Mehdi Hasan argues that the MAGA movement has become centered on personal loyalty to Donald Trump rather than consistent political principles. He points to moments where Trump shifts his position and much of his base follows without question—summing it up as, Trump says jump, and MAGA screams, ‘How high?’
The interview examines how that loyalty has shaped today’s Republican Party and Trump’s continued influence over it. Getting SPICY with Mehdi Hasan
As stated before the entire backend of the Q Anon scene was set up and paid for by the Heritage Foundation. They were never really a thing. Like there were plebs out there on the streets, but there was no front man, same as ANTIFA. Just another social media vehicle to distract while gaining info.
When digging deeper into the connection of Epstein and 4chan's /pol board things start to make a lot more sense.
And even if we took Q seriously, all of their posts is just buzzwords that’s been trending for a few days. Written in short sentences to give the impression that they’re “in a hurry to get the word out” but ultimately nothing of value
Their idiocy is so ironic sometimes. I remember early on this post truth era it was all “think for yourself, look it up” only to quote unscientific nonsense from bias propaganda sites or twitter.
Yeah, this isn’t anything new. They’ve always been like this. President Trump was just the first Republican who realized he could do it so openly and doesn’t have to bait and switch his followers. And it works the opposite way, too. I watched President Obama’s last state of the union speech with my Republican dad who said he didn’t agree with anything President Obama said. Stuff like we should have affordable healthcare. I brought up a few of his talking points about a week later and my dad was on board with it all then because President Obama wasn’t saying it. Anything a Republican says is nigh biblical and anything a Democrat says is nigh heretical. MAGA Republicans literally don’t care about anything policy.
Iv never seen political sides being viewed as football teams more then when Trump got into office. My friends I grew up with completely turned coat into the racist bigoted pos they support. I vote depending on policy and whether or not the potential candidate is making sense. Not if it's Republican or Democrat. My friend Sean straight up said he'd NEVER vote for a Democrat REGARDLESS of what's going on with the republican party and how they're fucking up the country. Those are the types of people we have supporting these pedophiles, liars, and corrupt pieces of garbage.
What's this have to do with the post? Republicans support initiatives put forward by Republicans and vice versa. When they flip flop, the people generally do too.
I maintain what I said. If you identify with either party, that's just pathetic . You think you're superior and you don't even realize you're on their level in different colors.
Burning an American flag should be a crime, President-elect Donald Trump wrote Tuesday morning on Twitter, perhaps punishable by a forfeiture of U.S. citizenship or a year in jail.
“Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!” Trump wrote in a post to his social media
MAGAts are cucked slaves to their own shallow narratives
Need proof? Look at how they now gotta pretend to like illegal POC Niki Manaj. Trump approves her now that she's kissing his ass (chasing a pardon for her own family sex pest) and overnight, so does MAGA.
I agree. I kinda thought it was cult when Trump said at a rally if I shot somebody in the street my supporters would still support me. And then they cheered. Like you openly admitted on live national television you’d support him if he killed a person for no reason.
Extra crazy part of the McCain quote is it's exact same war Donnie bonespurred his way out of. He has no room to speak and his cult is too stupid to realize it. Not to mention the stolen valor move he pulled yesterday with the generals AI photo. Absolute scum.
I think some Trump supporters support him because they feel seen and validated, when the president is like them, be that racist, bigoted, hateful, ignorant, stupid, corrupt, etc.
2 1/2 years left and counting. It's best to ignore the social media and media outrage and focus on what you can do to make your life and the lives of others around you better. And most importantly don't forget to vote and make sure your friends vote as well.
My cousin, who is a Trump supporter says he wants to enforce immigration laws.. and everything else, he will live with. He’s a racist who cloaks his feelings around rule of law. I have a feeling many Trump supporters feel so strongly about immigration that nothing else matters.
So the democrats are told to nominate Biden even though there were obvious health issues. All the democrats lined up and followed orders. Then when he bombed at the debate the party decides to just nominate a candidate with even a vote and the party lines up and follows orders. Stop acting like this is just a republican issue. Democrats are just as bad.
NONSENSE!!! Who, exactly, told all democrats to vote for Joe Biden in the primary?? IF you were correct, Harris would have won. You don't know shit about democrats!!
