Looked up NatSocToday on Substack, and they do have the swastika as a banner; they don't even hide or be subtle about it. Full on nazi, in plain sight.
I'm not caught up on fringe and irrelevant political groups, but I think Trump has a base completely different than a pre-2016 republican would align with.
Before you would have: Lifelong Red Team Republican(40%), non ideological Opportunists (30%), Ideological Crazies (30%)
Today you have: Lifelong Red Team Republican(40%), non ideological Opportunists (10%), Ideological Crazies For Trump (50%)
The GOP lost that upper-middle class(opportunists) and they lost ideological believers(pre 2016 crazies). Given how fast it was lost, I expect it to come back in some manner, but Trumpism is a cult of personality rather than ideology.
I’m not even really sure it’s a cult of personality per se. It seems more like yet another form of mental illness that affects so many Americans in different ways, where they live delusional, parasocial, vicarious lives based on a fantastical world that they’ve put in place of reality they rejected. It’s really no different than all the people in America today who will expend immense amounts of money and resources on caring about “my team” in the performance called the Super Bowl. “My team” this and “my team” that, they say as they cheer and lament “my team” that they don’t have any actual connection to in any form other than having been manipulated and groomed all their life into being in that form of cult.
Is not really limited to Trump at all, even though the consequential and public nature of Trump takes everyone’s attention … ironically, with its opponents only feeding that loop in how they oppose it.
It’s a core characteristic of narcissism people rarely understand. Narcissism (individual or system) utterly depends on conflict for its “narcissistic supply”. When you “oppose it”, you are in fact only fueling that which you believe you are opposing. It’s a paradox that people have an impossible time understanding, especially all the people who see “Nazis” everywhere, while openly and violently “protesting” in this supposed “Nazi” regime they’re opposing. Narcissistic control needs that for its manipulation. That is precisely the kind of fuel narcissists love and need and relish with glee as you oppose them, because it means they have you exactly where they want you, emotional and easily manipulated and controlled.
You think the Super Bowl would happen if people stopped living the delusion of “my team” conflict with “not my team”? When you see that stadium full of people, realize that every single one of those thousands of people, will have spent on avg. ~$15,000 per person. It takes manipulation into a state of mental illness to do that. No different than Trump supporters or Nazi fighters or all the other kind of fantasy LARPing that is so pervasive in America, living a life of delusion created for them because it is profitable and makes people easily manipulated.
PlatoIsADisease|21 days ago
Before you would have: Lifelong Red Team Republican(40%), non ideological Opportunists (30%), Ideological Crazies (30%)
Today you have: Lifelong Red Team Republican(40%), non ideological Opportunists (10%), Ideological Crazies For Trump (50%)
The GOP lost that upper-middle class(opportunists) and they lost ideological believers(pre 2016 crazies). Given how fast it was lost, I expect it to come back in some manner, but Trumpism is a cult of personality rather than ideology.
roysting|21 days ago
Is not really limited to Trump at all, even though the consequential and public nature of Trump takes everyone’s attention … ironically, with its opponents only feeding that loop in how they oppose it.
It’s a core characteristic of narcissism people rarely understand. Narcissism (individual or system) utterly depends on conflict for its “narcissistic supply”. When you “oppose it”, you are in fact only fueling that which you believe you are opposing. It’s a paradox that people have an impossible time understanding, especially all the people who see “Nazis” everywhere, while openly and violently “protesting” in this supposed “Nazi” regime they’re opposing. Narcissistic control needs that for its manipulation. That is precisely the kind of fuel narcissists love and need and relish with glee as you oppose them, because it means they have you exactly where they want you, emotional and easily manipulated and controlled.
You think the Super Bowl would happen if people stopped living the delusion of “my team” conflict with “not my team”? When you see that stadium full of people, realize that every single one of those thousands of people, will have spent on avg. ~$15,000 per person. It takes manipulation into a state of mental illness to do that. No different than Trump supporters or Nazi fighters or all the other kind of fantasy LARPing that is so pervasive in America, living a life of delusion created for them because it is profitable and makes people easily manipulated.