General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump voters suffer from what I call the Jonestown Syndrome.
This is where a large number of people unconditionally follow and put their entire fate in the hands of one individual or cause.
They ignore the truth, follow the lies. They ignore all warnings and any pain inflicted upon them by the individual or cause.
They follow until the individual or cause meets it fate. That fate becomes their fate.
Trump voters will follow Trump until he meets his fate. Then they will meet their fate. No one can predict what that fate will be. History tells us time and time again it could be a catastrophic.
atreides1
(16,079 posts)Now if we could only get them to drink the same kind of kool-aid!!!!
tavernier
(12,392 posts)But funny.
Ilsa
(61,695 posts)But I suspect IQ45 is too narcissistic to drink the punch himself.
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World is a classic work of social psychology by Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter which studied a small UFO religion in Chicago called the Seekers that believed in an imminent apocalypse and its coping mechanisms after the event did not occur. Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance can account for the psychological consequences of disconfirmed expectations. One of the first published cases of dissonance was reported in this book.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails
Festinger stated that five conditions must be present if someone is to become a more fervent believer after a failure or disconfirmation:
A belief must be held with deep conviction and it must have some relevance to action, that is, to what the believer does or how he or she behaves.
The person holding the belief must have committed himself to it; that is, for the sake of his belief, he must have taken some important action that is difficult to undo. In general, the more important such actions are, and the more difficult they are to undo, the greater is the individual's commitment to the belief.
The belief must be sufficiently specific and sufficiently concerned with the real world so that events may unequivocally refute the belief.
Such undeniable disconfirmatory evidence must occur and must be recognized by the individual holding the belief.
The individual believer must have social support. It is unlikely that one isolated believer could withstand the kind of disconfirming evidence that has been specified. If, however, the believer is a member of a group of convinced persons who can support one another, the belief may be maintained and the believers may attempt to proselytize or persuade nonmembers that the belief is correct.
2naSalit
(86,647 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)their only action is to vote and run their mouths in support of their Orange Idol. Moving to Guyana was a major action difficult to undo. What would be the equivalent for the Orange supporters - maybe if they committed to some sort of military organizing and firing upon the rest of us?
appleannie1943
(1,303 posts)Permanut
(5,613 posts)These people are what Eric Hoffer called "True Believers".
empedocles
(15,751 posts)Tough combo
shockey80
(4,379 posts)The followers of Hitler destroyed themselves and their country. They murdered 6 million jews.
The people of the South during the civil war committed treason. They destroyed themselves and the South for the cause. Most of them didn't know what the hell they were fighting for.
The Manson followers committed murder.
The Koresh followers burned to death.
The Jones followers poisoned themselves and their children.
Now we have the Trump followers who are following a madman, what will be their fate?