Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? Lack of education and morals. Swayed by a con man and propaganda to “own the libs”, These people fall right into a cult. The irony is that his dumbest followers are ones who will be left hurting by the time this is over.

The people whose top political stance is that children who aren’t old enough to drive or get a tattoo should have the broad right to mutilate their bodies with the help of the medical system because of a religious belief in the transmutation of their gender soul are in no position to be calling anyone cultists. Or dumb, for that matter.

The above poster is the perfect example of an uneducated follower who falls for Fox News propaganda. I don’t know one person whose “top political stance” is allowing kids to “mutilate their bodies.” Rather than blindly letting Fox News scare you into believing Dems want this - along with taking all your guns away, opening the borders for rapists and murderers, aborting newborns, stealing all the white people’s jobs, eating neighborhood cats, etc etc - why not do some actual reading and learning about our real agenda (spoiler - they are none of the above). You might learn something about humanity, society and integrity. So again, lack of education and propaganda is what leads to blind following.

You are a cultist.

And I’m not a Republican, and your Fox News line is stupid and ignorant. I’m a very disillusioned Democrat who is appalled at what my party supports, and who has literally read and understood the horrifyingly bad studies used to prop up medicalized youth gender transition.

You are the one lacking humanity and integrity. You are the one who is grotesquely anti-science. You are the one who has adopted radical religious beliefs and demanded the Democrats adopt a cult gender religion as its party platform, exiling and purging anyone who even tried to raise the mildest alarm.

And all of us outside of your cult can see it. But you have made strict adherence to your cult beliefs a loyalty test to the Party, and you are so deep in your cult radicalism that you will sacrifice the entire Party before you admit the horror of what you’ve supported.

And THAT is why people think that vile corrupt fascist in the White House is good, because it’s people like you that are the comparison.

You're a duped idiot who needs to turn off the cable news. Get out and talk to real people and you'll quickly realize there is no majority anywhere with a "cult gender religion" platform. The Dems haven't had a leader to present a party platform since Obama left office and therefore dupes like you can be brainwashed into thinking these bizarre and random ideas are part of a mainstream Dem political platform. Grow up and stop being so gullible.

You are a blind cultist whose dedication to a fundamentalist body mutilation religion has destroyed what used to be a political party that fought for the good of the US as a whole. And because of your fundamentalist beliefs, we now have Trump, who is literally destroying the country. Take ownership for your actions, please.

At least I never stooped to the low IQ level of voting for Trump or Biden you gullible tool.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? Lack of education and morals. Swayed by a con man and propaganda to “own the libs”, These people fall right into a cult. The irony is that his dumbest followers are ones who will be left hurting by the time this is over.

The people whose top political stance is that children who aren’t old enough to drive or get a tattoo should have the broad right to mutilate their bodies with the help of the medical system because of a religious belief in the transmutation of their gender soul are in no position to be calling anyone cultists. Or dumb, for that matter.

The above poster is the perfect example of an uneducated follower who falls for Fox News propaganda. I don’t know one person whose “top political stance” is allowing kids to “mutilate their bodies.” Rather than blindly letting Fox News scare you into believing Dems want this - along with taking all your guns away, opening the borders for rapists and murderers, aborting newborns, stealing all the white people’s jobs, eating neighborhood cats, etc etc - why not do some actual reading and learning about our real agenda (spoiler - they are none of the above). You might learn something about humanity, society and integrity. So again, lack of education and propaganda is what leads to blind following.

You are a cultist.

And I’m not a Republican, and your Fox News line is stupid and ignorant. I’m a very disillusioned Democrat who is appalled at what my party supports, and who has literally read and understood the horrifyingly bad studies used to prop up medicalized youth gender transition.

You are the one lacking humanity and integrity. You are the one who is grotesquely anti-science. You are the one who has adopted radical religious beliefs and demanded the Democrats adopt a cult gender religion as its party platform, exiling and purging anyone who even tried to raise the mildest alarm.