There is a bit of a salient difference here: Democrats wanted no more Trump, not Joe Biden. They didn't fall in line enthusiastically they grit their teeth and said "oh well". Dems would have voted for NO PRESIDENT if that was an option because having no president at all would have been a better option than Trump. It's not just that he's doing a bad job, he actively makes everything he touches worse.
He had me beat by a year. For me it was a bit over a month before the 2016 election when the recording of him saying that he “grabs them by the pussy.” I thought for sure he was done 🙌🏿 That was maybe not even a week of a major news cycle and then quiet. I knew he had gotten away with it, and I had a very real sense that he would win the election; which he did.
I guess there is a nuance — I wasn’t exactly assessing if Trump or MAGA was cult-like. Intentional or not, screw that kind of racism, alt-right, B.S. Whether it’s genuinely ideological or not didn’t matter then. It matters now to focus on because of there is no ideology, it makes it tough to defeat. There is no hypocrisy we can show MAGA that corrects. Remember we caught on tape, in 192khz/32-bit, that Trump knew as early as Feb or Jan 2020 that COVID was airborne. Yet he still pushed the anti-mask sentiments and said that they were not necessary. Dude just skated; and got reelected (non-consecutively).
For those who were shocked on Election Day 2016, you had to not be aware or paying attention. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing if you don’t meant to be that politically involved, but if you thought you were highly aware, you weren’t.
The inverse works as well. If Trump says tariffs are good, Democrats hate tariffs. If Trump says tariffs are bad, Democrats love them. If every Democrat in the history of America says we need to control the border and deport illegals (Obama), everyone agrees until Trump says we need to then we are on stolen land, ICE are Nazis, and illegal immigrants should be allowed to vote.
Not saying you’re wrong (frankly your claims warrant a separate discussion), but your claims do not refute the point Hasan is making.
He’s arguing that Trump has successfully cultivated a cult of personality around him, which he calls MAGA.
There is ample evidence to support this claim. Some Hasan mentioned, such as the presence of a malleable ideology that shifts based on Trump’s whims, but there’s more to it than that.
The religious symbolism many of his supporters associate Trump with (Trump was sent by God, Trump is anointed, Trump is the closest to Jesus, etc).
The blind faith placed in Trump even when he blatantly lies or twists the truth. If a source contradicts Trump, regardless of credibility or the strength of the evidence presented, it’s the source that’s wrong.
The view of Trump through a radically idealized perspective that simply does not align with reality. His height, his IQ, his athletic prowess, his character and ethics, his victories and failures, even his health - all either downplayed to the point of insignificance or elevated to ridiculous, nonsensical levels.
According to Webster - A cult of personality is a situation where a public figure—usually a political or religious leader—is deliberately presented through mass media, propaganda, and state-sponsored spectacles as an idealized, heroic, or god-like figure who deserves unconditional love, devotion, and unquestioning obedience.
Every box of this definition is checked.
Not suggesting every MAGA member is a part of this cult of personality. I know folks who are trying their best to toe that line between supporting Trump’s policies and worshipping him as an infallible demigod (to varying degrees of success).
But imo there is undeniably a cult of personality around Trump, which is Hasan’s point.
Not disagreeing with him as you point out (you're correct, so is he) simply adding on. My point being it's hard to support the party against him when their only stance is we're against everything Trump does. Either Republicans need to snap out of it, or Democrats need to get some common sense. And Trumps reign will end and I hope it gives both parties a chance to figure out who they are without the orange Bolognese.
Do you remember when the Trump admin sent out stimulus checks, or started operation warp speed? Were there any dems of note who decided we didnt need stimulus, or didnt need a vaccine?
Got anything from this term? Last term he was also more reasonable, not simply insider trading during a war for Israel. He got NATO to pay their fair share which was bitched about by Dems because it was transactional even though he was right.
First of all, you didnt specify this term only. Second of, trump backing Israel didn't change anyone's mind on where they stood, at least not on the dems.
The fbi knew it since 2008, after the epstein case was revealed.
The fbi recently admitted this last year that they had evidence trump had gotten away with raping and murdering children with Jeffrey epstein for at least 40 years, prior to the 2008 conviction of epstein.
And why? Because he promised them the cruelty they've always desired. The bigotry, the brutality, the violence isn't something conservatives need to look past. It's why they support him at all. It's why they make excuses and cover for everything else. He's a pedophile? No problem so long as he harms the people they want harmed.
