Edited to add: I was locked out of my account so I couldn’t respond, but thank you for so much interest. I didn’t mean to suggest that no one is aware of this mass delusion of the right. I realize that most of us here are aware of it, and Mary Trump has brought this to light, but still — most Americans don’t see Trump as mentally ill and don’t understand why their friends and neighbors have become so angry, hateful and distanced from reality. I think this should be talked about on every news show, by every pundit, because the consequences of not understanding this are so grave.
Look at those people: no masks; no social distancing; no belief in science. How many will be too sick to vote on election day??
We have a massive delusional event going on in our country and no one is calling it what it is. A cult of Death has overtaken the Republican party from Trump, to Senators, to Congressmen/women to the regular citizens, all of whom are in the cult. I think it’s a serious mental health issue and we need to address it.
I am new to the mental health field after teaching another subject for more than 25 years. My reading and studies on narcissistic personality disorder explain Trump perfectly: his refusing to accept the results of the election or his new tune, that he doesn’t even want to try very hard anymore. Both are meant to alleviate his feelings of shame when he loses. Narcissists’ biggest fear is shame. So he is acting in accordance with his mental health disorder. It makes sense.
But the behavior of his cult is stunning to me. I don’t have enough experience and knowledge to understand how this all occurred, but I do think we MUST start talking about how we will address it, because even if he loses, they will still be here, living in a separate reality than those of us in the real world. They will not be going away.
They are absolutely a cult and believe everything that he tells them. We have a mass delusion event going on that more experienced people in the mental health field need to start talking about.
Here are some of their delusions:
1. That COVID is not dangerous and that getting it is like getting a cold. They really and truly believe this, and are acting accordingly. Numbers are skyrocketing, health professionals are screaming about it, and they just don’t believe it. Herman Cain’s death was never talked about by Trump so they will keep believing it’s “just a cold.” Any word from Trump on Chris Christie?? Nope. Same reason. This is now a death cult and we aren’t discussing it.
2. The Trumpers really and truly believe that he is going to win in a landslide. Now, I’m not saying he doesn’t have a slim chance to pull this off, mostly by cheating, but a landslide? Nothing you say to these people in real life or on Facebook or Twitter will dissuade them. Again, massive delusion spread by Trump and the right win echo chamber. Ignore all of the numbers, ignore the early voting, ignore the mail-in ballot requests. The Trump landslide is coming.
3. QAnon nonsense. This is truly scary. That a significant percentage of Americans believe in Q, that Dems are satanic pedophiles, that JFK Jr is here and going to show up any day now, just boggles the mind. One person already showed up a few years ago to the pizzeria where Hillary ran her nonexistent child pedo ring, in the basement that didn’t exist. Violence can come from this and we aren’t focusing on it.
4. Biden criminal nonsense. No matter who proves that the Biden scandals are made up, no matter what evidence is shown that it is Russian disinformation, that Rudy is being used by Russia, the cult doesn’t believe it. Official investigations find nothing, so the cult now all swarm to a batshit crazy plot being pushed by Rudy and others in the GOP, including Senators. This is terrifying to me. Trump has gotten his cult to disbelieve in our intel agencies, the reputable media and their own common sense, and to believe that Rudy and a blind computer repair guy together cracked this Biden criminal cabal. Again, terrifying that our fellow Americans can believe this.
These loonies used to be on the fringe, but have become solidly mainstream. Maybe 30% of the country is in the Death Cult. These people will still be around after Trump loses and next time, their Dear Leader may not be as crazy and incompetent as Trump. This concerns me for the future of our country, as what do we do to deprogram these cult members???
I don’t know.