And all of us outside of your cult can see it. But you have made strict adherence to your cult beliefs a loyalty test to the Party, and you are so deep in your cult radicalism that you will sacrifice the entire Party before you admit the horror of what you’ve supported.

And THAT is why people think that vile corrupt fascist in the White House is good, because it’s people like you that are the comparison.

You're a duped idiot who needs to turn off the cable news. Get out and talk to real people and you'll quickly realize there is no majority anywhere with a "cult gender religion" platform. The Dems haven't had a leader to present a party platform since Obama left office and therefore dupes like you can be brainwashed into thinking these bizarre and random ideas are part of a mainstream Dem political platform. Grow up and stop being so gullible.

You are a blind cultist whose dedication to a fundamentalist body mutilation religion has destroyed what used to be a political party that fought for the good of the US as a whole. And because of your fundamentalist beliefs, we now have Trump, who is literally destroying the country. Take ownership for your actions, please.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? Lack of education and morals. Swayed by a con man and propaganda to “own the libs”, These people fall right into a cult. The irony is that his dumbest followers are ones who will be left hurting by the time this is over.

The people whose top political stance is that children who aren’t old enough to drive or get a tattoo should have the broad right to mutilate their bodies with the help of the medical system because of a religious belief in the transmutation of their gender soul are in no position to be calling anyone cultists. Or dumb, for that matter.

The above poster is the perfect example of an uneducated follower who falls for Fox News propaganda. I don’t know one person whose “top political stance” is allowing kids to “mutilate their bodies.” Rather than blindly letting Fox News scare you into believing Dems want this - along with taking all your guns away, opening the borders for rapists and murderers, aborting newborns, stealing all the white people’s jobs, eating neighborhood cats, etc etc - why not do some actual reading and learning about our real agenda (spoiler - they are none of the above). You might learn something about humanity, society and integrity. So again, lack of education and propaganda is what leads to blind following.

You are a cultist.

And I’m not a Republican, and your Fox News line is stupid and ignorant. I’m a very disillusioned Democrat who is appalled at what my party supports, and who has literally read and understood the horrifyingly bad studies used to prop up medicalized youth gender transition.

You are the one lacking humanity and integrity. You are the one who is grotesquely anti-science. You are the one who has adopted radical religious beliefs and demanded the Democrats adopt a cult gender religion as its party platform, exiling and purging anyone who even tried to raise the mildest alarm.

And all of us outside of your cult can see it. But you have made strict adherence to your cult beliefs a loyalty test to the Party, and you are so deep in your cult radicalism that you will sacrifice the entire Party before you admit the horror of what you’ve supported.

And THAT is why people think that vile corrupt fascist in the White House is good, because it’s people like you that are the comparison.

You're a duped idiot who needs to turn off the cable news. Get out and talk to real people and you'll quickly realize there is no majority anywhere with a "cult gender religion" platform. The Dems haven't had a leader to present a party platform since Obama left office and therefore dupes like you can be brainwashed into thinking these bizarre and random ideas are part of a mainstream Dem political platform. Grow up and stop being so gullible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? Lack of education and morals. Swayed by a con man and propaganda to “own the libs”, These people fall right into a cult. The irony is that his dumbest followers are ones who will be left hurting by the time this is over.

The people whose top political stance is that children who aren’t old enough to drive or get a tattoo should have the broad right to mutilate their bodies with the help of the medical system because of a religious belief in the transmutation of their gender soul are in no position to be calling anyone cultists. Or dumb, for that matter.

The above poster is the perfect example of an uneducated follower who falls for Fox News propaganda. I don’t know one person whose “top political stance” is allowing kids to “mutilate their bodies.” Rather than blindly letting Fox News scare you into believing Dems want this - along with taking all your guns away, opening the borders for rapists and murderers, aborting newborns, stealing all the white people’s jobs, eating neighborhood cats, etc etc - why not do some actual reading and learning about our real agenda (spoiler - they are none of the above). You might learn something about humanity, society and integrity. So again, lack of education and propaganda is what leads to blind following.

