THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND THE TRUMP CULT
Rick Shenkman is the publisher of the History News Network and the author of Political Animals: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics (Basic Books, January 2016), from which this article is adapted. You can follow him on Twitter. He blogs at stoneagebrain.
A psychological mechanism inclines us toward consistency, especially when our beliefs and behavior are in conflict. While we often hold contradictory views, obvious contradictions make us feel uncomfortable. By nature we aren’t Walt Whitmans. “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes,” Whitman says in his poem “Song of Myself.” But that’s not how the brain operates. The human brain does not like cognitive dissonance—as social psychologist Leon Festinger dubbed the phenomenon in the 1950s. Rather than live with contradiction, we figure out a way to reduce it. How far are we willing to go to do this? Pretty far.In his landmark study of cognitive dissonance, When Prophecy Fails, Festinger tells the remarkable story of a Chicago housewife turned mystic who became convinced that the world was coming to an end. A great flood, she predicted, would envelop the globe, ending humanity. She learned this, she claimed, via a message from another planet. All but she and her followers would be lost, she said. They would be saved after being flown in a flying saucer to another planet, Clarion. In anticipation of the end of the world her followers sold their belongings: houses, furniture—they sold it all. Then the date of apocalypse arrived.
It was December 21, 1954. She and her followers dutifully gathered to await their deliverance from the hell that earth was about to become. They expected it to happen as the clock struck midnight. But nothing happened. Perhaps God wasn’t on Central Standard Time. So they waited. Minutes passed, then hours. Still nothing. But this did not shake their belief in the prophecy. Once they realized that no flying saucer was whisking them away and that no great flood was coming, they concluded that they had saved the world from destruction. Their example of faith had so moved God that he had decided to spare humanity. They saved us all.
It is easy for us, from our vantage point, to think of these folks as ridiculous believers in magical thinking. But what they fell victim to was a form of thinking to which we are all highly susceptible. We all want to believe what we believe is true. That’s the Perseverance Bias in action. Once we settle on a view of the world, we are inclined to persist in it. If forced to confront inconvenient facts—as the Chicago cultists were forced when life on earth didn’t come to an end—we are capable of going to great lengths to explain them away. That’s because we absolutely hate cognitive dissonance.
Whether something in our culture and history leads Americans to succumb to magical thinking more than people in other countries, as Edward Simon claims in another article on HNN, it’s characteristic of humans in some form all around the world. That in certain times and under certain circumstances more people fall for it is undeniable. It is beyond certain that we are in one such period now.
I am a Trump supporter and voter, not a cultist. I became a Trump supporter because, like him, I believe that we had let America slide way too far down into the Globalist’s dream. He did not tell me about the spread of the U.N.’s Agenda 21 Sustained Development, I saw it myself. I already believed that Global Warming was a hoax being perpetrated to generate taxes to give to the rest of the world and control our energy choices. I was not at all happy with Obama’s “Fundamental Changes” being one of that that believed in the Bible and the 2nd Amendment.
In my 75 years as an American Trump is the first politician that actually went to work keeping the promises, he made while running for office. If it makes you feel better to call me a cultist go right ahead, you are still going to be stuck with Trump for another six and a half years.
When all of Obama’s supporters were calling him the Messiah did you put them in the category of cultists?
Trump and accomplished more of what he said he would do as President in my lifetime.
- Of course, a cult is built around personality, as Christian cult is build around legendary personality of Jesus Christ… Take away, Jesus Christ story and Christian faith would not exist as an independent religion; it would remain Judaism, no more no less.
Thus, Christian faith, in general, is a Cult.
Secondly, you claim: “Jim Jones was a Communist, not a Christian. It’s half crude distortion, half a lie.
From Wikipedia:
“James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American religious cult leader who initiated and was responsible for a mass suicide and mass murder in Jonestown, Guyana. He considered Jesus Christ as being in compliance with an overarching belief in socialism as the correct social order.[1][2] Jones was ordained as a Disciples of Christ pastor, and he achieved notoriety as the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple cult.”
That why U’re the one who is sick and deranged liar, like cultivated by the ones like yourself US president…
From reading this response I must confess that you are so locked into your POV that any time I spent correcting your distortion would be a wasted effort so I will leave it at that. Think of us Trump supporters as you will, but you will, nevertheless, have Trump to deal with for another six and a half years, and his V.P. after that, so get used to crying you have a long cry ahead of you.
