only they are trustworthy. Everyone else is untrustworthy. Followers internalize this and become their own thought police, grateful to be in an echo chamber and keep the “fake news” out.

2)      Mystical manipulation. Contriving, engineering, or staging “spontaneous” events believed to be supernatural or mystical. Trump agreed with his evangelical audience that God had chosen him to be president.

3)      Demand for purity. Viewing the world in simple binary terms of black and white and good versus evil. Members must strive for perfection as impossible standards are set for them. (Forty-six Trump appointees have been fired or resigned since his inauguration. Trump is known to fire people impulsively.)

4)      Confession. Personal boundaries are broken down and destroyed. Every thought, feeling, and action that does not conform to the group’s rules are confessed, remembered, and used against them. Trump never forgets even perceived betrayals. He had a staff member police others in the White House and report back to him any hint of treason or untrustworthiness.

5)      Sacred Science. Group doctrine and ideology is considered absolutely, scientifically, and morally true. There is no room for questions or alternative viewpoints. The leader, a spokesperson from God, cannot be questioned. Trump denigrates scientific and medical expertise for his own agenda, whether it be about climate change or the Covid pandemic.

6)      Loading the language. Members learn a new vocabulary to constrict their thinking into clichés that conform to group ideology. “Lock her up,” “Build the Wall,” “Crooked Hillary,” and “Pocahontas” are examples. Terms like “globalist” and “deep state” do the same to rouse emotion and direct people’s attention.

7)      Doctrine over person. Group ideology is everything. Doubts and critical thoughts towards group ideology are a result of a person’s own shortcomings. Anyone that doesn’t agree with Trump’s views and agendas are seen as traitors of America, trying to destroy it.

8)      Dispensing of existence. Only those in the group have the right to exist. Ex-members and dissidents do not. Trump is arguably responsible for the rise of hate crimes fueled by his rhetoric, speeches, and tweets. The in-group is privileged, the out-group is marginalized.

Undue influence is exerted on others, disrupting an individual’s ability to make independent decisions from within their own identity, by using behavior, information, thought, and emotional control—what Hassan calls the BITE model.

Trump controls behavior by demanding loyalty and obedience, publicly insulting those who disagree with him, creating false enemies, using us-versus-them thinking, and rewarding those who support him and punishing those who don’t. Trump controls information by branding anything critical or negative of him “fake news.” He replaces news with supportive propaganda for his followers. He controls thoughts by reducing complex issues into clichés and buzz words, oversimplifications, using repetition, forbidding criticism, and labeling alternative belief systems illegitimate or evil. He controls emotions by making followers feel special or chosen, fanning fear and implanting phobias, framing the world is a dangerous place that only he can fix. At rallies, he tells his supporters who they should be afraid, shouldn’t trust, or should hate, then sets himself up as the greatest defense against those things. This fearmongering makes the country and the world feel like a more divided and dangerous place than it really is.

The goal of cults is to replace the “authentic self” with the “cult self.” There are religious cults, political cults, psychotherapy/educational cults, commercial cults, and cults of personality. Trump represents a cult of personality; he is a charismatic authoritarian leader—a narcissist who uses others as a means to obtaining power. He uses politics and right wing ideology to inspire loyalty. His followers in turn use him for their own political and religious agendas. Some loathed him and learned to like him, some view him as a useful tool, and some view him as a person who genuinely holds their values.

Age of Propaganda has a chapter called “How to Become a Cult Leader” which gives a list of seven simple steps:

1. Create your own social reality. Eliminate all sources of information other than that provided by the cult. Provide a picture of the world that members can use to interpret all events.
2. Create an in-group of followers in contrast to an evil out-group. All who are with you are good and all who oppose you are to be feared and hated.
3. Create an escalating spiral of commitment. Begin with making simple requests—small donations, attending services and rallies—and escalate until they have pledged full commitment, time, energy, and resources to your cause.
4. Establish your credibility and attractiveness through myths and stories. Create a flattering biography that can be passed from member to member.
5. Send members out to proselytize the unredeemed. Have people campaign on your behalf and spread your agenda.
6. Prevent members from thinking undesirable thoughts. Continually distract people with propaganda than engenders loyalty to the group and the message.
7. Dangle a notion of a promised land before the faithful. Convince people that you can make everything better and that a new world awaits those who are loyal and faithful to you.