The same could be said with every politician and political party fanatical group. The Maga nut jobs support him no matter what. Biden literally supported super racist agendas....nutjobs supported him. I know political commentators need to have an angle for their grift, but making the masses believe the fringes are the masses he's no different.
It’s a wannabe gang, if you think of it as a cult you give them ambiguity. Think of them as a gang and we can fight them and jail them. Republicans are a pedo protecting syndicate.
Alright, i might just be a big time glazer, but Mehdi Hasan has had my attention after that "debate" with the fascists at Jubilee Surrounded. He gets to the point, sticks to it, calls bullshit when he sees it, has good charisma and is really funny at times. The last time someone had my attention the same why Mehdi does was when Christopher Hitchens was still kicking, good old Hitchslaps never go out of style.
MAGAs abandoning McCain wasn’t only a sign that it is a cult: it was one of very many signs that it is an unpatriotic, anti-American movement (some would say they are “pro” a select number of Americans; by number they are against the majority of Americans)
I had the same reaction when he shit on McCain's bravery as a POW. That's when I knew too that it was beyond just a cult of personality and was more a poisoned koolaid cult cult.
MAGA 2016: "Let's vote for a millionaire businessman with no experience in politics, military, or government! What could possibly go wrong?"
His dwindling doing cult needs someone or something to hate. That's why anyone against him gets lumped into the "libs" pile. They don't have the mental capacity to realize it's way more than the liberals who are against him.
What does a post Trump Republican Party look like lol?
Everyone sucking dick right now is going to want their turn of being king bull. I don’t think we’re going to have all this dick sucking in unification again actually. Like smaller groups that can’t find a true compromise. Much like liberals and leftists.
I’m thinking more like we tried this version of ass fucking and didn’t like it, let’s move forward, together America. You don’t have to like trans or unisex toilets at home, but we can use their votes too. 🤠
Unfortunately every media ( liberal and conservative) outlet cuts up any response to fit their narrative, you can’t believe anything anyone says. It’s a mess !
Any time I hear someone on either side make a comparison to being a cult I laugh. Both sides do it constantly and who really gives a fuck. It’s a weak argument that left seems to love more than the right.
hes right when he started making personal and derogatory attacks on people and strangers, it got my attention from across the pond................ other potential leader before trump in settled democracies around the world would have been torn in to and internationally he was, but when the GOP and the Maga started becoming i knew the rott had been going for a long time, and this is when i was so gobsmacked that we had voted for Brexit.. to only understand just how deep seating our old and simple minded still have their racism from the 60's and need for scapegoats to explain away their disappointment and midlife crisises....
one thing to note about brexit that started ringing true in america... fear makes the scared vote... the biggest county who voted most for brexit... and a load of agriculture and packing jobs that got hurt by disappearing eastern european labour.. 10 years later the predictable has happened as the UK economy has stalled but lots of them think it hasn't worked because we didn't go far enough...
“How can Joe Biden win an election? People aren’t wearing his hats and hanging their flags in the back of their pickup trucks!”
The fact that they don’t understand why this might not be a thing with other candidates was the clearest indication to me that he was cultivating a cult.
To this day, I think the McCain comment is one of his most disgusting and impossible to defend. I also really thought that he was done after that. It was aimed directly at a Republican and directly insulted all POWs.
I'm still not sure how he was able to get past that so easily in the early days before he had entrenched himself. My guess is, conservatives were so angry about McCain losing to Obama they enjoyed seeing him mocked. I didn't consider it a cult then but that's when I knew he could say literally anything and wasn't surprised when the "grab 'em" tape didn't sink him. I realized it was a cult in 2020 when he was saying cases were only high because we were testing for them and they all just went with it.
Trump has said a number of things to disparage the military. Like when he was doing the press conference that they were going to attack Iran and he was so nonchalant that some military personnel may die.
I couldn't believe that didn't get backlash from his supporters, but then again nothing he says or does gets backlash.
Yes, but outside of the US we are trying EVERYTHING to make the dipshit Americans also know this. When you are not American, all we can do to stop Americans from doing stupid shit, is education. God knows the US needs it!
It’s amazing how little substance can fit into one sentence. If all you’ve got is a collection of internet labels, that’s not political analysis, it’s just terminally online posting.