You are a cultist.

And I’m not a Republican, and your Fox News line is stupid and ignorant. I’m a very disillusioned Democrat who is appalled at what my party supports, and who has literally read and understood the horrifyingly bad studies used to prop up medicalized youth gender transition.

You are the one lacking humanity and integrity. You are the one who is grotesquely anti-science. You are the one who has adopted radical religious beliefs and demanded the Democrats adopt a cult gender religion as its party platform, exiling and purging anyone who even tried to raise the mildest alarm.

And all of us outside of your cult can see it. But you have made strict adherence to your cult beliefs a loyalty test to the Party, and you are so deep in your cult radicalism that you will sacrifice the entire Party before you admit the horror of what you’ve supported.

And THAT is why people think that vile corrupt fascist in the White House is good, because it’s people like you that are the comparison.

You're a duped idiot who needs to turn off the cable news. Get out and talk to real people and you'll quickly realize there is no majority anywhere with a "cult gender religion" platform. The Dems haven't had a leader to present a party platform since Obama left office and therefore dupes like you can be brainwashed into thinking these bizarre and random ideas are part of a mainstream Dem political platform. Grow up and stop being so gullible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? Lack of education and morals. Swayed by a con man and propaganda to “own the libs”, These people fall right into a cult. The irony is that his dumbest followers are ones who will be left hurting by the time this is over.

The people whose top political stance is that children who aren’t old enough to drive or get a tattoo should have the broad right to mutilate their bodies with the help of the medical system because of a religious belief in the transmutation of their gender soul are in no position to be calling anyone cultists. Or dumb, for that matter.

The above poster is the perfect example of an uneducated follower who falls for Fox News propaganda. I don’t know one person whose “top political stance” is allowing kids to “mutilate their bodies.” Rather than blindly letting Fox News scare you into believing Dems want this - along with taking all your guns away, opening the borders for rapists and murderers, aborting newborns, stealing all the white people’s jobs, eating neighborhood cats, etc etc - why not do some actual reading and learning about our real agenda (spoiler - they are none of the above). You might learn something about humanity, society and integrity. So again, lack of education and propaganda is what leads to blind following.

You are a cultist.

And I’m not a Republican, and your Fox News line is stupid and ignorant. I’m a very disillusioned Democrat who is appalled at what my party supports, and who has literally read and understood the horrifyingly bad studies used to prop up medicalized youth gender transition.

You are the one lacking humanity and integrity. You are the one who is grotesquely anti-science. You are the one who has adopted radical religious beliefs and demanded the Democrats adopt a cult gender religion as its party platform, exiling and purging anyone who even tried to raise the mildest alarm.

And all of us outside of your cult can see it. But you have made strict adherence to your cult beliefs a loyalty test to the Party, and you are so deep in your cult radicalism that you will sacrifice the entire Party before you admit the horror of what you’ve supported.

And THAT is why people think that vile corrupt fascist in the White House is good, because it’s people like you that are the comparison.

You're a duped idiot who needs to turn off the cable news. Get out and talk to real people and you'll quickly realize there is no majority anywhere with a "cult gender religion" platform. The Dems haven't had a leader to present a party platform since Obama left office and therefore dupes like you can be brainwashed into thinking these bizarre and random ideas are part of a mainstream Dem political platform. Grow up and stop being so gullible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? Lack of education and morals. Swayed by a con man and propaganda to “own the libs”, These people fall right into a cult. The irony is that his dumbest followers are ones who will be left hurting by the time this is over.

The people whose top political stance is that children who aren’t old enough to drive or get a tattoo should have the broad right to mutilate their bodies with the help of the medical system because of a religious belief in the transmutation of their gender soul are in no position to be calling anyone cultists. Or dumb, for that matter.

