Two of my favorite characters were Frank Burns and Colonel Flagg....the former, a weenie who essentially made up whatever he wanted, wrapped himself in the flag, and claimed to be a patriot...the latter, an ultra nationalist, xenophobic psychotic who was so far over the top, he didn't seem believable...even as a fictional character. In watching both the Tea Party and CPAC conventions in the last week, I must sadly conclude that Major Frank Burns and Colonel Flagg are alive and well.
Even though they are fictitious characters, their vision has created a cult.
On last Friday's Season 8 premier of Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill proclaimed that the tea party movement wasn't a "movement" at all but a cult. He then set about proving it quite well.
Ever since I have started this blog, I have been searching for answers. Why do people listen to the base? What is it about them that gets ordinary folk to chuck all reason and logic out the window and believe anything Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, or Rush Limbaugh has to say? What is the one umbrella that all of this fits neatly under? Answer: A cult.
Expanding on what Maher had to say, I submit that the majority of the people at both the CPAC and the Tea Party conventions have fallen, along with millions of others across this country, into a mass cult. Consider the characteristics of a cult:
1. Quickly withdraw into the group and distrust the outside world.
Never a more pure example of this is seen at The Smallest Minority. Anyone who does not jibe with their ideology is labeled a "liar." Further, the left is portrayed as being bent on the socialist destruction of our nation. This is especially troubling when you consider that much of the left has been bought off by Wall Street.
Essentially, they don't trust anyone except cult-approved information outlets (townhall, hot air, the american thinker, worldnet daily, pajamas tv etc). Anything that will probably help them (ex: the health care bill) has been spun by cult leaders to be immediately NOT trusted and offered as proof of the coming destruction of the United States).
2. Driven by some large, unattainable goal.
This would be the return of our government to that which was "envisioned by our Founding Fathers." So, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Education funding and anything the funds any sort of "agenda" are gone. All that remains would be the military. I would assume this means that a woman's right to vote will be taken away and blacks will return to being 3/5ths of a person.
3. Have their own vocabulary (aka "If I say it, then it's true.")
Maher's examples were: Freedom=Guns, Diplomacy=Weakness, Elitist=Reading a Book. I say they have their own entire, and quite bizarre, language. Take this line from Mitt Romney at the CPAC convention. He screamed that "liberal, neo-monarchists" were in charge of our country. Huh?
He went to say the following
Americans will not endure government run health care, new and expensive entitlements, and inexplicable and surely vanishing cuts in Medicare.
Ok, seriously....WHAT THE FUCK IS HE TALKING ABOUT?
And how about Keynote speaker Glenn Beck who said that the only job of the Constitution was to protect us from "bad" guys. The pre-amble to the Constitution states
Establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
Anyone from the cult want to explain what that means to them? Perhaps Kevin Baker can explain it as he found Glenn Beck's CPAC speech to be "excellent."
4. Attach problems to one simple explanation.
Well, this one is easy: The Left, with its Hiterlesque leader, Barrack Hussein Obama, are the cause of every problem everywhere for ever and ever until the end of time.
5. Use fear.
Every speech was riddled with fear mongering. Keynote speaker Glenn Beck said our country was headed for "economic holocaust" citing debt to GDP and hilariously, in the same breath, praised Ronald Reagan who left office with a debt of 51 percent of GDP. He also said that progressivism was designed to "destroy the Constitution" (even though it was progressive movements like women's suffrage that added to it).
6. Accuse people outside of the cult of being brainwashed and/or in a cult.
LMAO all over the mother fucking hizzy! This happens to me constantly here, at TSM, in email, or in discussions. I'm a "perfect example of the Left" and yet I just got screamed at over the last few days for supporting President Obama's decision to fund nuclear power. I get hollered at at least once a month for degrading women with my "foul language." I state, in unequivocal terms, that I support our effort in AfPak and thus, get endless shit from the naive peaceniks. And yet, I am a "perfect example" of the left. I couldn't figure out why this gross mischaracterization was happening but now I know.
It's because they are in a cult.
Further proof of this can be seen in this CBS/New York Times poll
78 percent don't know that President Obama CUT taxes for 95 percent of working families? Are you kidding me? Now you see why I keep talking about the "minority" party. The fact that they have brainwashed people into believing this is absolutely mind boggling and demonstrates, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that some serious de-programming needs to be done.And, no cult members, that does not mean I am advocating Re-Education Camps.
This poll also states that "Of people who support the grassroots, "Tea Party" movement, only 2 percent think taxes have been decreased, 46 percent say taxes are the same, and a whopping 44 percent say they believe taxes have gone up."
Amazing. Simply fucking amazing. A group whose center issue is taxes doesn't have a clue about....fucking taxes!
Not surprising, though, when the spirits of Frank Burns and Colonel Flagg embody what is so very clearly a CULT.
14 comments:
Hmmm, this does not accord with your occultist theory.
What a surprise.
Poor corporately abused baby.
Elitist=Reading a Book
Yeah, that must explain Palin's book sales - all those elitists! #141 at Amazon.
