The defining psychological trait of the MAGA Cult is a total lack of empathy for anybody but the Self and that tiny circle who are extensions of the Self. All other suffering is non-existent, contemptible, funny, and/or guilt manipulation. The poorly educated in the MAGA cult, now suffering from the cruelties and neglect Trump promised to inflict on those they hate may still be ignorant, dumb, and malignant, but they also can figure out that they are hurting and he is the one hurting them. So some are turning on him. It’s not close to full repentance since they signal zero regret for the people they hurt and take no discernible responsibility for creating the monster who is 100% their responsibility. But it’s still a start. The Prodigal Son’s repentance was of equally low quality:
‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.” (Lk 15:17–19)
“Can I come back? I’m hungry.” is not the noblest apology from somebody who treated Dad like he was dead and then blew his wad on whores and cocaine. But the Father is enormously gracious on the flimsiest provocation. So our first instinct should be to hope ex-MAGA grow in grace and a prayer that we may not be merciless pricks like the Older Brother.
At the same time, prudence demands that the Resistance not be fools. Trump is an enzyme that activated something already there in the MAGA base, not an author creating something that wasn’t. This is why every Trump supporter will, sooner or later, have to come to grips with the words, “Through my own most grievous fault” instead of try to lie to the millions of people who warned him ten years ago about who Trump was. Con men don’t succeed by lying to you. They succeed by getting you to willingly lie to yourself and everybody around you. Till ex-MAGA take responsibility for embracing the Lie, they have not fully repented and freed themselves from the Lie and are still just blame-shifting, which is exactly what Trump gave you moral permission to do.
So if you are finally turning against Trump, void the rest of the shit you are full of and admit that you willingly embraced lies because you are a sinner. God will forgive you. He has forgiven billions of lies. But you have to bring your willing complicity out into the light for the light to kill it. If you are Catholic, take it to confession and then move on to acting to repair the damage you’ve done. Speak the truth about the evil you have helped commit and make it easier for your fellow accomplices to confess and repent their evil. Take responsibility. It’s not too late.
I say this because I am already seeing a significant attempt by ex-MAGA, led by grifters like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson to embrace the inviting lie that the real culprits in the story of Trump are not the grifters, sadists, racists, liars, dolts in his base who supported him come hell or high water for ten years through their fault, through their fault, through their own most grievous fault. Nosirree! The emerging narrative is that it’s all the fault of the Joooooooos.
Understand. I am not making excuses for the criminal Netanyahu regime. Personally, I think he and thugs like Ben-Gvir belong in the Hague right next to Trump. But ex-MAGA and the grifting predators like Owens and Tucker and not really arguing that. They are a) minimizing Trump’s (and their own) guilt by telling the ancient lie that the Joooos are “controlling the world” when in fact the US has been since WWII the mightiest military power on the face of the earth and is not some helpless puppet on Jewish strings and b) they are refusing to draw any distinction between the corrupt government of the secular nation-state of Israel and the Jewish people, most of whom do not live in Israel and large numbers of whom are critical of both Netanyahu and of Trump. In short, what grifters like Carlson and Owens are doing is making a play for power and influence in Trump’s fraying base and they are doing it by telling the people who are, like themselves, 100% guilty for the rise of Trump that it is not their fault at all, that the Jooos–en masse–are the real culprits and that MAGA are the Real Victims[TM].
All such bullshit is simply a continuation of the scapegoating Trump taught the Cult to indulge. It is the opposite of repentance and it will cut no ice with Jesus on That Day,
Bottom line:
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4 Responses
Trump is a very successful con artist. Good con artists are able to convince their mark to want to be scammed. The mark convinces himself that he is smart, special, etc. because he goes along with the con. Even when confronted with evidence of them being scammed, they refuse to believe it, because they have invested so much into the con artist. Many of Bernie Madoff’s victims refused to believe he was scamming them,even after he was arrested.
There are cracks in the MAGA facade. Some followers are finally waking up. It’s sad to hear them complain that they were duped. They were duped by a lying carnival barker who told them what they want to hear. They wanted to be duped.
Those fleeing MAGA definitely have much to atone for, and much they still haven’t come to terms with being wrong about. That’s for sure.
What I’m not so sure about is that telling these people, who have already made the extremely difficult and painful first step to leave an actual, literal cult, that they’re full of shit is actually going to help them move toward taking the next, equally difficult and painful steps. I would expect it to do more to drive them into the arms of the MAGA-but-not-Trump grifters like Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Whatever capacity I have left for coddling anyone is going to the victims of MAGA, not the perpetrators.
If they demand to be seen as the real victims in this, I’m not playing along. I’d rather they work at become decent human beings but the fact is I don’t really care about them.
If they have a snit and go back to the grifters, they can suffer the consequences of that.
Well then it’s a good thing I didn’t say anything about coddling them, or their being “the real victims,” isn’t it? Personally I’d rather hinder than help MAGA’s efforts to keep people in the cult. I would rather have fewer nazis, even if it means being nice to people who don’t deserve it.
I mean, if you really don’t care about them, you’re free to completely ignore them. You don’t have to look at them. You don’t have to talk to them. Even if you did, that wouldn’t preclude your helping their victims, but you are 100% within your rights to focus all your efforts on the victims.
But if you’re going to address them, then you have a moral duty to try not to say things that will make the problem worse. People do not respond well to self-righteous scolding. Not even if it’s correct.