The above poster is the perfect example of an uneducated follower who falls for Fox News propaganda. I don’t know one person whose “top political stance” is allowing kids to “mutilate their bodies.” Rather than blindly letting Fox News scare you into believing Dems want this - along with taking all your guns away, opening the borders for rapists and murderers, aborting newborns, stealing all the white people’s jobs, eating neighborhood cats, etc etc - why not do some actual reading and learning about our real agenda (spoiler - they are none of the above). You might learn something about humanity, society and integrity. So again, lack of education and propaganda is what leads to blind following.

You are a cultist.

And I’m not a Republican, and your Fox News line is stupid and ignorant. I’m a very disillusioned Democrat who is appalled at what my party supports, and who has literally read and understood the horrifyingly bad studies used to prop up medicalized youth gender transition.

You are the one lacking humanity and integrity. You are the one who is grotesquely anti-science. You are the one who has adopted radical religious beliefs and demanded the Democrats adopt a cult gender religion as its party platform, exiling and purging anyone who even tried to raise the mildest alarm.

And all of us outside of your cult can see it. But you have made strict adherence to your cult beliefs a loyalty test to the Party, and you are so deep in your cult radicalism that you will sacrifice the entire Party before you admit the horror of what you’ve supported.

And THAT is why people think that vile corrupt fascist in the White House is good, because it’s people like you that are the comparison.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I despise the man, and think he is extremely harmful to the good of the nation, but correctly predicted his wins in spring of 2016 and again in 2024, so you know where I am coming from.

This is my take: Trump is popular because Trump gives room and structure for many people to reject quasi-religious beliefs that have been presented as fact, but are not fact, by the dominant new faith-based groups in our society (political groups). He allows space for heresy, and he does not apologize for his own heresies. In a world where the wrong words (e.g. heresies to the newly dominant religions) can and have caused people to lose jobs, friends, etc., this is enormously appealing. Trump says wrong words all the time.

The background of this is that with the decline in organized religions, we as a society have replaced organized religions with allegiance to political parties and ideologies. And with that religious fervor comes a religious fundamentalism that freely mixes fact with belief but presents that to the world as fact.

I actually believe that the sharp rise in mental health issues in young people is related to this dissonance. They have been presented with what are essentially faith-based beliefs as though those are fact, but not with the structures to deal with apostasy. The religions of old do the same (present faith as fact), of course, but they accompany those religious tenets with a structure to enable faith and manage heresy. So, a Christian child raised in a Christian household might reach teenhood and declare there is no God, but when that happens, churches have structures for managing that apostasy. A Catholic child might be sent towards the sacrament of Confirmation, a fundamentalist child might be encouraged to talk to a pastor who does a baptism, etc. I’m not saying that it’s not rife with abuse, of course, but just that there are organized structures for dealing with apostasy and a failure to believe what is faith as fact.

The religion of political movements doesn’t have any such structures, however. You’re just a heretic if you disbelieve, and cast out of the tribe. And both parties are asking people to believe a lot that’s effectively religious in nature as fact, without any organized mechanism for addressing doubts and skepticism.

Trump walked into this and what’s remarkable is that he’s such a liar, but he lives his own truths and gives space for others while doing that. That’s an extremely unusual political quality right now: both Democrats and Republicans demand belief allegiance from their leaders. Trump is perceived as rejecting orthodoxies, in contrast. And he never apologizes, never backs down from a perceived heresy, never gives an inch to the party monitors tasked with keeping political heretics strictly inline.

That’s what is appealing: he allows people to reject beliefs that the party priest classes have declared untouchable tenets. And that is a freedom of religious thought that Americans on all sides of the political spectrum crave. Hence, his popularity.

You talk about Trump as if he’s a refreshing antidote to the “religions” of the “party priests”, and yet the MAGA movement is one of the most cult-like, stubborn, impervious to facts, worshipping-of-Dear-Leader groups this country has ever seen. Some of them literally believe he is the second coming of Jesus. A PP in this very thread posted that he’s the “savior of Western Civilization”.

