What's the difference between the Manson followers and the Trump followers.?

[fightforfreedom]

Nothing. Both are examples of blind, unconditional, delusional, self destructive following. Only the scale, the size is different. It's the same type of madness.

[Casady1]

1. Jim Jones

is the better example.

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. Numbers

[2naSalit]

3. +1

That's what the "J" is about...

D***** Jonestown T****.

[True Blue American]

4. Not a thing.

[Thtwudbeme]

5. My undergrad degree was dual religious studies and history

and I was fascinated by cults.

I would say that the biggest difference is geographical location. Cults generally require people to live in close proximity to one another- to allow the cult to shun "outsiders." Trump and Qanon have used the internet to create a new "location" if you will. You can see this in their attempts to create Twitter-like or even DU-like websites and apps where they gather information on the users as they sign up. Parlor was the first example that I can think of where the Trumpers AND Q-folks could gather.

I thought it was interesting, and I went to sign up to see what it was like....when it got to physical addresses, phone numbers etc- I backed out quickly.

Trump even tried to promote a smart phone just for them- I do not recall what happened to that.

So, to answer your question- I would say scope and size are the biggest differences.

All that said- These were early attempts to "gather people" into a cult. I believe it will get worse as more people move their relationships to virtual. Heck, we have kind of being doing that on DU. I have been on this website seeing people I "know" for over 1/3 of my life now.

[uponit7771]

8. +1, forums could be a good enough replacement for location for MAGA. It seems DU promotes...

... and allows enough self reflection in regards to democratic party to keep ourselves from becoming a cult too.

[Thtwudbeme]

9. To clarify: I should have said that Dems for online relationships also

Hell, I married someone I met on DU 20 years ago (yes, we are still married). I was only using DU to illustrate my point that we are now forming "close bonds" with strangers on the internet.

That said, I don't think that Dems have the authoritarian mindset to join in a political cult per se. Dems generally value education and debate. Again as an example, look at DU: We have gun owners here, people opposed to abortion, wealthy folks, poor folks, young and old. We are diverse in our beliefs and world views. I cannot speak to the diversity in terms of racial makeup, or gender, as those usually are not revealed in this particular forum in everyday conversation. I suspect we are pretty diverse.

Collectively, Dems want this country to be diverse- we welcome it- and it seems that healthcare is another coalescing factor. However, healthy debate on how to get to that point is free and open.

If you go to Republican sites (which I do not anymore- they are pretty boring) you'll see that authoritarian world view: They want some bizarre fantasy of America that they pretend existed about 1950 or so. I don't get that- so many of them have benefited from liberal policies such as 40 hour work weeks, freedom of and from religion, SS, and taxes for the collective good and infrastructure. Yet they seem hell bent on burning that down. I do not understand at all.

[uponit7771]

11. OP Worthy, humans can take things for granted would be great for DUrs to know this

[Thtwudbeme]

12. Thanks

That's a huge compliment

I think the Trump cult is going to be much worse- and the Catholics on the SCOTUS are going to milk it for all it's worth as long as they possibly can.

[Kid Berwyn]

6. Heater Skelter.

White Replacement Theory.

Same.

[Best_man23]

7. Where the swastika is placed

[JHB]

10. Different drugs, same endorphin rush.