2 – The Making of a Cult Leader

Trump is used to getting his way, using any means necessary. He loves to wield his authority, and does so in a ham-fisted and frenetic fashion. Like many cult leaders, he invents and reinvents his life story as a self-made man who has overcome adversity due to belief in his own abilities. When we look at his biography, we see a different story.

Donald’s father Fred was tough, demanding, and a workaholic. He showed no affection, was hypercritical, and offered no praise. He raised his boys to be “killers” and “kings,” teaching them that people are weak and only the strong survive. In childhood, Trump became a bully. He had to win, as there was no tolerance for losing.

He went to Norman Vincent Peale’s church in New York. Peale wrote The Power of Positive Thinking. He taught people to expect the best and accept no defeat. Have absolute confidence in yourself—self-doubt is the work of the devil. Remove all sense of inferiority and inadequacy. Peale was a forerunner to the prosperity gospel, which taught that material wealth and success are consequences of faith, so poverty and failure come from fear and doubt. Banishing doubt leaves no room for skepticism, criticism, introspection, self-reflection and other tools necessary for correction.

Trump said Peale thought of him as “the greatest student of all time.” In part, Peale gave Trump his self-confidence, which borders on grandiosity, a refusal to negotiate or take no for an answer, his predator-versus-prey stance toward other people, and his taste for winning.

In military school, Trump learned that if you show weakness, tough men will go for the jugular, so you have to project strength. He had a reputation for being a bully and hypercompetitive in school.

Trump’s first lawyer, Roy Cohn—also a mafia lawyer, often described as cold, slithery, without empathy, vicious, and the devil himself—taught Trump to attack and fight, never defend. When you’re hit, you hit back harder. When you are accused of something, you deflect, deny, and turn the attention back onto your enemies. You never apologize.

Trump’s book The Art of the Deal teaches readers to be shrewd, brash, and cut-throat if they want to be successful in business—a zero-sum winner-take-all game.

Trump bragged about his womanizing, which got him in trouble when an off the record recording by Access Hollywood was released. Trump bragged that he moves on women and grabs them by the genitals, and they let him do it because he’s a celebrity.

Despite a lifetime of scandals and bankruptcies and being a D-list celebrity who was broke, he was hired for The Apprentice where he was turned from court jester to king. His image was rehabilitated as a self-made man who typified the American dream, though his real life doesn’t reflect this. With this image, he turned fans into voters.

3 – The Cult Leader Profile

In 2017, twenty-seven psychiatrists and mental health professionals convened at Yale School of Medicine to discuss the mental health of Donald Trump. The results were published in The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, edited by Brandy X. Lee. (The updated book in 2019 contains ten more essays) They concluded that Trump exhibited a disturbing and dangerous psychological pattern: narcissistic tendencies, impulsivity, delusions, paranoia, xenophobia, misogyny, inability to take ownership of errors, pathological lying, and extreme hedonism.

The office of president requires some level of narcissism—confidence, boldness, bravado, flamboyance, and assertiveness—called grandiose narcissism. We all have a streak in narcissism in, wanting to stand out from others, be appreciated, and be thought of as special. It becomes pathological when people will do anything to get that feeling of being special— like lie, cheat, steal, betray, and hurt those closest to them.

A darker and more dangerous form of narcissism—malignant narcissism—results from combining these traits with psychopathology, anti-social behavior, self-affirming sadism, and paranoia. Malignant narcissists are arrogant, bombastic, supremely confident, demand attention and admiration, and rarely admit making a mistake. They lie, cheat, and steal with no conscience or empathy. They have no morality, only caring about protecting their power over others. When authority figures exhibit this behavior, it can become accepted by the populace as the new norm and their followers justify it. Hassan argues that Trump is a malignant narcissist with a dangerous effect on his supporters.