All he’s done is replace one form of orthodoxy with an even stricter authoritarian model. People who question Trump get excommunicated. There is no model within MAGA for dealing with apostasy.

Anyway, it’s hyperbolic and misleading to talk about political beliefs as religions. Religions are systems that relate humanity to spiritual or supernatural elements. Wokeness doesn’t fall under that umbrella, and neither does conservatism. It would be fairer to say “unfalsifiable belief system”, but all morality is unfalsifiable (the inverse of David Hume’s “no IS implies an OUGHT”). The difference is that people today are less accepting of the old justifications for hierarchy. The left wants to dismantle it, and the right wants to return to it.

The left wants no such dismantling of hierarchy. It wants to create a new hierarchy, one as oppressive but with different power structures in place.

I haven’t heard anyone talk about a different and equally oppressive power structure.

There are plenty of people online out there right now celebrating the drowning of little children because they are white. What do you think that means, fun times?

Correction: they are celebrating the deaths because the dead kids were possibly the children of Trump voters. There have been a few racists but it’s more about the politics.

Lots of Texans are more afraid of their kids getting a book read to them by a drag queen than being in the path of a deadly flood. When push comes to above, they’ll take on water.

Exhibit 95030138 of celebrating leftists.

Pointing out how we got here isn’t the same as celebrating.

Since you want to play that game, there are legions of examples of right wingers ghoulishly mocking/celebrating/fantasizing about the deaths of immigrants, children in Gaza, Pope Francis, black people brutalized by the police, Halnya Hutchins, the Sandy Hook children, the two Minnesota politicians who were brutally assassinated, and on and on and on.

This attempt to demand the empathy that right wingers have never shown to the victims of their policies is intellectually dishonest at best, and utterly depraved at worst.

I agree that there are horrific people on the right doing exactly what you said. But the left is as bad. The far left and far right are united in their depraved sociopathy.

This is like saying a birthday candle and the sun are the same because they both give off light.

I genuinely wish this were true. I’m a lifelong Democrat who used to believe this. But I don’t any more, and I consider the far left as sociopathic as the far right. The Democrats are just deluding themselves because it’s important for their self-perception and ego to ignore the deep harms in the party.

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone share a gift link? Looks interesting: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/07/trump-administration-supporters-good/683441/?utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLcdT5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHuoxrizqUO-T4KYALwnf2-gn0Isakt-vB8kaMXq9QkU_dv0R9e9gJVHtX0j5_aem_i9c-LRWAM-s9KyN0lEw3Vg

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? Lack of education and morals. Swayed by a con man and propaganda to “own the libs”, These people fall right into a cult. The irony is that his dumbest followers are ones who will be left hurting by the time this is over.

The people whose top political stance is that children who aren’t old enough to drive or get a tattoo should have the broad right to mutilate their bodies with the help of the medical system because of a religious belief in the transmutation of their gender soul are in no position to be calling anyone cultists. Or dumb, for that matter.

The above poster is the perfect example of an uneducated follower who falls for Fox News propaganda. I don’t know one person whose “top political stance” is allowing kids to “mutilate their bodies.” Rather than blindly letting Fox News scare you into believing Dems want this - along with taking all your guns away, opening the borders for rapists and murderers, aborting newborns, stealing all the white people’s jobs, eating neighborhood cats, etc etc - why not do some actual reading and learning about our real agenda (spoiler - they are none of the above). You might learn something about humanity, society and integrity. So again, lack of education and propaganda is what leads to blind following.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "And Democrats, don’t feel too self-righteous here. If he was on your team, most of you would like him too. You may deny it, but you’re lying to yourself."

This line is just plain wrong. The Democrats threw out Al Franken because he pretended to do something lewd. No, David Brooks, your side has fallen for a con man because the republican world view is fundamentally insular and xenophobic.

They threw out Al Franken because he made it inconvenient to go after Trump.

They threw him out because they care about having ethical leaders. Republicans don't care about having ethical leaders. You may deny it, but you’re lying to yourself.

