WHAT THEY’RE SAYING--The question has been asked of the trump followers: “With so much winning, why are all of you still so filled with anger and hate?” The answer to this doesn’t require a psychology degree. The fact is that since 2015, trump has stirred the pot of hate and anger and his followers revel in it. This is their existence, and to keep them placated, he has to continue to find new enemies for them to chant against.
In other words, they thrive in a state of ecstasy on the emotions of hate.
Numerous articles from all sides of the aisles have been written about this process, and the comparisons of these hate-fests to the many fascist dictatorship regimes of the past. The NY Times stated:
“Both he and his crowds work from a template. He rants and spins hate-filled tirades; they revel in the transgressive atmosphere. The chants are their mutual release. Sometimes he basks in them.
To watch raucous crowds of (mostly) white Americans unite in frenzied hatred of a black woman — to watch them cast her as a cancer on the body politic and a threat to a racialized social order — is to see the worst of our past play out in modern form.”
Every cult follows pretty much the same guidelines for appeal. They prey on the weak-minded, vulnerable, those that feel as if they are losers, some that refuse any kind of change, those that are alone or lacking love in their life, and a kind of religious zeal that lets them feel as if they belong to something. In the case of trump and his supporters, it is the “us versus them” racism and bigotry that binds them together. (Read the rest.)
-cw