People with narcissistic personality disorder display a characteristic pattern of traits:

1)      Grandiose self-centered behavior.

2)      Fantasies of power, success, and attractiveness.

3)      A need for praise and admiration.

4)      A sense of entitlement.

5)      Lack of empathy which can lead them to exploit, bully, shame, and demean others without guilt or remorse.

Beneath the surface is low self-esteem—they are plagued with feelings of inferiority, emptiness, and boredom.

Grandiosity is the exaggeration of talents and achievements. Every cult leader does this. Trump has a string of “Nobody knows more about ______ than I do” statements and claims to have achieved things no other president in history has ever achieved.

Narcissists live in a fantasy world propped up by distortion, self-deception, and magical thinking in which they can exaggerate their power, wealth, intelligence, and looks and minimize or ignore their faults and flaws. They feel shame, humiliation, and rejection even from the most constructive criticism.

Donald Trump has a habit of exaggerating and bragging about his intelligence, sexual prowess, looks, wealth, celebrity, and entitlement—that because he is a celebrity he can do whatever he wants with women and they let him. He takes offense to and threatens to sue anyone who dares to expose his lies.

Due to lack of affection in childhood, narcissists crave approval and admiration. For some, this becomes a demand for devotion. They need attention and glory, and manipulate people to get it. Trump falsely bragged that his inauguration had the largest audience of any other president both in person and remote. Despite clear evidence this was false, he doubled down and kept repeating it.

Once people become loyal to a narcissist, they will lie, cheat, steal, and take the bullet for him, as his former lawyer Michael Cohen did. Fox News had no problem rubber stamping Trump’s narrative, shamelessly spreading his lies, and demonizing his enemies for him. Anyone at Fox News who contested Trump’s narrative was viewed by his supporters as traitors.

Narcissists believe they are so exceptional that they are entitled to get whatever they want—wealth, devotion, sex, special treatment. They believe they are above the law. Had Robert Muller found collusion between Trump and Russia, Trump said he would just pardon himself. He has accumulated over 3,500 lawsuits the past 30 years and feels he doesn’t need to pay his contractors or his taxes.

Narcissists lack empathy. They can read other people well, but use this to take advantage of them and use them for their own ends. Trump has a habit of minimizing catastrophes, showing no compassion for families separated at the border, and making bullying, obscene, mocking, and degrading jokes and insults about others on a regular basis.

Narcissists are driven by envy. Trump hated Obama because he envied his success, talent, looks, achievements, and competency. His jealous attacks on Obama ran deep. Narcissists cut down others around them to make themselves look better. Trump envies the power Putin and Jong-un have over their people and even wanted a military parade to show off his power after being impressed with President Emmanuel Marcoon’s military parade in France.

Anti-social behavior can be described as an ingrained disregard and even contempt for morals, social norms, and the rights and feelings of others. Malignant narcissists make an art form of lying to and manipulating others. They confuse and gaslight people—causing them to question their own observations and sanity, keeping them endlessly off balance.

Cult leaders lie about just about everything to keep their image and power, and their followers devoted. Trump is unparalleled in his lies and in deflecting his followers away from any information that is not in agreement with him, calling it fake, phony, and fraudulent news. Reporters, he says, are enemies of the people. Giuliani said truth is not the truth, but somebody’s version of it. Kellyanne Conway used the phrase “alternative facts” to defend Trump’s lies. For Trump, lies are standard operating procedure. To fact check, reality check, or listen to anyone but him is disloyal and a betrayal of allegiance. This is exactly how cults operate.

Malignant narcissists are opportunistic. They exploit people for personal benefit and financial gain. Trump has failed to pay contractors, opened a University that was shut down due to fraud, and his charitable organization is under investigation for misuse of funds.