PP, you’re playing right into the falsehood Brooks is pushing here - the hypothetical that Dems are just as bad. The simple point is that Democrats have not done what Republicans have. Hypotheticals aren’t evidence.

Brooks’ premise is that Donald Trump is not “good,” but for some reason a lot of people think he is. And those lot of people are people Brooks has identified with on values and politics his entire adult life. He’s trying to rationalize that here, not offer any useful insight. This piece is therapy for him.

Idk, I think permanently destroying the education of a generation of children to ensure continued access to union money is objectively bad. I think using the power of the government to suppress discussion online and threaten tech companies if they don’t comply is objectively bad. I think the open checkbook to Israel is objectively bad. I think blindly supporting medicalized youth gender transition, especially as more and more horrific evidence emerged of the harms, is objectively bad.

And I’m a registered Democrat, I’m sure MAGA could come up with a lot more examples. The truth is in fact that the Democrats aren’t any better than the Republicans, but Democrats have a religious fervor in their political identity that doesn’t let them see their own deep and very serious failures and faults.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? Lack of education and morals. Swayed by a con man and propaganda to “own the libs”, These people fall right into a cult. The irony is that his dumbest followers are ones who will be left hurting by the time this is over.

The people whose top political stance is that children who aren’t old enough to drive or get a tattoo should have the broad right to mutilate their bodies with the help of the medical system because of a religious belief in the transmutation of their gender soul are in no position to be calling anyone cultists. Or dumb, for that matter.

Anonymous wrote:Why? Lack of education and morals. Swayed by a con man and propaganda to “own the libs”, These people fall right into a cult. The irony is that his dumbest followers are ones who will be left hurting by the time this is over.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I despise the man, and think he is extremely harmful to the good of the nation, but correctly predicted his wins in spring of 2016 and again in 2024, so you know where I am coming from.

This is my take: Trump is popular because Trump gives room and structure for many people to reject quasi-religious beliefs that have been presented as fact, but are not fact, by the dominant new faith-based groups in our society (political groups). He allows space for heresy, and he does not apologize for his own heresies. In a world where the wrong words (e.g. heresies to the newly dominant religions) can and have caused people to lose jobs, friends, etc., this is enormously appealing. Trump says wrong words all the time.

The background of this is that with the decline in organized religions, we as a society have replaced organized religions with allegiance to political parties and ideologies. And with that religious fervor comes a religious fundamentalism that freely mixes fact with belief but presents that to the world as fact.

I actually believe that the sharp rise in mental health issues in young people is related to this dissonance. They have been presented with what are essentially faith-based beliefs as though those are fact, but not with the structures to deal with apostasy. The religions of old do the same (present faith as fact), of course, but they accompany those religious tenets with a structure to enable faith and manage heresy. So, a Christian child raised in a Christian household might reach teenhood and declare there is no God, but when that happens, churches have structures for managing that apostasy. A Catholic child might be sent towards the sacrament of Confirmation, a fundamentalist child might be encouraged to talk to a pastor who does a baptism, etc. I’m not saying that it’s not rife with abuse, of course, but just that there are organized structures for dealing with apostasy and a failure to believe what is faith as fact.

The religion of political movements doesn’t have any such structures, however. You’re just a heretic if you disbelieve, and cast out of the tribe. And both parties are asking people to believe a lot that’s effectively religious in nature as fact, without any organized mechanism for addressing doubts and skepticism.

Trump walked into this and what’s remarkable is that he’s such a liar, but he lives his own truths and gives space for others while doing that. That’s an extremely unusual political quality right now: both Democrats and Republicans demand belief allegiance from their leaders. Trump is perceived as rejecting orthodoxies, in contrast. And he never apologizes, never backs down from a perceived heresy, never gives an inch to the party monitors tasked with keeping political heretics strictly inline.

That’s what is appealing: he allows people to reject beliefs that the party priest classes have declared untouchable tenets. And that is a freedom of religious thought that Americans on all sides of the political spectrum crave. Hence, his popularity.

