Donald Trump has a dangerous mental illness — and he is spreading it to his followers
Donald Trump has built a cult around himself.
This is dangerous to America and dangerous to democracy.
Cults of personality in governance are broadly incompatible with democracy.
They usually erupt in dictatorships where the Great Leader’s face and sayings are splashed all over public places.
Think Mao’s China, Stalin’s USSR, Hitler’s Germany, Kim’s North Korea.
On a smaller scale and in a different context, we see how destructive such personality
cults can be with the deaths around
Jim Jones’ Jonestown,
David Koresh’s Branch Davidians,
and Charles Manson’s Family.
This is what Donald Trump aspires to.
Trump is now openly encouraging his followers to think of him as divine or, at least, divinely inspired.
And this isn’t a new pitch, it’s just getting a new round of attention.
“Hours later, he explained
why he has taken a tough trade policy against China: ‘I am the chosen one.’”
like those who followed the people mentioned above, it’s tearing apart families, devastating our politics, and causing deaths across the nation.
Rational people know that messiahs don’t molest women and brag about it,
don’t fleece people with a phony school who just want a college education,
don’t encourage racial hatred, and
don’t get crowds to try to overturn democracy and kill a policeman.
But Trump isn’t after the rational people.
He’s a predator, and
his prey are the psychologically and emotionally vulnerable,
people crushed by 40 years of Reagan’s neoliberalism,
now desperate for simple answers to complex problems.
Charismatic con men can make some people believe anything.
nearly a third of all registered Republicans believe that
top-level Democrats are running international child trafficking rings to torture and abuse kids before draining their blood.
uber-Trump cultist and “journalist” Liz Crokin explains in one of her many videos:
“Adrenochrome is a drug that the elites love. It comes from children. The drug is extracted from the pituitary gland of tortured children. It’s sold on the black market. It’s the drug of the elites. It is their favorite drug. It is beyond evil. It is
demonic. It is so sick.”
People who have been ensnared by the QAnon cult and are gullible enough to believe this kind of thing are the explicit targets now in Trump’s crosshairs.
68 percent of the open Qanon followers arrested at the US Capitol on January 6th who had also committed crimes before or after that coup attempt “have do ented mental health concerns, according to court records and other public sources.”
certain types of mental illness are functionally contagious.
When a highly symptomatic individual is placed in an influential position,” Dr. Lee notes, “the person’s symptoms can spread through the population through emotional bonds, heightening existing pathologies and inducing delusions, paranoia and propensity for violence – even in previously healthy individuals.”
https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-has-a-dangerous-mental-illness-and-he-is-spreading-it-to-his-unwitting-followers