Malignant narcissists can be sadists—angrily attacking, degrading, dehumanizing and defending themselves from all insults and criticism. Cult leaders use shunning, shaming, expulsion, and physical punishment toward those who criticize and disobey them. Trump doesn’t believe in taking the higher ground. He believes when you are hit, you hit back ten times harder, as his dad and his lawyer Roy Cohn taught him. Trump has a cruel streak and manic glee about causing harm, pain, and humiliation to other people. He showers those around him with praise until they don’t give him what he wants, then mercilessly attacks and degrades them. His followers follow, attacking who he attacks. He uses the courts to harass and silence critics.

Malignant narcissists are known for their violent behavior and sexual abuse. There are dozens of sexual assault allegations following Trump. His first wife Ivana said he was cruel, inhumane, and physically and verbally abusive. Trump famously encouraged violence in his rallies, telling people to punch protestors in the face.

Malignant narcissists are paranoid and project the worst aspects of themselves onto others, then attack them. Their paranoid anxiety makes them preoccupied with conspiracy theories. They fear that people are judging them and conspiring to work against them. Trump is a germaphobe who prefers fast food because of his fear of being poisoned by those around him and believes there is a shadow “deep state” in the government trying to bring him down.

He mistrusts friends and subordinates. Their loyalty must continually be tested in sometimes abusive and humiliating ways. Trump has a record turnover of staff, as even being perceived as disloyal turns once-valued associates into villains and “idiots” overnight. Trump had an aide draw up a list of possible staffers he thought could not be trusted—an enemies list. This same behavior is seen in Hitler and Stalin.

Trump sees enemies everywhere—the mainstream media, Democrats, globalists, the deep state, immigrants, Muslims, and in every critic. Narcissists lose touch with reality and feel there is always a powerful enemy that must be vanquished. Some can become dangerously psychotic in bending reality so that they feel special in opposing this enemy, as if fated or destined by God to save a country or the entire world.

Malignant narcissists are seven times more likely to be men and have biological relatives with antisocial personality disorders. They are formed in an environment where nurture is lacking and they are told to be tough, tolerate pain, show no emotion, and learn to manipulate others. Parental figures are cold and spiteful, but over-admiring of their children’s talents and charms.

This is how Trump was raised. He views the world in a binary zero-sum game of domination and submission, winners and losers, the creator of fear or the one who succumbs to it. There can be no vulnerability or self reflection, only competition and winning.

4 – America, A Country Wired for Manipulation

Trump racked up a trillion dollar federal deficit, cheated on his wife with a porn star and bought her silence, endlessly lied, and insulted and denigrated McCain—all of which was completely unacceptable to the Republican Party before Trump. What happened? How did Trump take over the Republican Party? How did he get ordinary citizens and politicians to fall in line and support a man who did things they despised? How did they lose their moral compass, override their conscience, and throw good judgment and common sense out the window?

We are hardwired as social creatures to agree with others, even if it means doubting our own perceptions. When in doubt, we conform to the tribe, and there find security and safety. We trust authority figures and do what they say, even if our conscience says we’re doing something wrong. When given power and authority, otherwise good people can become sadistic in a short amount of time. We are not primarily rational, but hardwired to adapt, conform, and follow, as this promotes survival.

Cognitive dissonance is the attempt to minimize the conflict between belief and reality—to rationalize for congruency. Trump said we were going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, then later said he never said they would write a check, but are paying through the USMCA trade agreement. This was good enough for his followers. Though Trump lies daily and doesn’t keep his promises, somehow his supporters repeat that he tells it like it is and gets the job done. This is done by selective attention and ignoring what doesn’t fit.

Trump is a master of confusion—saying things, then saying he never said them, then saying them again in another context. Sometimes he says two different things at once, which is called crazy-making. Cults use double binds—the message that you’re screwed if you do and screwed if you don’t: “You are free to go, but you’ll regret it and never make it without us.” “You can leave, but no one will ever love you like we do.”