You talk about Trump as if he’s a refreshing antidote to the “religions” of the “party priests”, and yet the MAGA movement is one of the most cult-like, stubborn, impervious to facts, worshipping-of-Dear-Leader groups this country has ever seen. Some of them literally believe he is the second coming of Jesus. A PP in this very thread posted that he’s the “savior of Western Civilization”.

All he’s done is replace one form of orthodoxy with an even stricter authoritarian model. People who question Trump get excommunicated. There is no model within MAGA for dealing with apostasy.

Anyway, it’s hyperbolic and misleading to talk about political beliefs as religions. Religions are systems that relate humanity to spiritual or supernatural elements. Wokeness doesn’t fall under that umbrella, and neither does conservatism. It would be fairer to say “unfalsifiable belief system”, but all morality is unfalsifiable (the inverse of David Hume’s “no IS implies an OUGHT”). The difference is that people today are less accepting of the old justifications for hierarchy. The left wants to dismantle it, and the right wants to return to it.

The left wants no such dismantling of hierarchy. It wants to create a new hierarchy, one as oppressive but with different power structures in place.

I haven’t heard anyone talk about a different and equally oppressive power structure.

There are plenty of people online out there right now celebrating the drowning of little children because they are white. What do you think that means, fun times?

Correction: they are celebrating the deaths because the dead kids were possibly the children of Trump voters. There have been a few racists but it’s more about the politics.

Lots of Texans are more afraid of their kids getting a book read to them by a drag queen than being in the path of a deadly flood. When push comes to above, they’ll take on water.

Exhibit 95030138 of celebrating leftists.

Pointing out how we got here isn’t the same as celebrating.

Since you want to play that game, there are legions of examples of right wingers ghoulishly mocking/celebrating/fantasizing about the deaths of immigrants, children in Gaza, Pope Francis, black people brutalized by the police, Halnya Hutchins, the Sandy Hook children, the two Minnesota politicians who were brutally assassinated, and on and on and on.

This attempt to demand the empathy that right wingers have never shown to the victims of their policies is intellectually dishonest at best, and utterly depraved at worst.

I agree that there are horrific people on the right doing exactly what you said. But the left is as bad. The far left and far right are united in their depraved sociopathy.

This is like saying a birthday candle and the sun are the same because they both give off light.

I genuinely wish this were true. I’m a lifelong Democrat who used to believe this. But I don’t any more, and I consider the far left as sociopathic as the far right. The Democrats are just deluding themselves because it’s important for their self-perception and ego to ignore the deep harms in the party.

+1 You can't question the left about anything without being called racist.

Really?? I'm new to this thread and I think you're being hyperbolic but I'll give you the opportunity to back these assertions up:

Can you give me three examples of criticisms of specific democrat policies that you were called racist over that had absolutely nothing whatsoever even remotely to do with race?

Can you give me three examples of democrat policies that you think are over-the-top sociopathic?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "And Democrats, don’t feel too self-righteous here. If he was on your team, most of you would like him too. You may deny it, but you’re lying to yourself."

This line is just plain wrong. The Democrats threw out Al Franken because he pretended to do something lewd. No, David Brooks, your side has fallen for a con man because the republican world view is fundamentally insular and xenophobic.

They threw out Al Franken because he made it inconvenient to go after Trump.

They threw him out because they care about having ethical leaders. Republicans don't care about having ethical leaders. You may deny it, but you’re lying to yourself.

PP, you’re playing right into the falsehood Brooks is pushing here - the hypothetical that Dems are just as bad. The simple point is that Democrats have not done what Republicans have. Hypotheticals aren’t evidence.

Brooks’ premise is that Donald Trump is not “good,” but for some reason a lot of people think he is. And those lot of people are people Brooks has identified with on values and politics his entire adult life. He’s trying to rationalize that here, not offer any useful insight. This piece is therapy for him.