A survivor of a cult that is now actively pro-Donald Trump spoke out on Monday night about ways he thinks friends and family can handle bringing MAGA supporters back to the normal world.
MSNBC host Joy Reid began the conversation by citing a new poll the network did with the Des Moines Register asking Republican caucus goers, who they support. A new CBS News poll last week went further, revealing that many supporters of Trump's trust him over their own friends or family.
Steven Hassan, author of "The Cult of Trump," explained that MAGA supporters are "programmed to distrust mainstream media" or anyone that opposes Trump.
"But from my point of view as a former cult member myself, who has been working for 47 years helping people to get out of cults, I think we could change our messaging dramatically, and actually maybe get a third away from Trump, if we're smart with the messaging that we do," he explained.
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"So, the thing is, when you're dealing with an authoritarian pyramid-structured cult that used deception and mind control, one has to assume that people had a life before they ever heard of Trump," said Hassan. "So, the idea is to reconnect with who they were before they ever got converted and radicalized. And it's family members, friends, members in the community, if they're coached to be respectful, curious, ask questions in a way that has weight, and get them back to thinking about what did they think they were doing when they first chose Trump. And knowing what they know now, going back in time, would they actually trust anybody in business or anyone — would they marry someone who is a pathological liar that lied 35,000 times?"
He said it's important not to be accusatory and not call them names or question their intelligence, which he said he hears in the media a lot.
"Honestly, a lot of smart people get deceived and mind-controlled into destructive cults like myself, for example," he explained.
Reid specifically asked about the violent aspect of some of these groups, particularly when it comes to attacking people associated with LGBTQ+ causes. Over the weekend a straight ally who hung a pride flag at her shop was gunned down by a man that attacked her for the flag.
"Yeah, the emotional manipulation, fear, attacking the enemy, Satan is in the opposition, etc..." Hassan said. "But facts are not going to deprogram people. Asking questions, making parallels to Chinese Communist brainwashing and to pimps and traffickers, and explaining behavior control, information control, thought control, emotional control, and there are ways to message, but it's got to be more indirect, but respectful. And as far as the violence, I just want to say, my former cult, that was at Jan. 6, as a gun cult, and they have AR-15s and a gun factory, and two training compounds. So, guess what? I'm really worried about this violent rhetoric too. And what I would really like to see is more educational messaging that will teach people how to interact with their loved ones and build bridges, because, trust me, people wake up, and when they do, they're pissed off. And we can reach these people, but we have to understand mind control."
See his full comments in the video below or at the link here.
menlindorn on August 22nd, 2023 at 11:30 UTC »
Fuck em. They were told, many times, what he was. We told them. He told them. He showed them. They fell in line with the enemy of everything we hold sacred, and were more than happy while he degraded the human condition, our rights, and our future, for profit and spite.
SloanWarrior on August 22nd, 2023 at 08:40 UTC »
Very interesting article. I've had conversations with several conspiracy theorists, including one who fell pretty deep down the anti-vax rabbit hole. She blocked me at the time, but we reconnected later. She caught covid and realised it wasn't "just a cold", but she'd been somewhat anti-vax since she had an extreme reaction to a vaccine in her youth. It had a lasting effect on her.
I'd like to help more people out of the rabbit hole if possible. It's also evident that the extreme nature of the beliefs lead to conflict over discourse by design. Like how missionaries are less about converting people and more about how the conflict further connects then with their cult and disconnects them from the outside world.
Calling a cultist an idiot? I mean, I know I've done it, but the more I learn the more I realise thats what the cult leaders wanted me to do.
AcerbicCapsule on August 22nd, 2023 at 04:13 UTC »
I don’t know if I have that kind of time, patience, or restraint, to be honest.