I’m not happy with my intellectual and factual victory over U, ‘course I have beaten to the ground many dishonest ideologues that way on HNN site and beyond, so this a casual event to me…
You have no victory over me other in your mind, and further comments will be to yourself as I will no longer respond. Enjoy your delusion, and try and explain to yourself just why Trump will win another term if you are so right.
First, any unbiased witness of our exchange will tell U that I did win by rebutting your distortions and lies with undeniable facts and iron-clad logic, and not just because you believe in supernatural creatures and things, while purporting to judge on purely earthly matters.
Second, I never suggested that Trump will or won’t win another term, the issue that has little, if anything, to do with our argument.
BTW, your repeated attempts to switch our debate to completely different issue is one more indication that U lost the initial argument.
Bye, loser.
Be that as it may, Trump will still win a second term regardless of if you think I am a looser or not
Illiteracy is also a trait of Trump cultists.
Spoken like a true cult member. You are as deranged as Trump is, you deserve each other.
Yep, a real deplorable, and America does deserve Trump after 8 years of Obama running it to the ground for the last 8 years. You are just going to have to grit your teeth and bare Trump’s 8 years like I did Obama’s.
“8 Years of Obama running it to the ground”? What sort of alternate fantasy world do you live in, Rexx?Obama rescued this nation from the greatest financial disaster since the Great Depression and gave us 8 years of financial prosperity and excellent leadership. He was a moderate centrist who left the nation far better at the end of his term. I guess by “running it to the ground” you must mean “having a black man as president”, right?Oh and your Cheeto Fuhrer couldn’t even win the popular vote and only took the electoral college by a freak accident, a plague of racism, hate, & lies, and Russian interference. He is the most hated president in history and will probably be forced to resign when his full crimes are uncovered.But, hey, you can still worship at the feet of your “Supreme Leader”, grovel before the reality show con-man as he lies to you every single day. Like I said, you deserve Trump, fortunately the rest of the nation does not.
Aside from your childish labels (Cheeto Fuhrer, is both inane and a mixed metaphor) the statement that Trump was elected even though he couldn’t “win the popular vote and only took the Electoral College” is foolish and disingenuous; it’s like saying that a baseball team won the game even though the opposing team had more hits. If you don’t understand how baseball works (or Presidential elections for that matter), ask someone.
Aw, I am sorry you don’t understand metaphors or the electoral college. The electoral college is a dinosaur that cannot even due the job it was intended to, which was to stop irresponsible and unqualified people from becoming president (read The Federalist #68). Instead, it is now a tool that undermines the will of the people. And no, the proper metaphor would be Trump winning the ball game because he was ahead more innings, despite the fact that he scored less runs than his opponent. Do yourself a favor, stop commenting on things you know nothing about!
The reality is that the states decide who will be president, it has always been that way. Also, I like my baseball metaphor better than yours, it’s more apropos. Why would you think that he was ahead more innings, what does that even mean? Hits lead to runs, but are pointless unless you score. Trump scored more runs, he won more states, that is the way the game is played. Your rationale in quoting Federalist 68 is pedantic, it has nothing to do with how the system operates. You should take your own advice, trying to discredit another opinion as ignorant is a fool’s gambit.
Yep, “the greatest financial disaster since the Great Depression” brought on by the Democrats Community Reinvestment Act that forced banks to sell subprime mortgages Which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bought and sliced them with prim mortgages and sold them through out the world as a guaranteed revenue stream backed by the US Government. Then when the subprime mortgages holders started defaulting on loans that they never should have been given the whole house of cards fell down into the Great Recession.His “8 years of financial prosperity” was funded by 6 trillion dollars of deficit spending, and one Quantitative easement after another.Go back to your dream world, you’ll be much happier there. Obama’s new normal GDP growth rate of 2% will be blown to hell soon as Trumps GDP passes 4%.Frometoday press:Economic growth for second quarter is on track to double 2017’s full-year paceThe Atlanta Fed is forecasting 4.6 percent GDP growth for the second quarter.
If the outlook is correct, that would be exactly double the full-year 2017 rate and well ahead of the 3.1 percent increase for the same period a year ago.President Donald Trump while campaigning pledged growth that would rise as high as 6 percent.
Oh my god, you have to be about the most misinformed person I have ever seen. You are walking talking proof of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Look, buddy, turn off the fox news, it is rotting your brain.
Turning off Fox News won’t help a person who believes some man was walking on water and rose from the dead to… nowhere.
“Dunning-Kruger Effect”, no that is you projecting your disorder upon people you disagree with. But your disillusion does demonstrate a strong example of the Mandela Effect.
Sorry, done with you, I don’t talk to mentally ill cultists. I live in the real world, not your right wing fantasyland devoid of facts and reality. Continue to fall to your knees and grovel to your reality show con-man, you deserve him.
