Quote:
Originally Posted by ah123
Trump must be a very charismatic person to be able to get so many around him to believe in the delusion. When is the last time a head-of-state had a cult like following?
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I think you are giving him too much credit.
I doubt many of them really believe in the delusion, but they believe in what it wants to achieve - a right wing authoritarian regime at any cost. I think most of them know that Trump is full of crap. They just like having someone in the White House that can help them get what they want and will play along.
Then there are some who are just finding a way to make money or further their careers either by supporting him or by capitalizing on the controversy. Just like how some stand-up comedians lamented that they didn't want the Bush era to end because it provided so much material, there are people who benefit from Trump's nonsense.
Then you have those who are in so deep that their careers basically go down with Trump, or may even get implicated in his crimes.
If we are just talking about the deplorables, then that just proves there are a lot of stupid people, but I doubt even most of them really believe him, but they want the same ends that he does. As George Carlin once said, think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
I recall watching a Vox video about why Putin and authoritarians in general can pretty much get away with saying anything they want, and they argued that the psychology at play has less to do with actually believing the lie, but rather an unconscious respect some people have for people that can say anything they want, regardless of whether there is truth in it. It is one of the ultimate shows of power to deny reality. It gets to the point that people even stop questioning whether it is a lie, because it doesn't matter. What matters is just the fact that the person has the power to do it with impunity. People then repeat those lies because they crave the same kind of power. The truth is no longer important at that point.