Once people are broken down and confused, they are changed by confident repetition and indoctrination. They are immersed in a subculture or echo chamber, absorbing materials, attending group meetings, and becoming convinced through programming rather than actual learning that their beliefs are true. They absorb and emulate. They are praised and rewarded by the group for standing their ground and repeating the narrative. They denigrate their old, blind ways and want to “rescue” you and put you through this indoctrination process as well. The new group is their new family, and the new identity is their new calling. Their old self is gone and the new cult-self has emerged.

Right wing media, like Rush Limbaugh and those who emulate him, speak to the gut, not the mind. Fox News is a propaganda machine meant to make viewers feel patriotic and push their views with passion and confidence, but offer little to no evidence supporting their narratives. They play on tribal identities and ratchet up fear and hatred of outgroups—immigrants, Democrats, ethnic minorities, Muslims. Their ratings are increased by more fear, panic, disgust, anger, and outrage coming from their pundits, and their viewers emulate this.

5 – The Persuasiveness of Trump

Trump is a master of persuasion, exaggeration, hyperbole, speaking to emotions, and capturing his audience by playing to the camera—bypassing reason and facts completely. Persuasion and influence have little to do with honesty or truth. It’s the ability to capture and play to people’s imagination. Trump makes his followers feel heard and worthy, complimenting them, gaining their loyalty and donations. He makes them true believers. MAGA hats then become a symbol of identity. This is the conman playbook.

Trump reframes, diverts attention, tells stories that create vivid narratives and conspiracies, and uses repetitive phrases and slogans that trigger emotions. Trump bombards listeners with lies and exaggerations so as to overwhelm them, then gaslights them by saying he never said it.

Evangelical Christians, particularly in the New Apostolic Reformation, tirelessly encouraged their congregations to see Trump as God’s gift to America; a supernaturally anointed candidate who is confirmed through prophecy to take on the left, which is supernaturally controlled by Satan. Trump is an answer to prayer, and electing him is doing spiritual warfare to save America from the satanic left and God’s judgment. For conspiracy theorists, Trump as an outsider is keeping the New World Order at bay. Believers, influenced by this rhetoric, report a stream of dreams, visions, and prophecies showing that Trump is on their side and is a gift from God. They encourage one another, saying a vote for Trump is a vote for God and a vote for Hillary is a vote for Satan. Having anointed Trump and believing him to be doing God’s agenda, all criticism is reserved for Trump’s enemies while he is supported uncritically.

Trump uses pattern disruption, goes off script, interrupts, and is bold. He uses politically incorrect words to show he isn’t a politician, but an outsider. He tweets all hours of the night. His followers love him for being a disruptive troublemaker at the expense of honesty, trustworthiness, and respect. The worse he behaves, the more his base likes it and behaves like him. They encourage one another to behave this way. Cults depend on members emulating and modeling themselves after their leaders.

Trump is a master at projection, spreading the birther hoax, then saying Hillary Clinton invented it in 2008. This is a hallmark of malignant narcissism. When called a misogynist, he said no one loves women more than he does and that no one in politics has been more abusive to women than Bill and Hillary Clinton. Projection and deflection save the ego of the narcissist. There is no personal responsibility or self-reflection.

Fear and hatred are powerful tools used to unite people against a common enemy. Whether it’s the media or immigrants or Muslims, Trump creates bogeymen and riles up hostilities against them in devotion to himself, who alone can fix everything.

He loves to repeat himself, brag about how smart he is, and brag about winning.  He uses social proof, saying everyone likes him and thinks he’s the best. If everyone else likes him, so should you.

6 – Manipulation of the Media

In the 1920s a Roman Catholic priest named Father Charles Coughlin used the radio to critique Roosevelt. On his show, he spread anti-Semitism and voiced support for the fascist policies of Hitler and Mussolini. His views resonated with many Americans. He was forced off the air in 1939 with an audience of 30 million people. He alarmed a watchdog group called the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. They commissioned a book called The Fine Art of Propaganda: A Study of Father Coughlin’s Speeches which outlines seven of his techniques, all of which have been used by Trump:

1)      Name-calling. Degrading, and insulting all who don’t agree with you.