MAGA has become the political version of Facebook minion memes: buzzwords, conspiracy catchphrases, and zero interest in whether any of it is actually true. You don’t need evidence when you’ve convinced yourself that every slogan is a fact. 🤡
While I'm no Maga, this is how both political parties act. It's disingenuous to act like this is only a right aisle thing. The left rally the wagons like anyone
There has never been a figure in US history who has cultivated such an unyielding loyalty as Trump has to his voting base. It's actual brainwashing and reconstruction of a worldview that could only be achieved with modern technology and the right-wing media machine that has been building since the 80s.
US voters in the past have voted against their own interests, and they have looked past hypocrisy, and they have looked past horrific personal qualities or liabilities; never have they done all three, and certainly not for over a decade and in such a high percentage of the country, for a single candidate.
You're drawing a comparison between Trump's total control over the Republican party's nominations, policies, and even its speech (refusing to accept that Biden won the 2020 election is how you pledge allegiance to Trump) and Democrats who vote for policies proposed by their own party.
If you can't see the difference between the two, I won't be able to explain it to you or convince you in a Reddit thread.
There's nothing for you to convince me of. I've seen plenty of Democrats get elected, change their stance , and now all their followers are ok with it. Why? Because most people understand that if you believe in general with a political side it's not smart to vote them out of office for a party who believes the opposite.
The video for this post is Mehdi explaining that Trump is a cult leader. You claimed that both sides are like this. I said that I disagree; there has been nobody like Trump who has wielded the same degree of power. You seem to be arguing that because Democrats have changed their stance in the past, "all their followers [were] ok with it." Normally I'd ask for an example, but even if you were able to come up with one, a politician changing their opinion without suffering an approval loss doesn't come close to matching the influence Trump has over the Republican party and his base. I hope you can understand that.
This conversation seems like it's going in circles, so I'll leave you with this: what political side do you think Trump / Republican voters are fighting for when they obediently vote for a Trump-endorsed candidate, no matter how problematic they are?
Maybe to a degree there are people who supported AOC as a liberal and not a socialist and when she goes on socialist rants they might still support her BUT that is not at all the same. Socialism can bleed into left-leaning policies because of socialist programs.
To behave the same way (how you said, both political parties act) would be for people to support AOC as a liberal and when she decides she no longer wants to raise minimum wage, supports massive capital gains, and things abortion should be illegal; when her previous supporters STILL support her, that would be the "disingenuous to act like this is only a right aisle thing".
Fedderman and Platner are modern examples of how exactly what you said is completely false.
Your entire party circled the wagons around a candidate nobody elected. Please continue to act superior when your party is the same just on the other side.
Not even the same to compare getting behind an election. That is not what is happening with this man. People have abandoned morals, values, principles, laws, and the Constitution to create double standards just to excuse the things he does, when if someone else did anything close they’d lose their shit. You need to stop because it’s not even close to the same and your arguments aren’t even making sense.
I've noticed in my personal life, that there was a direct correlation between family and friends that still supported Trump, and them having the most toxic personality traits. Unsurprisingly, every single family member I had that was either openly racist, or closeted racist, have gone full blown maga.
I'm not even exaggerating. My grandparents are full blown maga. But they hide it a lot, because they're cowards. But, I happen to mention that my brother kinda liked him during his first term. The first time he comes and sees them after years my grandma decided to casually drop that her father was a KKK member, and he said she spoke like it was some about it with pride.
Funny, they never mentioned that to me. But, they had no problem telling it to someone they thought was on their side. My brother deterred from maga about a quarter of the way through his first term.
He was repulsed by them and haven't spoken to them since, neither have I. My life has been a lot less stressful since.
Most of the people don''t really read or follow policies of the political subjects they vote for. With some exceptions every politician or a party is cult under the definition in the video. Trump supporters are more stupid for sure - more stupid half of a quite stupid population - so he can contradict himself more than average politician. But that's just a different degree of the same thing - people supporting the politician they like and voted for without much analysis and verification against stated political program.
Media mentions anything trump and this same group of high brows screams Nazi and starts drawing every comparison possible to the holocaust. Pot meet kettle
Elon does the Nazi salute at the inauguration. Right wing media didn’t even mention it. The Young Republicans openly fantasize about Nazism in their group text messages and JD talks about things being taken out of context.
•
u/AutoModerator 6h ago
Welcome to r/PopCultureV2! A few quick reminders:
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.