Maher is a toad, and you apparently are a toad licker.
You are doing quite well at talking yourself into believing what you want to believe. First it was all TEA Partiers were racists. Now they are brainwashed nutballs.
Have you seen the Dallas TEA party commercial inviting Keith Olberman to their event. Funny stuff.
The genius of the right is its ability to convince people to go along with them in direct conflict to their own best interests. This is usually done by dredging up some unrelated hot button issue, linking the two and then get people to support something that will directly harm them.
Typical hot button issues are gay marriage, abortion, guns, illegal immigration, etc. Once they get you into their camp they convince you that you have to follow the party line on everything otherwise nothing will be accomplished. Then the stuff that actually does get accomplished (huge tax cuts for the wealthy, relaxing regulations on companies to allow them to pollute and build dangerous products, the deceitful war in Iraq, etc.) is actively harmful to the vast majority of the people who were hornswoggled into following the party line.
Then the actual stuff that you cared about was either never really in danger (guns) or is somehow never accomplished (elimination of abortion, stopping gay marriage, illegal immigration, etc.). It's a classic bait and switch tactic.
For example, my dad was swept into the movement by the anti-immigrant furor and the birther nonsense that appealed to his inherent racism. Now he constantly spouts about Obama's socialist policies, and how they will ruin this country, though before last year he never used such rhetoric.
This is a guy on Social Security, with a union pension, who has full medical care from Medicare and the Metropolitan Transit Corporation. He has a pacemaker that has probably saved his life, paid for in full by government money. His daughter suffered a stroke last year and is receiving excellent care in a very nice privately run facility, all paid for by the state and federal money.
Yet he mindlessly repeats the party line on how all these socialist things that Obama is going to do will destroy the country. Social security, public schools, public transportation, public libraries, public freeways, fire departments, police departments -- all these things are "socialist." They are in large part what makes life in this country even possible for elderly retirees like my father.
This hypocrisy and "I got mine" mentality is not limited to the Tea Party -- there's plenty of blame to go around the entire political spectrum. But we've all got to stop thinking of "us" and "them" or this country is going to disintegrate into chaos and poverty.
"...in direct conflict to their own best interests."
Quick, quick, BLK, what are 'My' best interests? Or my interests in general, for that matter... Therein lies part of the problem…contrary to popular liberal belief, I rather feel that I am more attuned to what is or is not in my best interests than you.
If blk doesn't answer, I will, dave.
"If blk doesn't answer, I will, dave."
That Mark thinks there is any answer other than, "your best interests are those you deem to be so" is... revealing.
Of course. Us flat-earther cultists are too STUPID to know what's best for us. That's why we need the enlightened left, to sort it all out for us poor little proles. You can see the rage and contempt they exhibit when we say otherwise. BTW, M, I have to say that I haven't seen a drop in my taxes - they actually increased a little the first of the year - and I HIGHLY doubt I'm in the top 5% of wage earners. Taxes other than income have either stayed the same or risen for me. Can you please tell me which taxes he cut?
OK - silly me. Should have read the link. I haven't filed my taxes yet...
"revealing."
Yeah, that's it...good Lord.
"the enlightened left"
Actually, I find the left to be inferior....in numbers, organization, armament, representation, and..quite frankly, ideology. They are so weak, timid, and afraid to take any step (even if it would help our country) in ANY direction that's left of center-right for fear of being buried by the juggernaut.
If you find the left to be inferior in ideology, why do you constantly rail against the right?
Hey M,
I think you are close to correct with most of your assertions. You have gone over the top in you own inimitable, and you've gone so far as to attack people over at TSM, which I don't condone, but it seems to me that you are accurately characterizing a significant portion of those who are siding against Obama right now. Not all. Not half. But a significant enough portion to be worthy of comment.
Unfortunately, I think your success is somewhat mitigated by the fact that accusing people of succumbing to cult mentality is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. It's too easy, and I'd hope you can do better. I can pick out all sorts of "groups" of people and apply all 6 of your criteria to "prove" that the group is actually a cult. (#1 is a bit tough for many groups, but that depends on what "immediately withdraw" means, exactly.)
** Conspiracy theorists
** Socialists
** People of faith
** Racists
**
So while modestly succeeding at defining tea party members as cult members, I think your greater success is defining....well, people in general.
Good points, PL. Y'know, I explained my cult theory to a conservative friend of mine recently and this was his reply.
"That's a very dangerous attitude -- and a mirror image of the people you accuse of irrationality in believing that the Dems are willing pawns of unions, socialists, and race hustlers, and that Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are evil people bent on America's destruction."
What's funny is, given the context of your last statement, I don't think it's all that irrational to say that the Dems are pawns of the unions or that people like Sharpton or Jackson are race hustlers. Bernie Sanders is an admitted socialist and so is Dennis Kucinich. With much of the left bought off by private industry as well, some of these accusations are, in fact, rooted in reality.
Actually, I find the left to be inferior....in numbers, organization, armament, representation, and..quite frankly, ideology.
You could've just said you don't understand what "enlightened" means.
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