2)      Glittering generalities. Associating positive virtues with those you agree with you.

3)      Transfer. Associating an admired, respected, or revered person, institution, or idea with another to make the latter more attractive, or associating a disrespected, disgraced, ridiculed, or scorned person, institution, or idea with another to make it look less attractive.

4)      Testimonial. Having a respected person support and endorse what you do.

5)      Plain folks. Convincing supporters you’re a plain folk like them with the same concerns and grievances they have.

6)      Card stacking. Selectively citing facts and falsehoods and framing data to make what you support look better than it is and what you oppose look worse than it is.

7)      Bandwagon. Claiming everyone agrees with you and your policies, so you should jump onboard too.

Rush Limbaugh is a modern-day Charles Coughlin. He became the model for many conservative media imitators—Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, etc. Limbaugh claimed that the mainstream media was biased and that his right wing views were unbiased. With this technique, you could simply dismiss all criticism of conservative ideas as biased. They use confusion, distrust, fear, conspiracy, exaggeration, and us-versus-them black and white thinking to cultivate their audiences.

The massive Trinity Broadcasting Network does the same for millions of Christian conservatives, where self-proclaimed prophets give God’s endorsement to Trump and conservative policies and demonize all who oppose him, calling them satanic.

Fox News took what Rush Limbaugh did on radio and moved it to TV. Its founder, Roger Ailes, knew that television helped win elections. He partnered with Rupert Murdoch and Fox News became a propaganda outlet to help conservatives win elections.

In Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control, Kathleen Taylor outlines the tactics conservative media and Fox News use to indoctrinate their viewers: lying and skewing, sowing confusion and doubt, blaming and dividing, branding and labeling, using language and framing, fearmongering, and bullying and shaming.

More than anything else, conservative media uses fear to create phantom menaces, like the proposed “terror mosque” in New York. To watch Fox News daily is to be bombarded with anger, bombast, paranoia, and white resentment.

According to Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics, numerous media studies show that right wing media is more likely to promote misinformation, lies, conspiracies, and half-truths unrivaled by the mainstream media.

Alex Jones is a dangerous hate-filled conspiracy peddler, yet Trump appeared on his show and praised him as his political operative Roger Stone cultivated Jones’ audience to vote for Trump. Stone was with Jones the night Trump was elected. Steve Bannon, who joined Trump’s team, moved Breitbart far right with conspiracies and anti-immigration fear mongering, pushing for a wall to be built.

Studies in media bias show that much of it has to do with the bottom line—giving their viewers what they want to hear to make billions in profits from advertising. There is far more money in conservative bias than liberal bias. Scripts are handed down from corporate overloads to maximize profits. This is not journalism.

Fox News merged with the White House and became a megaphone for Donald Trump. This is deflected with projection—endless complains about the fake, divisive, and biased mainstream media.

7 – The Influencers

As Trump ran for president, he questioned the legitimacy of the government and said if he lost the election he might not accept the results. This strategy was developed by Paul Weyrich and William S. Lind in The New Conservatism.

The Christian right, white supremacists, alt-right groups, libertarian Ayn Rand devotees, and the Russian government have all worked together to weaken, divide, disrupt, and deligitimize the American government and install their own version of reality. They provided Trump his messaging and a ready-made audience.

Despite all of the evidence of Russian interference gathered by the FBI, Trump called the probe a disaster, a hoax, a witch hunt, and a disgrace. He described the Muller investigation as a personal attack. Trump has a history of undermining American institutions and defending Russia and Putin, complimenting his strength as a leader and minimizing his human rights abuses. Putin is Trump’s vision of a true leader. Like Trump, he is a malignant narcissist.