Yep, we deserve him, and you got him too. And I am so happy for you.
Sorry, don’t talk to insane cult members!
That’s good, snuggle up with your like-minded POV bubble and be absolutely flabbergasted again when Trump wins by an even bigger landslide for his next term. In the meanwhile watch your Blue Wave peter out into a Red Tide.
Sorry, don’t talk to insane evil cult members!
It obvious that you do not, as you keep talking to me.
Brown, still spewing your hate on the internet? Time to sit down Brown.
As per your statement, “Trump and accomplished more of what he said he would do as President in my lifetime.” Since the only way to make this statement intelligently would be to compile a list of all of his promises and compare that against his accomplishments, then do that same for the other 10 or so Presidents of your lifetime, I would be very eager to see your analysis. Would you be so kind as to forward?That is there for even the most causal observer to see, if you are to blind to see it I will gladly leave you in your ignorance. As a horse trainer I know full well that I can take a horse to water but cannot make it drink. I do not have to justify my observations, I just report them as I see it. Take it or leave it. You will be putting up with Trump for another 6 1/2 years.There is nothing I could say to change your mind so why should I take the time?
My dear sir, I am under no obligation to prove anything to you, that I see it and understand it as I do is plenty good enough for me. I assert equivalently that Trump will win another term for the reasons I have asserted. I am not the only person who see Trump as a promise keeper, promise made, promise kept is a common refrain in reports of what he has done and is doing.Time will tell that tale, and when it is told I am sure that you will be very sad.By the way, it was Daniel J. Boorstin who coined “The greatest enemy of knowledge isn’t ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” not Stephen Hawking, did he give credit when he quoted him? As to your “This isn’t about my beliefs or even your beliefs,,,”, I beg to differ, we act upon what we believe, it is our beliefs that guide up in the path that we walk both in the world and in our philosophies.
You seem to be extremely confused about the point I’m making which is unfortunate because it is exceedingly simple:If you care about intellectual integrity and intelligent debate, then you won’t make wild, unsubstantiated claims, when the outcome you assert is actually falsifiable. Again, the fact that others agree with you has no relevance to whether or not what you stated is true.On the quote issue, again you are incorrect. Boorstin’s quote was : “The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.” I corresponded with Hawking’s assistant at Cambridge few years before his passing to confirm the quote which he did directly from Dr. Hawking. You need better sources.People have different ways of looking at the world, no argument. At the same time, there is a big difference between facts, ideas, false statements and irresponsible speculation. The problem I’ve observed with dogmatists and Trumpists is that they don’t understand the distinction between those different concepts.“Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.” Francis Bacon.
1- Daniel J. Boorstin quotes (showing 1-30 of 68)“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
― Daniel J. Boorstintags: ignorance, knowledge, misattributed-stephen-hawking 2735 likes Like
“No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.”
― Daniel J. Boorstin45 likes Like
“A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you.”
― Daniel J. Boorstin2- You do not get it, I don’r care what you think of me or any other “Trumpists”. We will put him in office for another term, and there is nothing you can do about it.“…a big difference between facts, ideas, false statements and irresponsible speculation.” I have not uttered a false statement, I have offered my opinion, and my own personal observations, i.e. Trump has delivered on more promises than any other president in my lifetime. And there is nothing irresponsible about speculation regarding the midterm elections and the 2020 Presidential election.Now as to facts, they are a different kettle of fish. As Nietzsche said, “There are no facts, only interpretations” just as the interpretation of a book is up to the reader, so too is the interpretation of our world is up to the person(s) observing the facts. Facts do not explain themselves, they must be explained by an observer. Facts can be explained to tell many different stories, as any courtroom drama will point out. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering, another in Computer Information Systems, these required I pass courses in physics up to and including wave theory. I also earned an MBA with an emphasis on management which means, among other things, a lot of studying of statistics and forecasting. I have well demonstrated my ability to understand the distinction between those different concepts you point to. This is the problem all you Trump haters have, you vastly underestimate his supporters. I am a Marine active in the Marine Corps League for the last 30 years. You would be hard put to find a Veteran that thinks the way you do, out of the hundreds I currently know only two that look at Trump the way you do.We are not going to come to a meeting of the mind, you will not convince single Trumpists to change who they will vote for, you are just going to have to grit your teeth and bear it. I am retired some time back and now train horses for a living. I am a Marine active in the Marine Corps League for the last 30 years.This is me in the middle. Bty, those two Marines beside me see Trump the say way I do