All cult leaders lie about their past—embellish, distort, exaggerate, inflate, and create mythology to enlarge themselves in the eyes of their followers. When it comes to the Christian right, no other group has so shamelessly appropriated, reworked, and manipulated Trump’s tale, using their own loaded language and imagery for their own purposes. For them, Trump was chosen by God to lead America and turn it back into a Christian nation; an anointed Sampson or King Cyrus. Once imbued with anointing, millions of conservative Christians pledge him their loyalty, devotion, and obedience. To oppose him is to oppose God.

Some, believing Trump had become a born again Christian and is now “one of them,” treat him with special privileges, like not holding his past against him since God has forgiven him, being patient with his present flaws, and encouraging him rather than judging him. When reminded that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are professed Christians, they don’t get the same treatment. Their sins are held against them and they are viewed as liars, opportunists, and imposters—demons and antichrists. Trump, however, they “know in their spirit” or because God spoke to them personally, is sincere.

The Christian right is a large network of many different groups with many different agendas, many of them wanting a Christian America under the euphemism of “religious freedom.” For these groups, Trump is the way of attaining a nation that privileges their own brand of Christianity and empowers them. They use Trump for power just as he uses them for the same.

Hassen covers groups like the Family, the New Apostolic Reformation, Ralph Drollinger and Capitol Ministries, Opus Dei and the Catholic Right and their visions of theocracy, political involvement and power, and why they support Trump. The evangelical right wants to “take back America for God” using conservative moral principles and Judeo-Christian values while the evangelical left views Trump as a danger, wanting to “take back America for God” by opposing the right wing culture war with more liberal and inclusive values they believe better reflect the Christian message. This is the theme of Ron Sider’s The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump: 30 Evangelical Christians on Justice, Truth, and Moral Integrity.

Hassen also looks into the alt-right white supremacy groups who have cozied up to Trump and why they felt so emboldened and empowered by Trump’s rhetoric.

Libertarians like Trump because of his emphasis on competing and winning while delegitimizing government.

QAnon and the alt-right helped Trump with endless parade of conspiracies about global elites, the deep state, and satanic pedophiles in the Democratic Party and running the government.

8 – Trump’s Followers

At Trump rallies, there are always villains, and he takes them down with boasts and insults, making his followers feel strong and heroic. As terrible as Trump is, what accounts for his supporters’ excitement, adoration, and total commitment to him?

Trump has kept his base the same way he attracted them—by drawing upon his grandiosity, exaggeration, and ability to manipulate and lie, distracting, overloading, exploiting fear, and using simplistic us-versus-them, good and evil narratives.

To win the working class, Trump cast himself as an outsider and underdog who understood the working class plight and promised to drain the swamp of elites from Washington. He learned to speak their language and mirror their frustrations.

9 – How to Undo Mind Control

How do you know you are under mind control?

1)      Reality test. Take time away from everything that reinforced your current viewpoint—people, places, and media.

2)      Educate yourself. Learn all you can about social psychology and mind control techniques.

3)      Listen to critics and former believers. Read sources and expose yourself to media that you disagree with. Seek out and respect the work of highly credentialed professionals. Read critics. Ask for good evidence beyond slogans, especially for extraordinary claims. Leave your echo chamber.

4)      Self-reflect. Ask how you came into the belief system, who influenced you, what media you consumed, and what captivated you.

5)      Ask questions. Why do you choose to trust a person who lies multiple times a day and has a history of false and exaggerated claims and scandals? Why do you defend him and make excuses for his bad behavior? What has Trump done to earn this kind of loyalty from you?

Political opponents view one another as brainwashed and evil. It isn’t helpful to call someone brainwashed, evil, stupid, or cultic, because they only double down and become defensive. Instead, ask questions, build genuine rapport and trust, genuinely care, and lead them to realize for themselves that they are being had by a con man.

10 – The Future

To avoid another Trump phenomenon, Hassan addresses checks on the president’s mental health, rethinking legal protections for destructive propaganda on social media, exposing discrimination based on “religious freedom,” more awareness of how people become propagandized and lose their identities, better mental health awareness, fact checking the media, supporting journalistic integrity, building stronger social bonds, and teaching children that the behavior they are now seeing now in Trump’s presidency is not the norm.

Concerned for the future, Hassan notes: “Cult leaders do not relinquish power. If Trump runs again and is not reelected in 2020, he might claim that the election was rigged. Who knows what he might call on his followers to do in that case?” (233)

Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen said he and Trump devised the strategy of saying the election was rigged had Trump lost the 2016 election. Though Trump lost the popular vote but won by Electoral College, he claims he won the popular vote by a landslide if we don’t count the millions of illegal votes for Hillary, though offering no evidence of voter fraud. Cohen ends his book Disloyal saying: “Please remember what I testified to Congress, the second time: There is a serious danger that Donald Trump will not leave office easily, and there is a real chance of not having a peaceful transition.”

Donald Trump’s niece Mary in an article called Mary Trump on the end of Uncle Donald: all he has now is breaking things wrote: “This is what Donald’s going to do: he’s not going to concede, although who cares. What’s worse is he’s not going to engage in the normal activities that guarantee a peaceful transition. All he’s got now is breaking stuff, and he’s going to do that with a vengeance. . . . He’ll be having meltdowns upon meltdowns right now. . . . I worry about what Donald’s going to do in that time to lash out. He will go as far as he can to delegitimize the new administration, then he’ll pass pardons that will demoralize us, and sign a flurry of executive orders.” She predicted that Trump will run in 2024 just to save face and distract himself from the fact that he will probably go to prison.

As predicted, there was not a peaceful transfer of power. Instead, Trump claimed that the election was rigged and stolen by voter fraud. Biden was not the legitimate president. Trump incited his supporters to go to the Capitol and fight like hell or we won’t have a country anymore. Rioters overwhelmed police and broke into the Capitol, leading to multiple deaths and injuries. Trump condemned the violence, but praised the protestors, calling them patriots and heroes whose anger was justified. Trump’s social media accounts were banned for rhetoric used to incite violence. Predictably, Trump sued these social media companies, complaining of leftist censorship.

When confronted, Trump’s followers created further conspiracies that the riots were orchestrated by the FBI, that it was staged with actors, that it was Antifa posing as Trump supporters, that those causing harm were a few bad apples and not true Trump supporters, and that it was the fault of mainstream media, not Trump’s rhetoric. Their loyalty to Trump the truth teller and his enemies as liars remained in cultic form.

When compared to Biden, Trump supporting friends and family didn’t flinch in calling Biden weak, demented, unfit, a puppet, a liar, a racist, a war hawk, murderer, rapist, and pedophile. More than one said his election was helped by Satan or the Antichirst to help destroy America but handing it over to communist China because we are in the end times. Trump was defended as the greatest president we ever had, once again in true cultic form.

Christian prophets who believed God gave us Trump the first time around predicted that Trump would beat Biden by a landslide and continue God's agenda through him for America. When their prophecy failed, few apologized. Most claimed their prophecy was accurate: Trump did win by a landslide, but the election was stolen. Spiritual Warfare is now needed to save our anointed hero from the demonic left, as Trump is in a showdown with Satan himself. Why? Because Trump might be the most important figure in history next to Jesus. Again, true to cultic form.

As I type in July of 2021, Trump continues to spread his election fraud hoax in speeches with the help of Newsmax and pundits like Tucker Carlson at Fox News, reportedly telling associates he believes he will be reinstated in August after voter fraud is exposed (a current poll showing 30% of Republicans believe this will happen), and that he has decided to run again for president in 2024 (unofficially announced thus far).

As Mary Trump predicted, the Trump Organization has been indicted and is under criminal investigation for tax fraud, with Trump possibly facing prison time. This, Trump and his followers note, is nothing more than a political witch hunt. Tthe Republican Party is trying to decide whether their political careers depend on loyalty to Trump or whether they can distance themselves from him and move the party forward. So far, Trump is by far the frontrunner in Republican support for nomination in 2024, meaning we will be seeing and hearing a lot more for Trump in the years to come.